Turbulence University

One of the most impactful books in my early work life was “The Lessons of Experience: How Successful Executives Develop on the Job”, by Morgan W. McCall. We’re talking the year 1988 here and I don’t even think it was a “best seller”. Yet, it stuck with me. I became a learn-by-experience right winger, or would it be left wing? In any case, an extremist for learning on the job. My personal quest was to extract every bit of knowledge I could from my work. I went beyond simply winning and into the deeper underlying drivers that made any project or business case a success...or failure. Leadership, culture, motivation, alignment, valid hypotheses, interpersonal dynamics, all became classes in the syllabus of my OTJ University. It was all good fun until...disaster struck. The academic portrayal of OTJ learning was somehow lodged in my head as Green Pasture, you know, “the grass-is-greener there” kind of thing where life is perfect and no one gets hurt. How na?ve I was. Enter TURBULENCE, herein defined as when everything is broken and no immediate effort to fix it is getting traction and...logic does not seem to apply. Everything is on fire, including you.

“It is not in the still calm of life, or the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed,” Abigail Adams wrote to her son John Quincy Adams in the midst of the American Revolution, suggesting that “the habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties. Great necessities call out great virtues.” - excerpt from “ Leadership in Turbulent Times” by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Fast forward to the present day. I look back on my early idealism and think “what an idiot I was”. The Scars of Experience would have been a better book title for me to read back then, or maybe “Janitor of Chaos”. I can personally attest that the periods of calm in my work life have been almost worthless in my development. Not to undervalue reflection time, it serves a useful purpose, like a water break in a title fight, but the real development happened for me in the midst of intense and highly disruptive turbulence. 

“If I brushed up against the grindstone of life, I’d come away with more polish than I could ever get at Harvard or Yale,” - Lyndon Johnson

Doris Kearney Goodwin in her bestseller “Leadership for Turbulent Times” does an astounding job of illuminating the thesis by analyzing three American presidents in the midst of crisis. Far from my early whitewash in idealism, this book painted realism over my work history. I had nowhere near the intensity and crisis responsibility of leading a nation in war time, but I can identify and attest now to the same principles of “crucible learning” shaping my character as a business leader.

“In a very real way, Roosevelt had come to see political life as a succession of crucibles—good or bad—able to crush or elevate. He would view each position as a test of character, effort, endurance, and will. He would keep nothing in reserve for some will-o-the-wisp future. Rather, he would regard each job as a pivotal test, a manifestation of his leadership skills.” - Goodwin

“Scholars who have studied the development of leaders have situated resilience, the ability to sustain ambition in the face of frustration, at the heart of potential leadership growth. More important than what happened to them was how they responded to these reversals, how they managed in various ways to put themselves back together, how these watershed experiences at first impeded, then deepened, and finally and decisively molded their leadership.” - Goodwin

I don’t think I’m saying anything new or more wisely in this article. “Crucible” is a well-known cliche-like term that most people understand when used in reference to personal development. Even so, not everyone exits a crucible experience and rises from the occasion. I’ve witnessed many colleagues fall prey to their crucible. Why some people rise and others fall in the wake of intense turbulence is not clear to me, or to the PhD’s among us...

“Scholars who have studied the development of leaders have situated resilience, the ability to sustain ambition in the face of frustration, at the heart of potential leadership growth. “Why some people are able to extract wisdom from experience, and others are not,” Warren Bennis and Robert Thomas write, remains a critical question. Some people lose their bearings; their lives are forever stunted. Others resume their normal behaviors after a period of time. Still others, through reflection and adaptive capacity, are able to transcend their ordeal, armed with a greater resolve and purpose.” - Leadership in Turbulent Times

The topic of navigating turbulent (business) waters is a thesis I won't expound on here. My point in this brief article is to share as one whose principle education and learning was very much, almost entirely so, from the lessons of turbulence. If you are in the midst of a storm you are in the best "school" in the world.  I can with certainty tell you the personal growth won’t be evident until well past the tempest. I can also advise you to trust and be open to the coaching and feedback of those in your 360 degree circle of trust. They likely have a view or your blind spot(s) and will share honestly some meaningful perspectives. Be open, and you will grow. Persevere through the apparent uncertainty. The storm will break...eventually.

Lastly, I leave you a word of advice. You can be a "storm chaser" and sign up for those turnaround roles. I’ve done it. No harm in that. But be aware that the apparent turnaround on the surface is not the grindstone that will shape your character. It’s the unexpected turbulence, the kind you don’t see coming and for which you have no time to fasten your seatbelt, that sharpens us the most. More than likely, you won’t have all the resources you need, there will be subversives working against you and your best plan of attack won’t be anywhere near a 100% solve. It might be just better than a 50-50 chance of winning.

Welcome to Turbulence University.

PS - Is the word turbulence an onomatopoeia? Because when I say "turbulence", I can sure feel it.