Lessons in crisis management and leadership from fiction

In a 2013 IdeaCast titled “Read Fiction and Be a Better Leader” for Harvard Business Review blog, Joe Badaracco, Professor at Harvard Business School, spoke about how lessons in leadership can be gained by delving into the minds, psychological realities and dilemmas faced by characters in fiction. At around the same time, social psychologists at the New School of Social Research in New York City published their findings in the journal Science detailing how reading fiction, especially literature written by masters such as Chekhov, helps people develop and understand social skills better. Leadership is more than a compendium of the best and latest management practices that can be gathered from courses in business management. It is about learning to navigate through challenging situations and influencing people, tricks that can’t be found inside the pages of textbooks for Finance, Strategy or Marketing. While the tools are continually evolving, the basics of human emotions and how a leader manages herself and people around her remain eternally true. This is never truer than when faced with a crisis. [caption id=“attachment_2026673” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Thinkstock[/caption] As a practitioner of management, through consulting and later running operations, much of what I have observed and learned about leadership and crisis management finds its way into my writing. Though I write fiction, my books are rooted in the reality of business. Faking It, an art crime thriller, was as much a reflection on setting up an art business as an adventure through the world of contemporary Indian Art. My new book Breach, a cyber crime thriller set against the backdrop of IP theft of research data for a new cancer medicine, dives deep into the pharmaceutical industry and cyber crime. Macro issues are woven in the fictional narrative. Fiction, thus becomes a lens through which to explore human emotions and leadership potential. Narrative storytelling can be a powerful tool that allows lessons to stick in our minds. Because ultimately its immersion into a scenario, into lives of people, into how they are reacting to situations and taking decisions – whether good or bad, and the transportable lessons we can derive from those. Vir, the key protagonist of Breach, and his team go through the typical stages of crisis management, till they are able to resolve the major hacking crisis that has unexpectedly hit them. Like most business leaders, Vir is not clued into technical details of data security. But he is willing to show his lack of knowledge, learn and gather a team of internal and external experts to unmask the hacker and safeguard the corporate assets- the data. Vir and his team have to ignore personal commitments, balance other needs of the business and ensure that they are fully committed to the problem at hand. This is ever more pertinent as we see news from around the world of leaders resigning in the face of hacking scandals and varied responses from media and Boards as to how teams and companies handled such crises. Some of the lessons from Breach are: 1. Stages of Crisis Response Every team goes through some typical elements of responding to a crisis. People move from denial (this cannot be happening) to finger pointing (it’s the fault of some one else, some other team) to acceptance (something is wrong and we need to act) to action (getting their best people and best response to tackle the crisis at hand). These typical reactions can be seen in any major business change, such as a merger or acquisition or a change in market dynamics, to a black swan event that can shake up an organisation. The trick is how quickly can a leader and a team move through the stages to acceptance and action. 2. Operating from a position of less knowledge Most business leaders are very focused on growth and profitability, as they rightly should be. Technology is a tool and an enabler to business success. It brings operational efficiencies but also risks. Many business leaders do not fully understand or appreciate the risks that technology poses. Leadership can also be about posturing, about conveying strength to reassure the Board, investors, shareholders, media and the market. That said, it requires inner courage for a leader to accept in times of crisis that he or she may not have all the answers. A good leader, therefore, can quickly assemble the experts to ensure that an adequate solution can be crafted. 3. Leading from the front In complex, multi-portfolio, multi-geography organisations a decentralised method of functioning helps speed up the pace of business. However, in times of crises, a good leader operates from the front. A crisis is not the time for delegation, and it is essential that the leader remain in the front, rallying the teams together, presenting the case to the external stakeholders and reassuring people both internally and externally. 4. Setting priorities right Businesses tend to be multi-variable. There are many projects going on simultaneously and different products, portfolios and consumers need to be deftly managed. All those competing priorities need to be managed by the successful leader. Yet, in times of crises, it cannot be ‘business as usual.’ Businesses are run by individuals, who have personal commitments and priorities, which may also need to be reconsidered for the short term. A good leader needs to weigh the situation, take hard decisions if needed and dedicate or reallocate sufficient time, resource and commitment to manage and counter the predicament. If not, even if the material losses are manageable, the reputational and goodwill losses can derail the company and the leader. 5. Exhibiting grace under fire Leaders are constantly trying to create economic benefits in the face of moral and ethical dilemmas. Nothing sharpens the lens as an adverse situation. Much after the situation corrects itself and disaster is averted, what gets remembered is the response of the leader, how he or she showed empathy and understanding, accepted responsibility, deflected the critics and the doubters to resolve the crisis. It is about exhibiting that courage under fire and the human values that define true leadership. Leadership, ultimately, is not just about the positive times and the upward momentum. Sometimes, and often enough, things spiral out of control. How a leader responds to this can crystallise his or her true metier. Fictional narratives can be one way through which we can imbibe these lessons. After all, business school case studies are another form of immersion into a situation, complete with a protagonist, a storyline and a dilemma. Talking about these challenges through fiction takes readers one step further – showing the protagonists take good or bad decisions and the repercussions they face. Amrita Chowdhury is the author of Breach, a cyber thriller, and Faking It, an art crime thriller. She has worked as an engineer, business strategist and publisher.