All About Crises

The damage assessment reports were always wrong.

Several times in my business career, the organization I worked for had to endure a hurricane and get back online as fast as humanly possible right after the storm. Every time, the first read on the damage missed. The same holds for any major project or endeavor within an organization.

Today I finished Admiral William H. McRaven's book Conquering Crisis: Ten Lessons to Learn Before You Need Them. His first lesson is that exact experience. His ten lessons are worth highlighting here. I strongly recommend you get a copy and read or listen to it attentively, as the life lessons offered are exceptional.

Lesson 1: The First Version of a Crisis Is Usually Wrong — Don't Lead From the First Headline

In the initial stages of a crisis, leaders face incomplete information, emotions fluctuate, and rumors and pressure to act are constant. McRaven's point is that in these very moments, the most important things to do, besides keeping a cool head and staying calm, are to gather the facts surrounding the situation, identify what is known and unknown, and avoid making decisions you are more likely to regret because they are based on assumptions.

Case in point: When Southwest suffered a massive holiday-season operational breakdown in December 2022, the initial visible explanation was bad weather — Winter Storm Elliott had hammered most of the country. But the core of the problem was different: outdated crew-scheduling systems could not recover as cancellations cascaded. While every other airline stabilized within days, Southwest canceled roughly 16,700 flights and stranded some two million passengers, and the Department of Transportation later hit the airline with a record $140 million penalty. A leader who treats the first explanation as the culprit may solve the public-relations problem while missing the real issue.

Lesson 2: Every Leader Needs Trusted Advisors Before the Crisis Begins

I like surrounding myself with smarter people. It's generally good life advice and essential for those in leadership positions. McRaven calls it a "Council of Colonels" in military parlance. While the idea might be fairly simple, the hard part is having the good judgment and humility to surround yourself with people who are more experienced and smarter than you. You do not want "agreeable people"; in fact, those are exactly the type I don't want advising me when I need candor. You need to build a group willing to challenge your position and point of view before a bad decision becomes a disaster.

Case in point: Take the 1982 Tylenol poisonings. Over three days starting September 29, seven people in the Chicago area — including a twelve-year-old girl — died after taking Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules someone had laced with cyanide and returned to store shelves. Johnson & Johnson made the extraordinary decision to pull Tylenol from shelves nationwide — roughly 31 million bottles, more than $100 million in retail value — halted production and advertising, and warned the public not to take the product. The response required coordinated judgment across legal, operations, communications, product, and executive leadership. The company's actions are still widely remembered because it prioritized public safety over short-term sales, and the tamper-evident packaging on nearly everything you buy today traces back to that decision.

Lesson 3: The Most Expensive Leadership Mistake — Waiting to Deliver Bad News

I believe that bad news needs to be delivered as fast and directly as you possibly can. With tact, of course, but fast. Bad news rarely improves with delay, and although Robert Greene might argue to "never be the bearer of bad news" — have someone else do it for you — the reality is that as a leader, part of having integrity is having the fortitude of owning your mistakes, your team's mistakes, and your organization's mistakes, and being forthcoming about it. The longer you delay delivering bad news, the more expensive and damaging it can become. Some believe that if disclosure is postponed, the problem will disappear; the problem with this is that risk levels rise dramatically, as the possibility of a leak leaves you exposed, handing the narrative to a third party instead of owning it yourself.

Case in point: In the book, McRaven uses the infamous example of Volkswagen's use of software designed to manipulate diesel emissions tests. In September 2015, the EPA charged that VW had installed "defeat devices" that recognized when a car was being tested; on the road, the same engines emitted up to forty times the legal limit of nitrogen oxides. The software had been riding in cars since 2009, and VW admitted roughly 11 million vehicles worldwide carried it. The crisis proved far more destructive because the issue involved deception and delayed accountability. CEO Martin Winterkorn resigned within a week of the EPA's notice, and the costs went beyond fines: more than $30 billion in penalties, recalls, and compensation, plus reputational damage, leadership upheaval, regulatory consequences, and a long-term loss of trust.

Lesson 4: Truth Is a Crisis Leader's Strongest Weapon

Truth will liberate you. That's it. It's the strongest weapon you'll have when a crisis is at hand. Communicate honestly and explain what you commit to doing to resolve the mistake at hand. You want to shrink the space where rumors, anger, and distrust spread like wildfire.

Case in point: Starbucks and the Philadelphia arrest incident. In April 2018, two Black men — Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson — were arrested in a Philadelphia Starbucks while waiting for a business meeting; a manager had called the police because they hadn't ordered anything. Video of the arrest went viral within hours. CEO Kevin Johnson called the incident reprehensible, apologized to the men in person, and on May 29 the company closed more than 8,000 U.S. stores for an afternoon of racial-bias training for roughly 175,000 employees. The response was not universally praised, but it showed a company choosing acknowledgment and action rather than denial.

Lesson 5: Keep More Than One Option Alive

If you can, always have several options available at the same time. Do not corner yourself. In other words: Be prepared; have contingencies in place. In a crisis, you do not want to find yourself without a "Plan B." Smart leaders have plans running in tandem to ensure that if the main play doesn't pan out, you and your team have a contingency plan that can be enacted with immediate effect.

