Why emergencies can be a good thing

Everyone remembers the Titanic, right? That massive boat that struck an iceberg in the north Atlantic, resulting in 1,500 deaths and launching Leonardo DiCaprio's career? Or something like that, history was never one of my strong subjects in school. Here's an interesting thought: The sinking of the Titanic saved lives. No, seriously, it did.

when I started a blog about leadership, this isn't exactly what I had in mind

You see, the shipping building industry at the time was very competitive. The Titanic's creation was highly publicised, touting its many achievements. Bigger! Faster! Safer! The entire industry was consumed with the trans-Atlantic route and the vast potential for growth and profit. The market was ripe and unregulated, and as they say, to the victor goes the spoils. The environment was clearly one of "win the battle, lose the war", where the companies traded the long-term durability of their boats and the sustainability of their companies to weather fiscal crises for the short-term profits found in rushing production and minimizing safety. So the inevitable happened and 1,500 people perished in the freezing waters of the north Atlantic.

The aftermath of the Titanic was a differrent story. New maufacturer standards were created, regulatory oversight was created, and safety procedures enforced. No longer would boats depart harbors without enough lifeboats and floatation devices for all on board. Ships would maintain 24-hour radio watch. There would be an international ice patrol to help spot icebergs. The sinking of the Titanic was a catalyst for change, and its loss ended up saving future ships from the same tragic fate.

I've gotten good evaluation reports. And I've gotten bad ones. I've been told I'm a top performer, and I've been told that I was a disappointment. You know which ones caused me to double my efforts, to conduct deep self-evaluations of my own actions, and to change myself for the better? I think you know. Sure, getting told you performed poorly really sucks, and I certainly felt bad for myself for a little while. But I always come around to realizing that it's far better to get a bad evaluation then it is to conduct a bad mission or exercise.

We certainly face stressful situations in our line of work. Ever been in a firefight? Or inside an Operations Center during a firefight? Emergencies are kind of the military's forte. A good leader takes every emergency as an opportunity to generate change. A briefing that goes horribly wrong, a field exercise poorly planned, a mission not executed - these all happen, no matter how hard you try to avoid them. Don't add insult to injury by not capturing what went wrong and creating changes within your organization. Ever try? Ever Fail? Good. Try again. Fail again. Fail better. Dust yourself off, finish your own personal pity party, and identify what happened to cause the emergency so that next time, you'll be better.