I have always loved the Olympics. I get excited when amazing athletes line up on the starting line and get ready to give everything up to realize their dream. I watch nervously as the winning athlete approaches the finish line about to achieve a goal that she or he has invested a lifetime pursuing. I’m always thrilled to see the joy of actually achieving desired results. Sadly, at this point, we don’t even know when athletes will be able to step up to the starting line for the next Olympic Games, and we have no idea who will even make it to the finish line—first or last.
This is the same phenomenon we are experiencing with the COVID-19 crisis.
We don’t know where the starting line was and we have no idea where the finish line may be.
Yes, we are in a crisis and the obvious questions are “How do we deal with THIS?” and “What is best for all of us right now?”
We have faced crises like this one many times in the past: world wars, pandemics, and terrorist attacks. Leaders have responded to those crises in a variety of ways. The elements of a crisis and the functions for a range of solutions vary widely, but the process of effective leadership remains constant. In the COVID Crisis, the elements include testing, distancing, disinfecting, treating, and hospitalizing. The functions are to keep people safe, revive the economy, minimize contagion, bolster the hospitals, get people healthy, and protect the vulnerable economically and medically. The process for all problems is essentially the same. Here are the five steps I typically use to coach my clients through the maze.
Goal Setting: Define the problems you are trying to solve, clarify desired outcomes, and communicate the Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Ratable, and Time-bound (SMART) goals you are trying to achieve. Goal setting is the right place to start. It’s a time to lean back and reflect on meaningful direction. Every Olympic athlete starts with the goal of standing on the podium with a gold medal.
Input Gathering: Seek out expert opinions from multiple sources and conduct a rigorous analysis of the factors contributing to the problem and the success factors relevant to the solution. This is the time to dig deeply into the data to find out where we are and what the requirements are to achieve stated goals in rapidly changing conditions. In the Covid-19 crisis, due to a lack of testing, we have no idea how many people have contracted the virus or how sick they have become. Collecting data, however, in the absence of a goal can be wasted activity. Every Olympic athlete knows exactly the times they need to qualify and win. They are armed with facts as well as muscles.
Processing: Engage the full range of stakeholders to generate creative, evidence-based solutions for solving the problem and achieving the goal. This is the time to get the right people with the required skills, knowledge and experience in the room to build upon the best ideas in order to craft optimal solutions. Having endless meetings, however, in the absence of a goal and data, can only result in more wasted time. Every Olympic athlete seeks out the best coaches they can find to help them refine their skills and reduce their times.
Planning: Develop specific objectives, tasks, strategies, steps and milestones that enable everyone to measure progress toward the goals. This is the time to go to the drawing board and map out a detailed plan for making progress. It is the time to identify the right technologies to accelerate progress. Planning, however, without goals, data, and the right people involved can result in dismal failure. If you don’t know you are or where you going, you are likely to end up somewhere else. Olympic athletes have very specific training programs to help them reach their goals.
Implementing: Deliver programs and drive progress toward the goal until desired results are achieved. This is the time to get to work—to make things happen. It’s the time to get PPE to health care workers, to get ventilators to the right hospitals, to mobilize industry to support the effort, and to provide needed relief to people in need. Implementation, however, without goals, data, people, technology, and plans will only frustrate everyone involved. Olympic athletes do the work required to achieve desired results.
In this post, I will provide some brief historical sketches of past national crises that might help pinpoint aspects of good strategy. There was FDR, who was a champ, and two recent examples that don’t hold a candle. I will summarize how those three leaders at different crisis points in our history either applied or didn’t apply that 5 step process for solving major problems. One step at a time.
Goal Setting: FDR, Bush, and Trump
FDR was elected in 1932 in the midst of the great depression. He immediately set three ambitious goals for addressing the problem: Relief, Recovery, and Reform. In order to provide temporary relief for the suffering and unemployed he set up the WPA and the Social Security Administration. In order to help the economy bounce back from the depression, he established the Agricultural Adjustment Act and Industrial Recovery Act. In order to stabilize the economy, he formed the FDIC, the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) and the Bank Reform Act. After making great progress on all of those goals over a 10 year period he was confronted with World War II. His goal in this case was very clear: save the world from the Nazis.
George W. Bush was elected president in 2,000. On September 11, 2001 terrorists hijacked four planes and ran them into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. Instead of setting a goal to hunt down Osama bin Laden and destroy Al Queda, Bush quickly switched his focus to Iraq. Contrary to his PR campaign that we needed to rid Saddam Hussein of Weapons of Mass Destructions (WMDs), the real goal was to demonstrate to the rest of the world that the US was still the world’s leading power. It was a messaging goal more than a military goal. A quick and decisive victory in the heart of the Arab world would send a message to all countries that American hegemony is here to stay. The actual results were ISIS, $2 trillion of wasted treasury, and over 500,000 deaths.
Donald Trump managed to get through his first three years of being President without any crises other than the ones he created himself. And then along came the Coronavirus. Instead of setting ambitious goals (e.g. like relief, recovery, reform, and containment) as soon as we heard what was happening in China, he dithered, delayed, dismissed and denied and kept changing his mind about the goals we should be setting that would serve the common good. In essence, his goals were self-aggrandizement, political positioning, and power flouting. His goal was about him not about the economic and medical health of the country.
