At the end of the day, that time is gone. On the human landscape, time is limited. It ends. Value how you use it.
The official hurricane season in the United States runs from June 1 to November 30. In 2017, there were seventeen named storms between late April and early November. Nature sets her own schedule. Ten of those storms were hurricanes. They arrived consecutively, the most ever to do so in the Atlantic Basin. It was the costliest season on record—more than $280 billion in damage. Most of the damage resulted from three storms that battered communities in quick succession: Harvey, Irma, and Maria.
In late August, Hurricane Harvey hit the United States, the first Category 5 storm in a dozen years. The storm stalled over Houston and dumped more than fifty-one inches of rain on the metropolitan area. Neighborhoods were flooded. Across the city, people were trapped in flooded homes. Their calls for assistance were overwhelming emergency response organizations and their leaders.
There was a mass of people huddled in a Houston mega-shelter surrounded by deep water and separated from supplies and volunteers. It took high-profile military vehicles to make the deliveries. Leaders coordinated humanitarian and business organizations in tandem with federal, state, and local government agencies to deliver relief services.
Brad Kieserman, whom you met earlier, is vice president for American Red Cross Disaster Services. He oversees the provision of shelter and food to thousands of disaster survivors—an extraordinary meta-leadership challenge given the immediate situation that summer with multiple hurricanes swirling across the southeast United States and Caribbean.
On Thursday, September 7, we observed Brad lead a sequence of three conference calls. The first was with leaders in Houston, discussing how to cope with the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey’s devastation. The next call was with people in St. Croix as Hurricane Irma roared directly overhead. The third call was with leaders in Florida. Since Hurricane Irma’s direction was still unknown, shelters were being prepared on the state’s east and west coasts and everywhere in between. Looming behind each of these discussions was the impending future: Hurricanes Jose and Maria on the horizon. Mother Nature’s hurricanes were proceeding on their own Arcs of Time. Emergency response leaders were simply trying to get one step ahead.
From the American Red Cross Disaster Operations and Coordination Center in Fairfax, Virginia, all these different events ordered in sequence over an Arc of Time: the “was,” the “is,” and the “will be.” Harvey was; Irma in St. Croix is; and Irma in Florida will be. The Arc of Time differed for each of these locales.
Brad’s meta-leadership mission was to work with each location through the Arc of Time of its unique situation. Mindful of the big picture, Brad also grappled with the complexities of another challenge with its own Arc of Time: the allocation of resources across many simultaneous crises. For example, as waters receded in Houston (the crisis that “was”), it became possible to close the mega-shelter at the NRG Center—a large conference facility—and allow its owners to return to normal operations. Meanwhile, the Red Cross ERVs (emergency response vehicles) were still deployed across Texas, so capacity and supplies needed in Florida (the crisis that “will be”) were depleted. Difficult resource distribution decisions were made for Florida, since the Red Cross couldn’t supply all that was being requested. And in St. Croix, the shelter was surprisingly empty: the locals were so afraid of post-storm looting that they were taking the risk of weathering the storm in their soon-to-be-ravaged homes. Each scenario was different, yet all were happening in the same moment.
The situations through which you lead have beginnings, middles, and ends—unfortunately, not always in that order—across different people and places. One problem recedes and another begins. Your meta-leadership Arc of Time task is to see the wider time frames in which everything occurs. You can’t control time though you can order and coordinate passage through it: the sequence, people, decisions, allocations, and priorities. Arrange the big picture in your mind so others can arrange it in theirs.
Working with the Arc of Time
The Arc of Time measures relative activity—more or less—across a relative stretch of time (longer or shorter). On a coordinate grid, the horizontal x axis is the passage of time. The vertical y axis is the relative activity and attention devoted to it.
To assess an event in retrospect, identify the beginning and ending points, then gauge relative activity at points in between. Distinguish the phases. To grasp an event as it unfolds, apply the POP-DOC Loop to look and move forward.
For example, if your office of ten people responded to a cyber-attack over a ten-day period, measure the hours per day devoted to addressing the activities and attention relevant to the attack. Just before the attack, they were low: the work of IT specialists was routine, and standard anti-phishing precautions were in place. When the attack was discovered and your network went down, defensive activity intensified and productivity declined. People identified the compromised data and reassembled records and files. As the situation returned to normal, attack-related activity and attention subsided. The Arc of Time outlines the time and attention devoted to the attack and distracted, nonproductive activity over those ten days, from low to peak to decline.
Charting the time itself is a management task. The meta-leadership pursuit is guiding the process that shapes the Arc of Time.
