How can organizations better respond to emergencies and still ensure high performance and avoid accidents in a world of gray rhinos?
Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account “Common sense of management” (ID: Guanlidechangshi) , author Sun Li, reproduced with permission.
After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, US governments and organizations at all levels have implemented the Blue Army strategy to prevent the next terrorist attack. For example, fire drills are often organized in high office buildings to allow high-rise office staff to be evacuated quickly in emergency situations.
The two professors Karl Weick and Kathleen M. Sutcliffe try to answer this question in the book “Emergency Response”.
They proposed that mindfulness is a common strategy for some organizations to respond to these emergencies, so as to achieve high reliability of the organization.
How can organizations achieve high reliability in emergencies? The reason is that organizations (including governments and non-profit organizations) can unswervingly adopt the method of “mindfulness” to think and solve problems.
In other words, the Blue Army organization can adjust current expectations according to the latest situation, the organization’s willingness and ability, and continuously refine and distinguish them, and guide themselves in a way of mindfulness so that they can notice the sprout more quickly. And prevent their development in a timely manner.
In terms of responding to emergencies, Blue Army organizations can use the Blue Army strategy. The key difference from other organizations is the initial stage, that is, the period when emergencies have only a hint of emergence.
Usually, there are some clues to emergencies, but most organizations use weak signs and weak responses.
However, mindfulness allows the Blue Army to see the deep meaning hidden behind the weak signs and make a strong and timely response. This counterintuitive behavior is the key to responding to emergencies.
01. Building the Blue Army, calling for mindfulness
When establishing mindfulness and responding to emergencies, organizations often apply the following five methods to improve reliability:
1. Seeking warning signals from failures
Unlike ordinary enterprises, who are obsessed with the joy of success, the Blue Army organization always remembers possible failures.
They are highly sensitive to all kinds of negligence and mistakes, so even small deviations (such as the door is not closed properly, extra screws appear), they will not let go.
Every member in the organization can ask questions and report in time if something is wrong, so that the problem can be solved in the shortest time.
So, compared to the general organization, the environment facing the Blue Army organizationMore difficult and more demanding conditions, they can also be alert early, respond quickly, and maintain high performance in complex environments.
In contrast, some organizations hope to confuse passing inspections. For example, in the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant crisis investigation, Tokyo Electric Power Co. admitted that it has been tampering with the operation and inspection data of nuclear power plants since 1977. Among them, Unit 1 of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant has tampered with the data 28 times. It turned out to be a big mistake.
2. Finding answers to problems from emergencies
Blue Army organizations often have a variety of talents who can respond flexibly to emergencies. When an accident comes, they will try to avoid losing their ability to think in all directions under great pressure.
Because they know that almost every accident has its own clues to solve the problem. All they need to do is act calmly, make decisive decisions, find solutions to problems from emergencies, and protect the organization and its integrity.
3. Use bottom-up model and respect the opinions of frontline professionals
It is impossible to manage any organization through rules, plans, charters and fixed standards. Where can you find a voice that is truly worth listening to when opinions differ?
Weike and Sutcliffe believe that the opinions of frontline professionals are worth listening to.
The top of most organizations often think that they know the development and dynamics of the entire organization best, but this is not the case.
Although more information is available at the top, if there is no voice from frontline personnel, their views will be far from comprehensive.
In the Blues organization, the voices of frontline personnel in the front line are particularly valued. Not only because they are related to the composition of the entire organization, but also because they are the driving force for the development of the entire organization. Only by doing so can we ensure smooth speech and a smooth decision-making system.
Similarly, in this epidemic, the voices of frontline medical staff should be maximized so that high-level decisions can be made.
Using Union Pacific Railroad as a counter example, Professor Weike pointed out how high-reliability organizations such as nuclear power plants can adopt a bottom-up management and control model to deal with emergencies in a complex environment. They believe that it is crucial to keep abreast of the progress of the event with frank “mindfulness”.
Then they also emphasized the importance of questioning, asking, and updating information in responding to emergencies.
