Three Lessons from 9/11, 15 Years On
Everyone of a certain age has their 9/11 story. It is one of those
searing events that one never forgets. Mine is one of a near miss. I was
scheduled to fly on American Airlines Flight 11 that day — the plane that hit
the north tower at the World Trade Center. As a result of a fluke in the
calendar, my trip was moved a day earlier. I was awakened that morning in
California by a call from home. I joined the millions of horrified people glued
to the television. I had staff and a client flying out of New York that
morning. It took hours to locate them and, fortunately, they were safe.
This year, as on every
September 11, the victims of the attacks will be remembered with moments
of silence and ceremonies. But this anniversary, the 15th, seems a bit
different in that it is inspiring more far-reaching examinations of lessons
learned and changes wrought (including an insightful cover story in theAtlantic by Steven Brill).
I’ve personally developed a perspective on where corporations and
other organizations, in the U.S. and around the world, stand on assessing risk
and preparing and responding to novel disasters through my work at the National
Preparedness Leadership Initiative, a joint program of the Harvard T.H. Chan
School of Public Health and the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard’s
Kennedy School of Government. I have had the privilege to work with people
involved in these issues from the military, law enforcement, homeland security,
and the private sector.
Here are three significant markers of how we’ve changed in the
last 15 years and areas in which executives need to continue to press forward
to better identify and address emerging threats and their aftermath.
Appreciate the complexity
of risk.
In 2001, a mass-casualty
attack was a rare thing in the United States. Today, unfortunately, it is not.
Whether the perpetrator is an organized terror group or a lone wolf with a
range of motives, violent extremism is an increasing concern for business
leaders because of the risks to their people, their customers, and their
ability to operate. And violence is only one of the risks on the radar. The
Great Recession saw the global economy on the brink of chaos. The Arab Spring
reverberated far beyond the Middle East. Infectious diseases such as the H1N1
influenza, Ebola, and Zika sow uncertainty. Extreme weather events such as
floods, droughts, wildfires, and storms such as Katrina and Sandy contribute to
volatility. Cyber breaches of major companies and government agencies add new
dimensions to the puzzle.
Chief risk officers were originally focused on financial risk and
regulatory compliance. Now that is just one component of the job. The most
astute risk officers and organizations are making this a priority and becoming
highly attuned to all manner of risk. Further, they have recognized the need to
share vulnerability information throughout their enterprises. One global
company where I’ve spent time regularly asks frontline managers, “What keeps
you awake at night?” They use the answers as a bottom-up supplement to, and
reality check for, their formal risk register protocol. As one example, years
before the current spate of violent extremism, this method revealed the
potential for an attack by radicalized employees, and the company took steps to
prepare for that possibility.
Commit to employees and
values.
The tired bromide “Our
people are our greatest asset” is being tested as never before because events
present novel challenges to policies that never anticipated 9/11 or what would
follow.
I spoke with an executive who lost many colleagues on 9/11. While
the company hung in the balance and there was great uncertainty, the company
kept paying salaries and providing benefits to the families of employees who
had been killed. He told me that the more they attended to the human factors,
the more rapidly the business issues seemed to resolve. Years later, another
national company had a new employee who was injured in a mass shooting. He had
not yet qualified for their health-insurance plan and faced devastating medical
expenses. After some discussion, his employers decided to take care of his
medical bills.
In both cases, policies were adapted on the fly to hew to
fundamental values in the face of unprecedented events. The companies exhibited
the employer engagement that is sometimes overlooked in the quest for employee
engagement. There are now enough case examples of novel events that challenge
our imaginations and policies to compel every company to proactively discuss
“What if…?” scenarios — an exercise that can build humane adaptive capacity
into their processes and protocols.
Serve the community.
I don’t think it is
coincidental that stakeholder capitalism has seen a resurgence after 9/11. The
shareholder-centric view of operating a company holds that executives should
focus on profit-making and leave charity and addressing society’s ills largely
to the government and nonprofit agencies. However, societal resilience has been
demonstrated when individuals, community organizations,
and companies have pulled together
in the aftermath of so many unexpected violent events
and natural disasters.
I saw this firsthand in the response to the Boston Marathon
bombings in 2013. Businesses were a critical component of the “Boston Strong”
response, housing stranded runners and working to help identify the
perpetrators. The local relationships that made “Boston Strong” possible were
built over years of preparing and performing disaster-preparedness exercises
together — work that began in earnest after the 9/11 attacks.
As threats bigger than any one entity and risks beyond the control
of any single sector have emerged, it has become clear to more and more
executives that businesses can’t pretend they are part of society only for
economic transactions. They share in the costs and have much to contribute to
the full range of planning, rebuilding, and healing activities. They are
critical components of the communities in which they operate. That comes with
responsibilities as well as privileges.
Many of us will pause for a moment of silence to mark the moment
when each of the planes struck on September 11, 2001. But also important are
the actions we take before and after the remembrances to prepare for the
possible events ahead. These strides forward are how we should mark our
progress and resilience.
There have been many courageous acts of leadership these past 15
years. It’s a certain bet that we will need many more as we navigate a
turbulent world.
Eric J.
McNulty
http://www.strategy-business.com/blog/Three-Lessons-from-911-15-Years-On?gko=b5002&utm_source=itw&utm_medium=20160913&utm_campaign=resp
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