Input Gathering:
FDR not only enlisted Eleanor’s wise counsel, but also reached out to experts around the world to really understand the depth of the problems and the possibilities for solving them. He brought together the best minds in agricultural, industrial production, banking, etc. to discover innovative ways to move forward. He communicated constantly with the American people to keep them current on what was happening and how they could help.
George Bush was primarily influenced by Rumsfeld and Cheney – two hawks who were itching to go to war with Iraq. They managed to coerce Colin Powell to make the case that Iraq possessed WMDs as justification for the invasion.
Donald Trump resists expert advice either from intelligence experts, scientists, or medical professionals. He instead believes that his gut instincts are all he needs to make great decisions.
Processing:
In World War II, FDR consulted continuously with Churchill and our other allies around the world. He used his cabinet for expert advice and debated the pros and cons of many issues. The goal was to figure out how to win.
After 9/11, George Bush continued to consult with Rumsfeld and Cheney to figure out ways to explain why the invasion was necessary in the absence of WMDs. The goal was to figure out how to sell it to the American people.
Donald Trump listens half-heartedly to Mike Pompeo, Steven Miller, Jared Kushner, Larry Kudlow and evangelical pastors to figure out ways to boost his image and electability. The goal is to figure out how to spin it.
Planning:
During the decade that FDR tried to inch our way out of the Depression, his teams developed specific and far reaching strategies to achieve the goals of Relief, Recovery and Reform. In World War II, his military experts planned the incredibly intricate invasion of Normandy that turned the tide of the War.
After 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan most of the planning in the Bush administration was geared toward PR, for example “Mission Accomplished.” After 18 years of war, we are still trying to rationalize, justify, and explain our actions and lack of results.
The Trump response to the Covid-19 crisis has been to abandon planning and shift responsibility. The message is “It’s your problem.” No plans to provide sufficient PPE, ventilators, hospital beds, or training. Thankfully, Congress just passed a $2 Trillion dollar stimulus package to help people who are suffering and vulnerable. But that initiative came from the House and the Senate – not the Oval Office. Trump’s initial plan was to provide $8 Billion of relief primarily to corporations.
Implementing:
FDR and his team implemented multiple, complex initiatives to provide relief, help the economy recover, and to reform the systems that caused the problem in the first place. As a result, we emerged from the depression better than ever and we won the war.
Bush managed to remove Saddam Hussein from office, but chaos has prevailed in both Iraq and Afghanistan for the last 18 years with no “victory” in sight.
Trump’s idea of implementation is to wish something will happen the way he imagines it without doing the work to make it happen. His approach to implementation is to surround himself with obsequious sycophants who are steadfastly loyal and pathetically preening to his endless ego needs. It’s about his government, not our country.
My colleague, Dr. Bill O’Brien prompted this post by sending me the following chart which provides the structure for this piece:
|
Leadership Focus |
The Marketplace Context: Depression FDR |
The Message: Context: Iraq George W Bush |
The Man: Context: Pandemic Donald Trump |
|
Goal |
5. Leadership |
4. Messaging |
3. People (My Power) |
|
Input |
4. Messaging |
3. People (Cheney) |
4. Plan (my inputs only) |
|
Processing |
3. People |
2. Plan (how to sell it) |
5. Progress (My facts) |
|
Plan |
2. Plan |
1. Progress (PR) |
1. Leadership (your problem) |
|
Output |
1. Progress |
5. Leadership (I win) |
2. Organizing (my gov’t) |
The chart shows what happens when you get the firing order wrong in your process for change, i.e. when the starting line is planning or spinning instead of goal setting and input gathering.
Look, I know this post is long and complicated—especially the chart—but I’m trying to represent the most profound leadership principle I know: If you rotate scales within a 3-dimensional space, you can predict results before they occur instead of describe events after they occur, so that you can design the right interventions to achieve your desired results in time to make a difference. My hunch is that less than 1 percent of leaders really get that principle.
So, whether you are in a race at the Olympics, or in a race to recover from school closings, or in a race to save the world from one catastrophe or another it’s important to begin at the right starting line—goal setting. If the starting line is messaging (PR) or personal power, then the results are not likely to be what you had hoped.
What we can learn from these examples is how leadership norms need to change to listen, empathize and inspire through computer screens and the pinhole of camcorders. This crisis, and those that will surely come, needs responses that deal not only with masses of people but also with the recognition that our culture is evolving with new possibilities through social media and on-line meetings. Hopefully, each of us will emerge with our own individually and organizationally distinct offerings.
I don’t know if you have had a similar dream, but I frequently wake up in a fit because I just dreamed I was supposed to take an important college exam, and I couldn’t find the classroom in which it was being conducted. I’ve also dreamed that I missed all the classes during a semester and then have to show up for the final exam feeling totally unprepared. Unfortunately, this dream seems to be manifesting in our current environment. We have no idea how to get started, what we need to do to prepare, or how well we are going to do in the final exam.
Hopefully, as individuals and organizations, we will realize that not only are we all in this together in pursuit of the common good, but also that we need to prepare diligently for every contingency. Let’s get to the starting line by reaching agreement on common goals like Relief, Recovery, or Reform. And let’s get to the finish line with everyone winning—not just one person or a privileged few at the top. When we reach the finish line, let’s start again with a renewed vision for ourselves and our planet. Finally, let’s hope that when the Olympic Games are finally held, they will be watched by healthy people in healthy economies around the world. May it be so.
Well done my man! Thank you!