Weike takes a nuclear power plant as an example, describing in detail the five actions necessary for Blue Army organizations to generate “mindfulness” and pointing out how traditional top-down management practices undermine mindfulness.
For example, if strategic planning is commonly used in organizations, if there is an a priori intended purpose, the manager’s cognitive scope will be narrowed down during the planning process, so that they are not aware of changes outside the plan, which is not conducive to promoting new learning. When emergencies occur, they cannot be better responded to.
In fact, a “clear division of labor” organization chart and rules can ruin mindfulness.
We can often hear in different organizations or departments: “According to regulations, this is not my scope of work.” People often take various rules and regulations as the best reason for deriving blame and irresponsibility, but forget The underlying reason behind these provisions.
4. Refuse to simplify events
The Blues are obsessed with complicating seemingly simple events, just as they are obsessed with delving into the causes of failure. Because they knew that simplification would create a blind spot, the Blue Army organizations exhausted the “flooding power” to consider simple things. Although as a manager must have the ability to reduce complexity, simplification needs to be divided into two.
A good simplified decision can only be made if you have a thorough and in-depth knowledge and understanding of the environment, structure and capabilities of the organization.
For example, after the failure of the Columbia launch, NASA immediately set up a special accident investigative committee. The committee also invited Nobel Prize winner Douglas Ochenov in the committee, hoping that outsiders from academia would re-examine Thousands of key points for the space shuttle.
5. Scenario planning, anticipating what may happen, improving the organization’s anti-fragility capabilities
The Blue Army understands the importance of order and prediction. Its personnel also conduct routine business as required. But they also clearly realized that emergencies are inevitable and no one can fully grasp the technology and understand the environment. Therefore, in the face of emergencies, as an organization’s manager, it is particularly important to be able to improvise and be flexible.
In other words, good strategy does not depend entirely on planning. Rather than planning before doing it, it’s better to think and do it, and constantly revise it in actual operation. Through practice, managers will discover what works and what doesn’t.
In the following column, Weike and Sutcliffe describe various “negative” manifestations that destroy mindfulness:
Column Box: Management Toolbox: View your organization’s mindfulness field
Do the following statements fit the description of your work unit, department, or organization? Please fill in the number corresponding to your conclusion after each item:
1 = No match at all
2 = To a certain extent
3 = Most matches
1. Under normal circumstances, there are very few exceptions in our work within a week.
2. Every day we face similar situations, problems or things
3. It ’s difficult for our employees to get all the information they need to work
4. The company expects employees to complete their work in a specific way and without deviations
5. Employees often work under various huge production pressures (such as time, cost, growth or profit pressure)
6. Stress often leads to shortcuts for employees
7. Reasons for hidden errors in the work environment
8. When unexpected problems occur, employees have almost no discretion and take action to solve problems freely
9. Many employees lack the skills and expertise needed to deal with unexpected problems
10. On the issue under discussion, employees rarely speak to test hypotheses
11. If you make a mistake, it is often bad for you
12. Difficult to ask for help from others
Score:
Add up the numbers. If your score exceeds 24, it indicates that your organization has a high degree of negative thoughts. You should actively consider how to improve your organization’s mindfulness.
If your score is between 14-24, your organization has a moderate degree of negative thoughts.
A score below 14 indicates that you have a strong mindfulness ability.
Assess your organization’s tendency to doubt, question, and correct
The following statements about your work unit, department or organization, please answer “Agree” or “Disagree”
Doubt:
1. When the problem arises, everyone around you quickly denies it.
2. People are anxious to deny when someone is skeptical or worried
3. When accidents happen, we rarely try to find out why things didn’t go as we wished
Question:
1. Failure to share information widely when accident happened
2. When unexpected problems occur, related personnel rarely take the time to report what they saw and heard before the accident
3. When things do n’t go as expected, people rarely try to reveal their initial assumptions
4. It is rare to check our hypotheses with reality.
Fix:
1. If things do n’t go as we expect, it ’s rare to see people revising their initial assumptions
2. Combining the revised assumptions and understanding to improve our practices and procedures, such things are rare
Score:
Count the number of “agree” or “disagree” responses. The greater the number of “agree” answers, the less likely your company is to doubt, question, or amend; therefore, the more negative you are,
Based on these questions, you can start thinking about how to improve your organization’s mindfulness.