In most cases, you work with relative measures, not with specific numbers. There is a comparative spike of activity that increases with an incident, reaching its peak and then declining. A hurricane—a predicted event with notice—illustrates the point. As weather forecasters raise caution about the storm’s impending arrival, activity mounts in preparation. Supplies are deployed, windows are protected, and people evacuate or ready themselves to take shelter. When the hurricane hits, the next phase, all attention is on saving lives, the peak. Once the danger recedes, action focuses on places where destruction is most severe and the need is greatest. Over time, the recovery phase turns to damage assessment and repair. The area eventually returns to normal and hurricane-related activity recedes. The Arc of Time initiated by a hurricane could span three years or more. The levels of activity during the rise, peak, and descent correlate with the areas where the greatest devastation occurred.
Leaders shape activities and experiences through the Arc of Time. Assessing the situation, you close gaps between what is happening and what needs to be done. You mount an uptick in attention and activity, planning, tracking, and further assessment as you lead through distinct phases. Enlisting the POP-DOC Loop, you strive for a good fit between requirements and actions.
For time: You assess the when of all this activity and attention. You distinguish the urgent actions that need to be taken immediately from the long-term actions that can be taken over time. Bringing out your Situation Connectivity Map, you sequence activity so that your stakeholders are working along coordinated and parallel timelines. You manage expectations for both the when and the what, knowing that the one thing you never get back in a crisis is time.
The sequence of phases depends on circumstances as you lead through time. For a predicted hurricane, the sequence is will be–is–was: the prediction, the hit, and the postdisaster reconstruction. For the destructive cyber-attack, the sequence is was–is–will be: the attack happened, the company is now in crisis, and the work to reconstruct its data will enable it to return to normal operations in the future. Time is relative to the situation you face and the many others stakeholders affected.
The people you met in prior chapters recognized time as a dynamic variable. It affected what they had to do, when it had to be done, and how they could go about it. They made unique Arc of Time calculations.
Admiral Thad Allen and project director Budge Upton both worked against the clock: each was facing a mandatory end point. Allen had a leaking oil well to cap; until that was accomplished, each day and each delay translated into more damage to the Gulf ecosystem and economy. He had to both speed the work of th
e engineers and manage the expectations of the public and politicians. This urgent Arc of Time ended when oil stopped spilling into the Gulf. Upton had a mélange of stakeholders to satisfy, each with distinct conceptions of what was most important in the museum addition. He had to lead them while orchestrating complex interrelated pieces of the project—different Arcs of Time—to finish simultaneously.
Dr. Rich Besser of the CDC had to buy time to learn more about H1N1 virulence before definitive public health advisories could be issued. In the meantime, the CDC announced interim measures designed to mitigate transmission and avoid disruptions to the economy. Frequent public announcements and adjustments in the advisories won public confidence. By contrast, waiting to take action backfired on Coca-Cola CEO Doug Ivester during the beverage contamination scare in Europe. By delaying a public appearance, he was perceived as insensitive by consumers and officials, and that perception damaged the reputation and profitability of the business.
Harriet Green of Premier Farnell created a sense of urgency in her first day on the job. Her message—that the company would have to quickly change in order to grow—upset some employees and motivated others. Over the next few months, that distinction helped to inform decisions about who would stay and who would go. Rich Serino faced angry North Dakotans impatient to secure funding to restore their communities after the flood. His words, in that moment, paused the urgent time pressure: “You saved lives. You made a difference. So thank you.” He reframed both the conversation and the work. At that time, it was what people needed to hear.
Finally, in the wake of 9/11, Jimmy Dunne of Sandler O’Neill learned to carefully balance between two Arcs of Time: caring for company and family survivors as slowly and patiently as required by this sensitive work, while getting the business back on its feet with urgency and speed. Dunne transformed himself into the leader needed at the time and, in doing so, transformed the company. In only two months after 9/11, the firm was not only back in business, it was again profitable.
Time is a powerful parameter, both enabling and constraining what can be accomplished. Consider these reactions: “We have ten weeks to complete the project. Great!” “We have only ten weeks to complete the project? Oh no!” The value of time and what can be done with it varies by situation. When you see the big picture, you often must balance and align many Arcs of Time.
The mind-set, practice skills, and experience of meta-leadership help you perceive the uses and applications of time. When you do, time itself becomes a valuable tool and asset. For example, time can heal as you get distance from a painful event. However, if an unaddressed problem simply escalates and festers, the passage of time only makes matters worse.
Ask yourself: What are the time considerations in this situation? In the face of a complex problem or change that defies immediate solution, progress can be planned through prescribed steps—meetings, strategy, benchmarks, assessment, completion. Different people work at different paces. Time itself allows you to coordinate and mark forward movement, tracking both whose activities you’re coordinating and when those activities must be synchronized. In crisis, time is short. Activities are streamlined. Don’t waste time.
During crisis planning and preparation, time is your ally: protocols can be developed, contingencies examined, and training completed. With a long and slow Arc of Time, you can invest abundant time in adequately mitigating problems, amassing needed resources, fostering connections, providing training, and scheduling exercise experience. The better prepared and configured the system, the more adept the decisions, operations, and communications when time matters most.
