There is an excellent film called The Blind Side starring Sandra Bullock which chronicles the development of Michael Oher an offensive lineman in American football who comes from the wrong side of the tracks in a Tennessee city to achieve sporting success in a good school and then in the sport. The job of an offensive lineman is to protect his quarter back on the “blind side” - A term for the side of the offensive line that the quarterback is facing away from while in the pocket. For right handed quarterbacks, the left tackle protects the blind side.
The key task is to protect the quarterback who is the crucial playmaker from unexpected tackles.
As a manager or leader one of the most difficult situations to manage is dealing with an unexpected crisis that nobody has forewarned you about. So if you are say running a department in a law firm that is working flat out and has no capacity, the last thing you need as the department head is one of your junior partners telling you late on a Friday evening out of the blue that he or she has just taken on a major new matter requiring extensive resource without telling you.
Or if you work as an inhouse legal adviser in a company providing facilities management services, you receive an email about the major new contract signed a year ago (which you thought was going swimmingly) from the delivery manager telling you that it’s all going wrong and the customer is threatening termination.
It’s not the new business opportunity or the contract crisis of itself that is the problem. These are our daily meat and bread as professional advisers. We can plan and resource for them. No, it’s rather the fact that nobody in your team or in the business told you there was a problem, so you are in effect blindsided and have to deal with the matter as a crisis.
I’ve come to realise that these sort of unexpected situations which leaders face can be seen as inevitable. I don’t think this is always right. They can often be anticipated and if not prevented mitigated. Here is a short to the point blog Open your eyes and look to find weak spots where trouble could start which considers this in the context of crisis management and shares this insight Don’t ever assume that you have considered everything you need to know about your business, its people and the marketplace. Things are changing so fast that you must see everything through a wide-enough angle lens that enables you to anticipate crisis and manage change before circumstances force your hand. Anticipating the unexpected enables you to see around, beneath and beyond what you seek – well beyond the obvious.
See also this Harvard Business Review article Research: Why Companies Keep Getting Blind-Sided by Risk which discusses supply chain risk from an unexpected major supply chain disruptioncommenting Part of the problem stems from the familiar gap between the talk and the walk. Survey findings indicate that most organizations’ leaders did indeed express concern about the impact of politicalturmoil, natural disasters, or extreme weather. But the findings also show that the people at the front lines of the business were hamstrung by a lack of visibility into risk.
What I think we can do is like the football team manager anticipate that your precious playmaking quarter back will be vulnerable and make sure you have excellent linesman like Michael Oher protecting the blind side.
We can perhaps also assume that these situation will be inevitable to some extent and be ready to deal with it – see this article A Blueprint for Dealing with the Unexpected in Work which suggests
quoting Julius Ceaser No one is so brave that he is not disturbed by something unexpected.
And we should always always look for the positive – as John F Kennedy said The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word 'crisis.' One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger--but recognize the opportunity.
All that said wouldn’t it be better if somebody in your team or business gave you you some forewarning of the problem? Prevention is always better than cure. I think we need to create open cultures where team members and managers communicate openly and regularly so the unexpected can be anticipated.
A good approach to this as a team member is to think what you would like to know about and then make sure you tell your boss the same Communicate unto the other person that which you would want him to communicate unto you if your positions were reversed- the American businessman Aaron Goldman.
Anyway, as Henry Kissinger commented There can't be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full!!
The key task is to protect the quarterback who is the crucial playmaker from unexpected tackles.
As a manager or leader one of the most difficult situations to manage is dealing with an unexpected crisis that nobody has forewarned you about. So if you are say running a department in a law firm that is working flat out and has no capacity, the last thing you need as the department head is one of your junior partners telling you late on a Friday evening out of the blue that he or she has just taken on a major new matter requiring extensive resource without telling you.
Or if you work as an inhouse legal adviser in a company providing facilities management services, you receive an email about the major new contract signed a year ago (which you thought was going swimmingly) from the delivery manager telling you that it’s all going wrong and the customer is threatening termination.
It’s not the new business opportunity or the contract crisis of itself that is the problem. These are our daily meat and bread as professional advisers. We can plan and resource for them. No, it’s rather the fact that nobody in your team or in the business told you there was a problem, so you are in effect blindsided and have to deal with the matter as a crisis.
I’ve come to realise that these sort of unexpected situations which leaders face can be seen as inevitable. I don’t think this is always right. They can often be anticipated and if not prevented mitigated. Here is a short to the point blog Open your eyes and look to find weak spots where trouble could start which considers this in the context of crisis management and shares this insight Don’t ever assume that you have considered everything you need to know about your business, its people and the marketplace. Things are changing so fast that you must see everything through a wide-enough angle lens that enables you to anticipate crisis and manage change before circumstances force your hand. Anticipating the unexpected enables you to see around, beneath and beyond what you seek – well beyond the obvious.
See also this Harvard Business Review article Research: Why Companies Keep Getting Blind-Sided by Risk which discusses supply chain risk from an unexpected major supply chain disruptioncommenting Part of the problem stems from the familiar gap between the talk and the walk. Survey findings indicate that most organizations’ leaders did indeed express concern about the impact of politicalturmoil, natural disasters, or extreme weather. But the findings also show that the people at the front lines of the business were hamstrung by a lack of visibility into risk.
What I think we can do is like the football team manager anticipate that your precious playmaking quarter back will be vulnerable and make sure you have excellent linesman like Michael Oher protecting the blind side.
We can perhaps also assume that these situation will be inevitable to some extent and be ready to deal with it – see this article A Blueprint for Dealing with the Unexpected in Work which suggests
- Don’t rush take – maybe do nothing at first
- Stay optimistic
- Consult others
- Have a plan and execute it
- Focus on the big picture
- Look to how this can be prevented in the future
quoting Julius Ceaser No one is so brave that he is not disturbed by something unexpected.
And we should always always look for the positive – as John F Kennedy said The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word 'crisis.' One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger--but recognize the opportunity.
All that said wouldn’t it be better if somebody in your team or business gave you you some forewarning of the problem? Prevention is always better than cure. I think we need to create open cultures where team members and managers communicate openly and regularly so the unexpected can be anticipated.
A good approach to this as a team member is to think what you would like to know about and then make sure you tell your boss the same Communicate unto the other person that which you would want him to communicate unto you if your positions were reversed- the American businessman Aaron Goldman.
Anyway, as Henry Kissinger commented There can't be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full!!
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