02. Summer mindfulness
How to establish a “mindfulness field” in the organization? Weike’s theory of organizational psychology holds that organizational meaning and behavior have a constructive process.
In this process, the “cognition” and “experience” of the members of the organization shape each other.
Organizational members are accustomed to and remain stable, holding on to familiar things. butUnexpected crises undermine what we know. Once past experience cannot explain the new present, we must face up to the new situation and revise our past interpretations and reactions to events.
At this time, mindfulness and reflection can clarify the original uncertainties bit by bit-this is exactly what Weike calls the formulation process. This formulation process is not linear.
In crises, people often have to take risks to try something that may be wrong in order to find a new way out. This is also the novel solution that the fire captain found when Weike analyzed the Mann Gulch fire case.
In order for other members of the organization to understand these ways, it is necessary to carry out directional meaning construction, so as to prevent other members from misinterpreting the event. To this end, storytelling in the organization will be an effective way to spread mindfulness.
1. Candidly tell the cases of failure in the organization and establish a “mindfulness field” for candid communication
For example, on Facebook, COO Cheryl Sandberg often talks publicly about things she has tried but failed to succeed, and what she has learned from failure.
In her opinion, geniuses also make mistakes and get stuck with problems. She often resonates with real people and things. She also encouraged other company executives to do the same.
In this way, the company and its employees are constantly learning and progressing, and her mistake stories have made Facebook’s company culture today.
Frank discussions of failed cases can be transformed into positive energy of mindfulness.
Another example is that Ali has disclosed the incident of “intranet killing mooncakes” and dismissed four employees who cheated on the intranet using technical means. The story has been mixed on various social platforms such as Zhihu, Weibo, and the circle of friends, but Ali’s CEO Zhang Yong said when interpreting the story:
The employees who do this are the security department. Their responsibility is to use technology to protect the safety of hundreds of millions of users. To this end, we have adopted “zero tolerance” in this matter.
In fact, this story also caused huge discussions inside and outside of Ali. Through this story, Ali ’s leadership hopes that employees will realize that network security has no borders, and that all Internet companies recognize that fighting hackers should be common. Goals to establish positive energy and standards.
We also proposed “proactive trial and error” in the Blue Army Strategy to learn from mistakes and improve the reliability of the organization.
In fact, mindfulness calls for imagination of the future.
Alibaba CEO Zhang Yong believes:
“The era of the Internet of Things is coming. In this process, the entire security technology and security protection must not be static, but with the development of technology and applications, big data embraces business, social and economic life, and The embrace of lifestyle is changing in all directions. In this process, how can we predict the next vent ahead of time,It is very, very important to be prepared for safety. The great thing about this conference today is that everyone has a sense of security. “
Through the “Mooncake Gate” emergency, Ali has raised data security to a new urgent requirement and constructed a new organizational significance.
2. Promote “mindfulness field” in details through positive stories
For example, Ben Silberman, CEO of Pinterest, is very good at telling the details of each story at each meeting, letting everyone know how employees in various positions of the company make the company and customers successful.
Through fascinating and flowing narratives, let everyone know the company’s mission and act with reference to the characters in the story. Most of the characters in the stories he tells are true from the nuances of everything:
There are many ways to make customers happy, such as replying emails in seconds, optimizing solutions, adding colors, changing accessories, and more.
Companies can tell these success stories over and over again via email or conference. In this way, each employee will have a clear understanding of the company’s long-term vision and consciously associate it with their job responsibilities to better serve customers.
Story is a very good way to establish and maintain mindfulness. It can make an organization look inside and get a relatively complete and stable cultural heritage. Through stories and copying stories, members of the organization participate in the continuous structure formation process of the organization, and thus consciously experience the organizational logic and templates behind the story.
The story builds a series of “grammars” of context and organization, pointing out the direction for employees’ mindfulness actions.
