Musings at Altitude

I think we all have experienced those weeks where it seems like in every major effort we’re engaged things are going wrong.  This was one of those weeks.  We have several key events occurring all at one time and the bumps in the road have been frequent and burdensome.  I watch our team members as these bumps occur, and I see many different ways of handling the chaos, the changes, the setbacks, and the frustrations.  I would expect that with more experience there is more acceptance, but instead I see equal amounts of irritations coming from those who have years of experience as well as those who are new to program execution. 

In my business life, I’ve had the fortunate (or unfortunate) opportunity to be in incredibly tense environments (if things went wrong) with world leaders, in incredibly expensive environments (if things went wrong) in space launch activities, and in incredibly stressful environments (if the revenues weren’t achieved) in business operations where layoffs or even business shutdowns could occur.  Today, I tend to take the bumps in the road much more in stride since I spent so much time in the gut wrenching pressure of my jobs in the past. 

As I watch others today though, I fully understand and fully empathize with those who tear themselves apart when changes occur or when the path that was planned can no longer be achieved.  For those people I offer the following:

(1) Don’t seek to blame – I’m fond of saying that “life is all about assessing blame” because so many folks in this world immediately look to blame someone when something goes wrong.  I can’t argue that sometimes human error can create complete havoc, but those times seem rare to me in my experience.  Instead, I often see that 1 in 100, or 1 in 1000, or even 1 in 1,000,000 thing happen that causes the disruption.  There is always time to assess and correct after things get back on track, but disrupting the corrective action to place blame has never seemed to be of any benefit to me.

(2) Don’t sink into the business quicksand – I really enjoy the movie “The Replacements”, and I like the part in the movie after they lost their first game together and they sit in the locker room talking about fear.  The coach asks the players what they fear, and after several comical answers about spiders and bees, the quarterback says “quicksand”.  He goes on to explain that it occurs when one thing goes wrong, then another, then another and the harder you then try the further you sink – like quicksand.  That’s a great commentary on business too.  It’s very easy to let one thing that goes wrong and then another to pile up on your emotions and then you quickly start sinking and the harder you try the further you sink – in the business quicksand.  When things go wrong, assess and respond to them one at a time and resist with all your might the things are piling on impulse.  From my experience, when you start solving problems one at a time, you build momentum in the opposite direction and pull yourself out of that quicksand.

(3) Don’t quit communicating – My first reaction when things go wrong is to hunker down and try to solve those problems and bear all the burdens on myself.  That’s exactly the wrong thing to do.  Based on the severity of the problem, there always seems to be comfort in numbers and it only makes sense that the more smart minds that are working a problem the better.  I remember the scene from the movie Apollo 13 when the mission director through all the components of the space ship on the table and said here’s what we got let’s get to work and solve this problem.  He had a room full of people actively engaged in problem solving and they came up with a solution.  We don’t always have the luxury of having a room full of people to solve problems, but we surely have a small group or at least one other that can carry the burden and offer solutions with us.  A good friend is fond of saying “you don’t lead alone”.  I’ll modify it just a bit and say “you don’t bear the burdens alone.”

(4) Don’t think the worse – I’ve had moments where when something went wrong I immediately said “this can only happen to me”.  So many people jump to conclusions, sink into the muck of project despair and then have to work even harder to dig themselves out.  I’ve become very comfortable lately with stepping back and collecting information, and waiting to get the whole picture and both sides of any story before reacting too aggressively.  I fully realize that sometimes the timing and importance of an issue doesn’t allow us the luxury of patiently waiting for data.  In those cases though, getting enough information fast enough to assess and decide on corrective action is critical.  In most cases, when I sought confirmation or requested more information, I reacted then in a much better way to the issue at hand.

(5) Don’t forget to cherish those who are on that business or project battlefied with you – In every business I’ve been in, the bonds were so much tighter when we fought together through those bumps – maybe even better called huge barriers – in the road and came out on the other side stronger and tighter as a team.  I’ve personally witnessed other cases as well where the challenges of the hurdles became so destructive to those trying to overcome that it tore that team apart.  With respect for each other and trust in each other, any problem can be overcome.

(6) Don’t forget to smile – I can’t remember who always told me “it’s hard to frown when you’re smiling”, but it’s true.  In the worst of times, there always seems to be something that causes that ever so fleeting smile, and when those smiles begin, they often times become contagious.  I’ve had folks that got truly annoyed when laughter was occurring in those worst of times, but I’ve personally found faster resolution and better ideas when folks find ways to loosen up.

Every now and then I think about finding that perfect project or that perfect job where everything goes right and every day is a complete joy.  I’ve never found that project or job yet where everything goes right, but I have decided that the joy part is all in my control!