During a crisis, time is your adversary: the longer the response time, the more lives are lost, along with property, confidence, and reputations. Your Arc of Time is short in an active shooter event: run, hide, fight—now! For business operations, a crisis disrupts the flow of material, services, funds, and information; unsettles interdependencies; and leads to unnecessary costs, missed sales, and cascading delays. If goods are out of stock when the marketing campaign hits, customers are angry, sales associates are stressed, and revenue targets are missed. That is a crisis. Businesses operate with intricately connected Arcs of Time that, when disrupted, create a cascade of troubles.
Whether ally or adversary, time sets very different meta-leadership parameters, opportunities, and requirements. In routine situations, people and operations advance just as they are supposed to—methodically, through incremental phases and achievements. Your leadership credibility and reputation build with steady progress.
To instigate change, you disrupt the course and pace of activity. You inject calibrated acceleration that reshapes the stepwise Arc of Time. Risks for you, and for the organization, increase as the stakes rise.
In a crisis, time speeds up dramatically: reputations can be made and credibility established in short order, and the high stakes amplify your actions. By the same token, your reputation can plummet with an avoidable high-profile misstep, as was the case for BP’s CEO Tony Hayward, who, in the midst of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, commented, “I’d like my life back.” After eleven people died on the collapsed oil rig and thousands across the Gulf lost their livelihood, the callous and impatient comment cost Hayward his job.
Reputations can also recuperate after bad news, as happened for Starbucks after a racial incident in April 2018. A white employee in one of its Philadelphia shops called the police when two black men asked to use the restroom before making their purchase. When the police arrived, they arrested the two men for trespassing. It turned out that they were waiting for a business associate to join them before ordering.
Almost instantly, the story became national news. Protests sprang up. The hashtag #boycottstarbucks went viral on social media—accelerating on its own rapid Arc of Time. Time was flying by, and the momentum was with those accusing the company of racism.
To assert some control over the Arc of Time, Starbucks leaders’ actions had to catch up to the speed of the social media trajectory. CEO Kevin Johnson apologized immediately. The company quickly reached a settlement with the men. Within days, the company opened restrooms to customers and noncustomers alike. A few weeks later, after consulting experts, all Starbucks stores in the United States closed for an afternoon of racial tolerance training.
By intentionally factoring time into its response, the company was able to retrieve its image and business. When leaders promptly acknowledge errors, sincerely apologize, and then direct a substantive response, they stanch the momentum of bad news and redirect it in a more positive direction.
Timing and Expectations
Time presents the meta-leader with one overarching imperative: avoid getting stuck in the now. Rather, see in one Arc of Time the past, present, and future; the variances in the “was,” the “is,” and the “will be”; the beginning, the middle, and the end. Everything eventually ends. Plan for it and how you will bring the Arc of Time to its conclusion.
Discern patterns. Anticipate how events and people evolve over time. Guide and influence that evolution. Can the pace be varied to either increase urgency or instill patience? Identify what can be done tomorrow that cannot be done today. Lest the situation deteriorate, prioritize what cannot wait and must be done now.
People commonly remember the commitments that leaders make about time with far greater specificity than their other promises. When Arc of Time reality falls short of expectations, disappointment sets in and conflict may erupt. Shape and manage time expectations assertively. Use specifics—“within the hour” or “next Tuesday”—rather than vague terms, such as “immediately” or “soon,” whose interpretation can vary wildly. Assume that everyone has a watch and a calendar—and that they are calibrated differently. Consider how a leader used time in the 2010 mine disaster in Copiapó, Chile. The mine collapsed on August 10, trapping thirty-three workers more than two thousand feet underground. Once the workers signaled that they were all alive, a delicate and complex rescue mission was begu
n. The collapse and subsequent rescue efforts attracted worldwide media attention. Around the world, people were rooting for “Los 33.”
In similar situations, many politicians would be tempted to promise immediate results: We’ll get them out as fast as we can. Chile’s president, Sebastián Piñera, however, set expectations for a long operation. He declared that they would be out by a specific date: Christmas. This strategic use of time relieved some of the political and media pressure that would have come with a highly anticipatory daily rescue watch. Setting the expectation for late December bought time for both the rescuers and the government. When “Los 33” were rescued and finally brought to the surface in October, there was widespread jubilation—they were safe! And because the rescue happened “ahead of schedule,” everyone in the response, including President Piñera, was a hero.
As the Arc of Time approaches its conclusion, there are a number of transitions to navigate. So that expectations and experiences conform, each must be carefully negotiated and communicated. For example, ending a crisis response is both a logistical process and an emotional one. For those affected, the crisis has likely been a nightmare. Reestablishing their lives after the terrible ordeal has been a distant and hoped-for conclusion. For them, the return to normalcy is both a relief and a difficult adjustment. Responders, by contrast, may have experienced an adrenaline high during the crisis event that can be addictive. Withdrawal from that high can be a simultaneous relief and let-down.
You're It Page 28