3. Inject vitality into the mindfulness field through the story of love
The National Theatre artist sang “Shadow of an Angel” on the stage of the National Theatre with a mask, and recorded the artwork against the epidemic: the lyrics are:
“I can’t see your gentle face, but I can see your beautiful eyes, I can’t see your sweet smile, but I can see your busy figure …”
Zhao Xiangyang, a professor at Beijing Normal University, was very moved to hear this song and commented:
“I have always believed that stories and art can most touch the softest place in the human mind, and from the softest place, the bravest action will surely occur … I hope more people feel when they are disturbed To love and warmth, give birth to hope and courage. “
The Blue Army can be a story that encourages employees to re-examine existing products and technologies with an open mind and attitude: for example, Delta Air Lines and Ctrip certainly have disaster preparedness systems, but why haven’t these systems been activated in time? What weaknesses has China’s public health emergency mechanism exposed in the Wuhan epidemic?
The story can help managers and members of the organization to look at the organization from a new perspective, thereby establishing the “mindfulness field” of the Blue Army organization.
03. Summary
When an accident occurs, we often blame the harsh environment, the incompetence of the leader, the neglect of the original planning, or the unreliability of the technology; while the mindfulness organization relaxes, forgets the noise of the environment, and appreciates the surroundings carefully Butterflies flapping their beautiful wings, listening to the sound of spring water falling on Qingyan …
Awe those unformed forces, those indirect, intangible, but future-oriented forces that are brewing. In the most fierce competition between the pros and cons, it is also the most creative and the place to grow the Blue Army.
Rethink, reimagine.
Until you see ordinary, that is the direction of mindfulness.
References:
Edmondson, A. C. 2011. Strategies for learning from failure. Harvard Business Review, 89 (4): 48-55.
Weick, K. E. 2000. Making Sense of the Organization. Malden, MS: BlackWell.
Weick, K. E. & Sutcliffe, K. M. 2001. Managing the Unexpected: Assuring High Performance in an Age of Complexity. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Sun Li, Zou Bo, & Li Ping. 2015. Active trial and error. Tsinghua Management Review, 12: 60-66.
How to establish a “mindfulness field” in the organization? Weike’s theory of organizational psychology holds that organizational meaning and behavior have a constructive process.
In this process, the “cognition” and “experience” of the members of the organization shape each other.
Organizational members are accustomed to and remain stable, holding on to familiar things. butUnexpected crises undermine what we know. Once past experience cannot explain the new present, we must face up to the new situation and revise our past interpretations and reactions to events.
At this time, mindfulness and reflection can clarify the original uncertainties bit by bit-this is exactly what Weike calls the formulation process. This formulation process is not linear.
In crises, people often have to take risks to try something that may be wrong in order to find a new way out. This is also the novel solution that the fire captain found when Weike analyzed the Mann Gulch fire case.
In order for other members of the organization to understand these ways, it is necessary to carry out directional meaning construction, so as to prevent other members from misinterpreting the event. To this end, storytelling in the organization will be an effective way to spread mindfulness.
1. Candidly tell the cases of failure in the organization and establish a “mindfulness field” for candid communication
For example, on Facebook, COO Cheryl Sandberg often talks publicly about things she has tried but failed to succeed, and what she has learned from failure.
In her opinion, geniuses also make mistakes and get stuck with problems. She often resonates with real people and things. She also encouraged other company executives to do the same.
In this way, the company and its employees are constantly learning and progressing, and her mistake stories have made Facebook’s company culture today.
Frank discussions of failed cases can be transformed into positive energy of mindfulness.
Another example is that Ali has disclosed the incident of “intranet killing mooncakes” and dismissed four employees who cheated on the intranet using technical means. The story has been mixed on various social platforms such as Zhihu, Weibo, and the circle of friends, but Ali’s CEO Zhang Yong said when interpreting the story:
The employees who do this are the security department. Their responsibility is to use technology to protect the safety of hundreds of millions of users. To this end, we have adopted “zero tolerance” in this matter.
