Learning the lessons and building community – debriefing after crisis

In previous posts I have described my beliefs regarding the management of crisis and the rewards associated with good crisis management. The final point I would like to raise about crisis management is the importance of “debriefing” after a crisis has receded.

You may recall that I had just been part of a specialist team that had formed through a well-negotiated process of requirements. However, when the team met for the first time, the original agenda and business expectations had completely changed and our fledgling team had to adapt very quickly to provide the new outcomes in the time it had. 

The professionalism displayed in calmly setting about the task set was a credit to all concerned. However, there was a significantly different end to the team’s time together than what you would normally expect. This difference came from a spontaneous “debriefing” that occurred as soon as the main deliverables were achieved for the four day session. 

This debriefing session was started when one of the participants passed comment about how well the team had measured up to the task. One interesting observation was the credit given to a team member for “taking the heat” of the main team by removing outside communication to create a “bubble” where the team would be able to “do what they were there to do.” This team member left the room with the promise they would field any calls made to the group and they would not allow the group to be interrupted again. Removing the “stimulus” of all the anxiety gave the team time to focus and really think deeply about the new problem space, which led to the revised solution. 

Other team members then started to give positive support and praise to each other about how they had all managed the situation and how they were humbled by each other’s capabilities to act under pressure. While this process may sound a little “over the top,” it provided a mechanism for the group members to release the pressure. The debriefing process also gave the group members the time to think about the success of the session and the success of the group itself. 

I suppose when we all came together, we knew that we had been hand-picked for a reason (i.e., we were good at what we did), but we did not know how well we could convert our knowledge into action as a team. The adversity of the crisis and the ability of all team members to open up and give each other genuine praise was the moment when we turn into a real team. 

You might be thinking – yeah, I can see how debriefing works when the team works together well, but what happens when it doesn’t? In this situation, debriefing should follow the principles laid out in the “crisis management list” I gave a few posts ago. For trust to grow, people have to be honest in acknowledging their weaknesses. On the other hand, team members also need to be understanding of each other’s circumstances and realise that whatever happened, each person was doing the best with what they had at time. 

When we realise this last point, it becomes much harder to criticise the other person because we all have our weaknesses, we all contributed in some way to the problem occurring, and we all contributed to its solution. These sentiments build a stronger team and closer heart-felt relationships between members. Also, humbly revealing our strengths and weaknesses makes us stronger and more able to cope with crisis next time it inevitably comes knocking.

A personal account of a business crisis and its aftermath

They say that what you think about often happens to you. Well, after writing the blogs last week, I found myself in a similar crisis situation, where plans that were a long time in development and negotiation were completely uprooted by a new set of fast emerging business imperatives and requirements.

While things have settled a little, the ramifications of the crisis are yet to be understood fully, so it would be unwise for me to give much more detail about the crisis itself. However, I can give you the details of the team that faced the crisis:

• A hand-picked group of 9 people brought in from Europe, SE Asia, and Australia
• Experience and professional backgrounds were all different
• One of the leaders was not present and participated via video conference like a “talking-head in a laptop” (at lunch we would take the laptop into the kitchenette at the office and he would have a break with us – a little surreal really!)
• We didn’t know each other prior to the engagement.

After I had left the scene, I went back to my list of suggestions for crisis management from the last two blogs. It was amazing to read these suggestions and relate them to the behaviours of the people who were present at this team meeting. The following is a personal analysis of the outcome of the crisis:

When the crisis hit us, there was so much that could have gone wrong outside of the actual crisis itself. The differences in culture and religion in the room were diverse, the potential for disagreement and fragmentation was high, misunderstanding based on different language and meanings to words could have created enormous friction and destroyed group cohesion, etc.

You can see how the list of possible problems could have been endless, but the amazing thing was – every member of the team lived up to the actions and behaviours I listed in the previous blog by experience and nature.

I can now report what the aftermath is when these suggestions are enacted by each individual across the group: Intense social cohesion, bonding, and trust

Adversity and crisis has a silver lining when people act with vision and responsibility for each other – even in environments where initial social connections are not strong.

My feelings and respect for the people whom I suffered with during that crisis are strong and I would trust and work with them at another occasion. In fact, I would go out of my way to work with them because rather than being a team of stars, we proved we could be a star team. I feel fortunate to have met them and worked with them and I look forward to a long association with them. These sentiments were shared by the whole group and there is a stronger sense of purpose than if everything went right.

So my key observation about crisis is that when it is well managed, good things happen for those involved, regardless of the outcome. The important point here is that each participant in the crisis I describe all shared a common belief system and a common approach – even though we had never really met and we were separated by culture, professional background, and distance. If we can get positive outcomes out of these complex and potentially adverse circumstances, there is no reason why work teams within organisations can not do the same.

In the end, success or failure is a state of mind, while I do not know what the outcome of my crisis experience is, I can definitely say that I have gained much more through the experience than if things had gone to plan

Even if the project we were engaged to deliver looks like collapsing, I have a feeling we will find a way to get it back on track – because we believe in each other, and we believe the project can still be viable. Through adversity, our goals have become clearer and our intention and commitment stronger.