Show Up and Solve Problems

This is one of those partially formed leadership thoughts weeks. Bear with me. I have been following the response to Hurricane Helene closely as I know a couple of dozen people, at least, involved from organizations such as @FEMA, The Humane Society of the United States , the American Red Cross , Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) , Florida Division of Emergency Management , and more. These are the participants in our crisis leadership programs at the National Preparedness Leadership Initiative (NPLI) at Harvard.

As I was reflecting on the work they do, I recalled a podcast with Tom Hanks that I heard recently. It was recorded after the release of his book on how movies are made. I wrote an essay many years ago on the lessons on organizational complexity that could be learned by watching movie credits roll all the way to the end. The number of people involved, and the specialized knowledge required for their functions is astounding. The podcast host summed up Hanks’ view of this: “The making of a movie is not about some individual vision. It's not even about the laser-like attention of the director or the screenwriter or anybody in it. That movie is made by an awful lot of people, who, using their expertise and their taste, and their practice talents, solve one problem after another.”

It seems to me that this describes disaster response pretty well. Perhaps substitute “judgement” for “taste.”

Hanks shared lessons he had learned as an actor that I think are useful for leaders (or anyone) as well: “And a lesson that I learned from a long time ago and is my stock answer to what is required is you have to show up on time because if you're late, you do not get a shot. And if you do not get a shot, that means you don't have a part of the movie. It's like you go up with a deck with only 51 cards and you can't play any game with a deck with 51 cards.”

Show up. You have to be there. You have to want to be there. You can’t hide in an office or phone it in.

Hanks continued, “You have to know the text and by text, I mean certainly your dialogue, your lines. But even if you don't have any lines, you need to know what emotional beat, what dramatic puzzle piece is made of that scene that you're shooting today. You need to know how it fits into the grand scheme of things.”

For the rest of us, “know the text” means knowing what you are doing. Demonstrating competence is essential if you are going to be relevant to what’s happening. Training, drills and exercises are run to build competence.

Hanks further said, “… you have to have an idea in your head that is not in the script, that has not been given to you by somebody else, that is you studying it through…” No disaster ever reads the plan. Leading in response and recovery requires creativity, imagination, and courage. Don’t show up expecting that the checklist is going to have all the answers.

Finally, Hanks noted that it is everyone’s responsibility to solve more problems than they create. This is a mindset and a commitment that sums up the other three points. As a leader, you want to create the conditions—and give permission—for people to solve problems. And don’t let your ego make you a problem creator. Unite everyone toward figuring things out.

As I get emails and texts from people in the field, I see Hanks’ points as a useful framework for capturing what’s happening: they are showing up, they know what to do, they are adapting to what they encounter on the ground, and they are solving problems.

My gratitude to them. I hope we can all carry this wisdom forward.

As always, please leave your thoughts and share. Links are in the comments.