In fact, this story also caused huge discussions inside and outside of Ali. Through this story, Ali ’s leadership hopes that employees will realize that network security has no borders, and that all Internet companies recognize that fighting hackers should be common. Goals to establish positive energy and standards.
We also proposed “proactive trial and error” in the Blue Army Strategy to learn from mistakes and improve the reliability of the organization.
In fact, mindfulness calls for imagination of the future.
Alibaba CEO Zhang Yong believes:
“The era of the Internet of Things is coming. In this process, the entire security technology and security protection must not be static, but with the development of technology and applications, big data embraces business, social and economic life, and The embrace of lifestyle is changing in all directions. In this process, how can we predict the next vent ahead of time,It is very, very important to be prepared for safety. The great thing about this conference today is that everyone has a sense of security. “
Through the “Mooncake Gate” emergency, Ali has raised data security to a new urgent requirement and constructed a new organizational significance.
2. Promote “mindfulness field” in details through positive stories
For example, Ben Silberman, CEO of Pinterest, is very good at telling the details of each story at each meeting, letting everyone know how employees in various positions of the company make the company and customers successful.
Through fascinating and flowing narratives, let everyone know the company’s mission and act with reference to the characters in the story. Most of the characters in the stories he tells are true from the nuances of everything:
There are many ways to make customers happy, such as replying emails in seconds, optimizing solutions, adding colors, changing accessories, and more.
Companies can tell these success stories over and over again via email or conference. In this way, each employee will have a clear understanding of the company’s long-term vision and consciously associate it with their job responsibilities to better serve customers.
Story is a very good way to establish and maintain mindfulness. It can make an organization look inside and get a relatively complete and stable cultural heritage. Through stories and copying stories, members of the organization participate in the continuous structure formation process of the organization, and thus consciously experience the organizational logic and templates behind the story.
The story builds a series of “grammars” of context and organization, pointing out the direction for employees’ mindfulness actions.
3. Inject vitality into the mindfulness field through the story of love
The National Theatre artist sang “Shadow of an Angel” on the stage of the National Theatre with a mask, and recorded the artwork against the epidemic: the lyrics are:
“I can’t see your gentle face, but I can see your beautiful eyes, I can’t see your sweet smile, but I can see your busy figure …”
Zhao Xiangyang, a professor at Beijing Normal University, was very moved to hear this song and commented:
“I have always believed that stories and art can most touch the softest place in the human mind, and from the softest place, the bravest action will surely occur … I hope more people feel when they are disturbed To love and warmth, give birth to hope and courage. “
The Blue Army can be a story that encourages employees to re-examine existing products and technologies with an open mind and attitude: for example, Delta Air Lines and Ctrip certainly have disaster preparedness systems, but why haven’t these systems been activated in time? What weaknesses has China’s public health emergency mechanism exposed in the Wuhan epidemic?
The story can help managers and members of the organization to look at the organization from a new perspective, thereby establishing the “mindfulness field” of the Blue Army organization.
03. Summary
When an accident occurs, we often blame the harsh environment, the incompetence of the leader, the neglect of the original planning, or the unreliability of the technology; while the mindfulness organization relaxes, forgets the noise of the environment, and appreciates the surroundings carefully Butterflies flapping their beautiful wings, listening to the sound of spring water falling on Qingyan …
Awe those unformed forces, those indirect, intangible, but future-oriented forces that are brewing. In the most fierce competition between the pros and cons, it is also the most creative and the place to grow the Blue Army.
Rethink, reimagine.
Until you see ordinary, that is the direction of mindfulness.
References:
Edmondson, A. C. 2011. Strategies for learning from failure. Harvard Business Review, 89 (4): 48-55.
Weick, K. E. 2000. Making Sense of the Organization. Malden, MS: BlackWell.
Weick, K. E. & Sutcliffe, K. M. 2001. Managing the Unexpected: Assuring High Performance in an Age of Complexity. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Sun Li, Zou Bo, & Li Ping. 2015. Active trial and error. Tsinghua Management Review, 12: 60-66.