Case in point: Netflix's transition to streaming. Netflix launched streaming in January 2007 — about a thousand titles against seventy thousand on DVD — while the DVD-by-mail business was at its peak; the company shipped its billionth disc the very next month. Netflix did not wait for DVD-by-mail to collapse before investing in streaming. The shift was difficult and controversial — the botched 2011 attempt to split the two businesses cost roughly 800,000 subscribers before the company reversed course — but the broader strategy recognized that physical media and digital distribution could not remain mutually exclusive indefinitely.

Lesson 6: In a Crisis, Disorder Grows Unless Someone Takes Control

McRaven employs the Second Law of Thermodynamics as a metaphor: left unattended, systems tend toward chaos. A crisis does not resolve on its own. Without targeted energy, authority, and coordinated efforts, confusion and disorder will only increase.

Case in point: Boeing and the 737 MAX. Lion Air Flight 610 crashed in October 2018, killing 189 people; Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 went down less than five months later, in March 2019, killing 157. Both crashes traced to MCAS, a flight-control system that relied on a single sensor — and that most pilots had never been told existed. What began as a technical failure spread everywhere: the fleet was grounded worldwide for twenty months, direct costs passed $20 billion, and Boeing paid $2.5 billion to settle a federal fraud charge over what it told regulators during certification. A crisis involving aircraft design, pilot training, regulatory oversight, communications, and public trust — a demonstration of how a technical failure escalates into an organizational one when accountability, communication, and corrective action are not aligned.

Lesson 7: Move Fast, But Do Not Hurry Into a Bigger Mistake

A crisis requires urgency but not panic. Do not act quickly to appear decisive. Rushed decisions can expand a crisis or create a new one. Move fast, controlled, and deliberate. Do not fall for the trap of rushing just to show you're taking action. Think before you act.

Case in point: Target's expansion into Canada. Target entered Canada in 2013 and opened 133 stores in under two years. The expansion struggled with supply chain problems, empty shelves, pricing complaints, and a weak customer experience. In January 2015, Target exited the market entirely, taking a $5.4 billion write-down and putting roughly 17,600 employees out of work.

Lesson 8: When Details Become Leadership — The Case for Micromanagement in a Crisis

Like McRaven, I too thought of "micromanagement" with disdain. In normal conditions as a leader, you'd typically delegate. But micromanagement is a must in two moments: at the start, when you're establishing expectations, and in the critical moments that demand attention to execution. It's a temporary tool to ensure your team understands the expectations going forward.

Case in point: Toyota's accelerator-pedal recalls. Between November 2009 and early 2010, Toyota recalled millions of vehicles — first for floor mats that could trap the accelerator, then for pedals that could stick — and at the peak of the crisis halted sales and production of eight of its best-selling models, including the Camry. The company ultimately recalled more than 14 million vehicles globally, paid a record $48.8 million in U.S. fines for its handling of the recalls, and its CEO was called to testify before Congress. Managing such a crisis demands more than top-level statements; it requires leaders to grasp the technical problem, recall procedures, dealer preparedness, customer outreach, and regulatory responsibilities.

Lesson 9: The Leader Who Sets the Pace Has an Advantage in Every Crisis

Sometimes you cannot avoid a crisis, but you can control the organization's tempo and reaction timing. You do not want to be caught in reaction mode; no, you want to be proactive and move forward to set the organization's cadence and focus resources on the problem at hand. You can either wait until the problem has your organization pivoting on its toes, or you can decisively attack the problem, thereby setting the timing by imposing your will as much as possible.

Case in point: Microsoft and the 2023 Exchange breach. In mid-2023, a China-linked group Microsoft calls Storm-0558 used a stolen signing key to forge authentication tokens and read the Exchange Online mailboxes of some two dozen organizations — including the U.S. Commerce Secretary and the U.S. ambassador to China. Once the State Department flagged the anomalous access, Microsoft set a public cadence: disclosure in July 2023, a published technical analysis that same month, a root-cause update in September, free expanded security logging for all customers, and in November a company-wide security overhaul it called the Secure Future Initiative. The response drew hard criticism — a federal review board later called the breach preventable — but the operating pattern is the one that holds: investigate, contain, communicate verified facts, provide mitigation steps, and issue regular updates.

Lesson 10: Morale Trumps Everything

When facing a crisis, you are rarely alone. The team that surrounds you is the resource you have to confront the problem. There's no question that the effectiveness of your responses will depend on the morale of those in the trenches with you. Morale is an ongoing check, an integral part of operational effectiveness.

Case in point: Airbnb's 2020 layoffs. In May 2020, with global travel at a standstill in the early stages of the pandemic, Airbnb eliminated roughly 1,900 jobs — a quarter of its 7,500-person workforce. CEO Brian Chesky's public message explained the decision, acknowledged its human impact, and outlined support for departing employees: fourteen weeks of base pay plus a week per year of tenure, twelve months of health coverage, and a job-placement effort that included a public alumni directory and recruiters reassigned to help people land elsewhere. Difficult decisions do not have to be cold. Leaders cannot always avoid harm, but they can choose how honestly and humanely they carry it out.