The Epic Center of Momentum

9:15 PM

Everything looks normal on the Arcadia cruise-ship, it is knifing the Antarctic Ocean at its full 20 knots with all four engines throttled to their ultimate power. The vessel's motion was barely noticeable to the passengers, the music in the background is mesmerizing, the chatter and laughter are all over the place in the indoor generous spaces, and its outside promenade is welcoming those who want to feel the chilling wind and watch the ocean surge by. The captain in the bridge is slowly sipping his hot coffee to keep him focused, he prefers it black with no sugar since he lost his wife in a car accident a couple of years ago, he doesn't know why, but his taste in things witnessed a paradigm shift since then, he sighed and stretched his arm to reach the radio.

"Attention please, First Officer to the bridge!" He said over the radio, stared at one of the navigation screens, and resumed diving in his thoughts after he asked his first officer to slow down the ship.

Very soon, things are going to change dramatically for him, and for everyone on board the modern vessel.

9:16:12 PM

An Iceberg, the ship collided into this gigantic white monster with a heavy, metallic-sounding blow that reverberated sharply through the ship's structure, it was brought to a sudden stop. The Iceberg, standing there at the dimming reach of the ship light, silently declaring victory over the man-made state of the art creature, one more win for the primitivity of nature added to the long-lasting record.

The music sound is no more audible, masked by screams and cries for help!

9:20 PM

The damage toll is devastating, tens of injuries and casualties to say the least, the Captain and his staff in the bridge were taken by surprise, a number of them are badly wounded incapable of triggering the emergency process, the compliance and safety officers are nowhere to be found, the Mayday signal is on hold to be transmitted and distress is mounting up.

The heel degree of the ship is slowly increasing, and the engine room is welcoming more freezing throttling ocean water than it should, it is a matter of time before the cabins will turn into traps and probably coffins, and for the hull to hug the ocean floor.

A pitiless clock is running. The Atlantic is completely in control.

9:45 PM

Miraculously, Jack Arthur is fine. He was sitting on one of the couches in the main restaurant "Alhambra" when the hit struck, relatively a safe spot. He is helping a couple of elderly folks to stand on their feet, they are moderately wounded but completely in shock and awe, his roommate is missing, and his satellite phone is dead. A young couple of women are cowering under a table next to him biting their fingernails, they collapsed screaming under a deluge of bottles and glasses earlier, he wonders if they are twins and he wonders why the alarm siren was not triggered. He looked down at his spaghetti dish, on the carpet it formed a surreal paint, that reminded him of Julia's drawings, his 5 years old daughter, and his drink painted the same on his dining table, at least he felt good that he was sober.

His mind is clouded, and his shirt is stained with someone’s blood or his own, he doesn't know, what he knows is that he has a brief opportunity to save the day, he knows for a fact that the situation without control can collapse, even the most primitive social organization, the human chain of waiters helping passengers out of the venue, can crumble apart.

He turned out to have prodigious reserves of calm and great presence of mind after all, but he has to put in use now, he was always known for one sharp quality, which is Self-Control.

9:57 PM

Jack made it to the bridge with the help of one of the waiters, maneuvering his way through the debris and the cries of pain and agony, he realized how bad the situation was. He sneaked into the cabin swiftly, the captain was lying there breathless, his coffee spilled over a couple of flickery screens, a doctor logged in a moment later, standing there to figure out where to start.

Fortunately, one of the Junior engineers with a couple of bruises -almost on a brink of a panic attack- was still in a good shape, Jack asked him five questions after calming him down, handing him a bottle of water:

1. How to trigger the alarm Siren? Incident Awareness.
2. Who is in Charge? Possible Leadership Gap.
3. Is the Emergency evacuation protocol initiated? Crisis Management Plan.
4. What is the current damage level to the ship? Evaluation of Impact.
5. How to reach to the other crew members who can help? Current resources at hand.

The engineer gulped his water bottle in one go, took a deep breath, shook his head and said: “The iceberg was not detected on the Radar, I believe it was malfunctioning, even the alarm siren….” Jack stopped him, asked him to investigate this later, evacuation comes first. (Setting Priorities)

Jack glanced at the deck while heading to the radio, up and down the ship doors popped open and people emerged to the deck for lifeboats.

10:15 PM

Jack has reached out through the internal comm system to the rest of the crew, he realized that roughly 50% of the crew are still capable to offer help. Few crew members made it up to the cabin (War room) and the rest were manning their position (Field Force), Jack took the seniors in the bridge thru the emergency protocol while asking them to make sure their teams are manning their positions as per the crisis plan and to look for volunteers as well (Awareness and Alignment), they have to make sure that their crews are having essentials to perform the evacuation task i.e. Life Vests (Enablement).

