View From the Top by Lindsay D. Michael Hager M. G. & Mary Grace Hager

Author:Lindsay, D. Michael, Hager, M. G. & Mary Grace Hager
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781118901397
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2014-05-12T00:00:00+00:00

The Crucible Refines

A dramatic, unexpected event that throws an organization into chaos will either prove or refute a leader's strength. Senior leaders constantly work to maintain the value systems of their organizations, develop strategies to deal with uncertainty, and find ways to maximize the efficiency of their decision-making process. A crisis differs from a leader's everyday tasks more in degree than quality, and thus it serves as an intense test of the systems these leaders have already put in place.

Ronald Heifitz and Marty Linsky define the life cycle of a crisis in three stages: the preparation phase, the emergency phase, and the adaptive phase.3 The preparation phase is the time before the crisis, when a leader has the opportunity to lay the groundwork for response and to anticipate what is needed for what looms ahead. In the emergency phase, leaders deal with the immediate problems through short-term solutions, focusing on the momentary survival of the organization. In the adaptive phase, the leader charts the long-term course of the organization to bring it back to stability.

No crisis in our lifetime has impacted American life as dramatically as the 9/11 attacks. The stories of the leaders involved show us how executive habits and the organizational cultures they build come to the fore during crisis.

As national coordinator for security, infrastructure protection, and counterterrorism in 2001, Richard Clarke, who had served in one senior leadership position or another in the White House for 16 years and through four presidential administrations, was known informally as the counterterrorism czar. It was his responsibility to anticipate and prepare for the possibility of terrorist attacks. Clarke later claimed that he had communicated fears about a terrorist attack from al-Qaeda but that his warnings had fallen on deaf ears in the Bush administration. He was unable to prevent the crisis during the preparation phase, but as will be seen, he was certainly up to the task during the emergency phase.

Clarke was away from the White House when the first plane hit the World Trade Center, but upon hearing via phone what had happened, he had his assistant convene an emergency videoconference with the various Cabinet departments, to be underway upon his quick return. When Clarke arrived, the principals of the National Security Council (NSC) had gathered in the Situation Room, and the deputy national security advisor, Steve Hadley, had taken charge. But when Clarke came in, “still [with] his overcoat on” (in the words of a person present), Vice President Cheney and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice gave him the authority to manage the proceedings: “There was no dissension; there was no combativeness. It was just that Dick [Clarke] had been there for nearly 12 years; he had been through many different crises, so [everyone was clearly] deferring to him.” Cheney and Rice hurriedly moved through the White House corridors to join the other upper-level staff in the President's Emergency Operation Center (PEOC), in a bunker under the East Wing. Meanwhile, Clarke led the NSC staff in information gathering in the Situation Room.

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