He received the first situation report from the engineer (Timely updates), the update didn’t cover all systems, but it shed some light on the overall status of the vessel (Rough Estimates).

One of the engineers said that they can’t come up with a course of action till they have all information and data needed in hand, Jack responded “We can’t wait. Action pays, Contemplation does not.”.(Decision Making with few inputs)

Jack faced all the people in the room while talking on the internal comm-sys to the field force and said: ”I need you to help me save the day and get out of here safe and sound (Seeking help for a common cause), the situation is bad but it could get worse if we don’t act, and act right now! (Transparency), I believe we have what it takes to go out of the woods and save hundreds of lives today (Statement of Purpose), imagine how grateful their families will be, and how grateful your families will be, they are waiting for you! (Hope)”

He took a small picture of his daughter from his wallet and displayed it to them and said, “I am sure that my girl would put loads of trust on you to return her daddy back home.”. (Building an emotional connection)

By doing this, Jack has created momentum.

Jack built 3 single streams to run the show (Synergy):

1-      Alpha Stream: to contact authorities, share updated situation report, and seek ETA for help (External and Internal Communication).

2-      Beta Stream: to drive the evacuation of passengers as per protocol and re-assess priorities (Operations).

3-      Mike Stream: The last stream is to continuously assess the damage and control it till evacuation is done. (Governance\SWAT).

By doing this, Jack is driving momentum.

10:45 PM

Jack has a flow of information emerging from 3 sources updated every 15 min, although the information lack lots of inputs yet he needs to make decisions to save the day, every minute counts. (Decision Making)

Through Jack’s model of streams, he is able to reveal the entire picture while the action is being taken on the ground, every update enhances his visibility and takes him a step forward (Rolling wave Technique).

He set a simple dashboard on a gigantic whiteboard, so it became visible to everyone in the bridge, with two big squares, one is titled total number of lives at risk including the crew, and the other is titled total number of lives saved, he insisted on picking the relevant words to drive the sense of urgency(Visible challenge and achievement), the able man advised that he needed to add a category for casualties, which Jack did.

Stream Alpha now is receiving multiple ETAs from multiple authorities, feeds this information to Stream Beta that in return is ready with priorities for those who need immediate healthcare to be evacuated first, giving frequent updates on the number of cases and the development of injuries. Stream Mike, on the other hand, is making sure to steer stream Beta away from the compromised areas of the ship so the rescue operations are faster and swifter. While controlling the damage, stream Mike is making requests to the authorities through stream Alpha to send Engineers and Technicians to hold the ship intact till the rescue is over. (The Operation Model)

The team has started seeing positive outcomes (Quick Wins), it is boosting their morale and their buy-in of the process is elevated (Motivation), their sense of being skeptic is gradually replaced by trust. (Bonding with the leader)

Jack was moving around the bridge offering help and receiving updates, he brought some water bottles to the team to keep them hydrated and he paid a couple of trips to some parts of the ship to do the same (Engagement and Observations) while keeping a close at the developing heel degree of the ship (Critical risk\Game changer)

By doing this, Jack is sustaining Momentum.

Next-Day 7 AM.

A view of the ship is fading away from the rear window of the rescue helicopter as Jack stares through it, his eyes are turning blood red, his body is crying for a warm bed and his mind is retrieving the past 12 hours like an endless movie. He finished the call with his terrified wife, gave it back to the rescue officer and he closed his eyes for seconds before he took a pat on his shoulder, he looked back and it was the captain, with a big drowsy smile he said: “You did a great job, thank you for saving our lives today”.

Jack has managed with a consistent act of self-control -yet a tough to earn skill- to transform the situation from a heavy possibility of fatal catastrophe into a brilliant save-the-day act, he has used his unmatched leadership skills to reach to this point!

But what's leadership? Hmm, It is like a perfect morning coffee. The perfect smell that tingles your senses from afar and the strong consistent taste that hugs your taste buds. It's a blend of experience, expertise, personal ideals, guts feeling and great self-development brought together like the ripe coffee beans, roasted to the perfect color and texture under the right temperature of tons of situations, then brewed slowly to extract the perfect aroma. As coffee comes in different tastes, leadership is no different, but they all share two common ingredients, Integrity and discipline.

It is a journey not just a one-shot training or a workshop. It goes without saying that training is essential to harness your skills, but leaders also evolve and flourish around believing that they can make a positive change regardless of how bad the situation is while still in line with their values. They don't believe that titles or positions are showstoppers, they have an amazing trait of conveying the right message to mobilize others -even their superiors- to a common goal.

In Crisis, a leader can use his magic in two folds, Momentum and Enablement, both work hand in hand. Once hit by a crisis, people tend to panic, lose control and lookup for someone to take the lead and show them the way forward, a leader fills the gap, he/she creates momentum for a common goal, drives momentum and then make is sustainable till the crisis is over.

On the other hand, leaders enable the enablers, not just the processes and techniques, like what Jack did, he put his faith in people before the process and he empowered them to lead their teams, gave them their own spaces to make immediate decisions based on their expertise. As a leader in a crisis, you can't wait for every single piece of information to be validated or every assumption to be turned into a fact, you don’t have that luxury anymore, so with the current givens in your hand, your experience and guts feeling shall step-in to play a fundamental role.

Like everyone else, the pandemic came as disruption to you, too; but what makes the difference is how quickly you can strategize and change course, even creating a new course. Suddenly, we all have to stay at home and change the way we work, stay away from people, work out of the office, and still maintain a high-performance level for our clients. Even worse, there is no example in the past that we can look back at and say, “in the time of the other lockdown, they did it this way.”

Leaders inspire strength in others even when they’re feeling their lowest.

You, as a leader, have got to enable other people to get things done even in the middle of a crisis. It is your responsibility to assist your partners, your associates, your team, your friends, your family, and even your business partners to keep going and to get through the situation. You also have to enable each member of your organization to put in maximum efforts to see that the organization delivers even in this time, without falling behind in relevance, quality, and value. A poll by Gallup in 2016 shows that 82% of managers fail at managing people and situations while a small 18% appear to have a good handle on the act of leadership, leadership is rare and unique.

People hate changes and percieve it as a detour, as a leader you need to show them the light at the end of the tunnel.

Everything mentioned above cannot be achieved by just anyone; it takes a seasoned leader. In a crisis, your values are laid bare for everyone to see, your consistency is under stress test. Now when it is no longer business as usual, it is easier for people to notice your goals because everyone is watching you. People will get to know what you are about; are you solely target-oriented, or do your interests put people first? Can you strike the perfect balance between business interest and personal interest?

Face to face communication is nearly impossible at the moment, so you cannot pat anyone at the back and buy pizza to cheer everyone up. Nonetheless, you should be making attempts to motivate them showing that you care about them and not just about profit. Give them the opportunity to let out steam and express their emotions; because the undeniable fact is that the lockdown is taking a toll on everyone. No one is excluded. So, consider this; are you listening to your team and acknowledging their emotional struggles, or are you pushing them to deliver as usual? 

 Welcome to the world of deep-fried and double-wide form of stress and emotional toll, but don't worry, it is a crucial part of your growth!

As a leader today, this is the time for you to assess yourself. What have you done differently to give more support to the business and the community? Have you confined yourself only to your business area of expertise, or are you actively using this situation as an opportunity to put your out-of-the-box ideas into action?

This is the time when everyone is considering or even implementing cost reductions from businesses to individuals. This is the time for you to start to create zero-cost solutions. Encourage the members of your team to go far beyond the box to develop solutions that will benefit your organization and even others. This is a scary time, but you must remain levelheaded, because this may very well be the difference between success and failure. Do your best to prioritize the right kind of expenses, and make efforts to negotiate reasonable payment strategies with the businesses you collaborate with.

As I said, these are times that we were not prepared for. However, the difference between the leader and everyone else is how he reacts to what is happening. I know for sure that strategic thinking can set you on the path to success in your endeavors, even at this time. I know this because I have implemented these strategies myself.

At the moment, I am leading a task force consisting of the finest experts to drive our Crisis Management plan through the current pandemic. We are on a mission to ensure that our customers are connected to their beloved ones and can run their businesses safely. The team is demonstrating great agility in working remotely and adhering to the safety guidelines without compromising service delivery to the people who depend on us for connectivity.

It has been up to me to enable these enablers to go through this period. Thankfully, the KPIs of my unit are currently reaching all-time highs, especially in service availability and traffic volumes. We are continually exploring new ways to extend more support to our clients and partners because our service is for them first. In fact, I have adopted a number of zero-cost solutions more than the entire last year, with the help of the team, out-of-the-box ideas are now revenue saving streams, the feedbacks from the executive management, business partners and our customers have been fantastic and have reinforced my belief that this simple strategy works; put others first, and enable your team to do the same.

Leaders strike the perfect balance of facts and hope, exercise their amazing habit of risk-taking -not recklessness- to unveil new horizons.

And remember, while facts have always offered a solid ground and a beacon of light for our ancestors to step forward confidently, hope has marveled the art of stretching our imagination around the capability of humankind and the endless possibilities that could exist in the future. Without the curiosity of our ancestors and the wisdom of our pioneers, humans could have faced the fate of being fossil fuel before the steps of undiscovered frontiers.

That's why leaders were, and will always remain the epic center of momentum.

#leadership #epic

References

• Why Great Managers Are So Rare
• List of ships sunk by icebergs
• Onboard and Onshore Cruise Ship Positions
• https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2004/05/a-sea-story/302940/