Dealing with Disruptions

By Bill Dann
BoardGrowth™ Founder

Time to read: Three to four minutes.

Opposing forces, whether they be internal to the organization or external, can disrupt normal, smooth operations. One of the primary jobs of leadership is to provide a safe environment for the organization and the people in it to expand; that is to provide freedom from disruption.

The CEO has responsibility for spotting and handling disruptions among staff. The board has responsibility to handle disruptions from within the directors. Both share responsibility for handling disruptions coming from shareholders, members and/or stakeholders.

Over the years, I have seen disruptions come in all flavors and colors. And I have seen some of them handled well, some not. I was reminded of the importance of handling disruptions well in a recent client session where we identified the cause of a serious disruption and worked out a strategy for dealing with it. I have since learned that there was a good outcome, and I thought I would share the lesson with you.

A true story

The organization was a non-profit consortium intended to serve several communities. One community had been very troublesome. It felt under-served, ignored and politically weak. Hence, there was no support in the community for the services being provided by the consortium, and consortium staff in the community were not being supported. In the end, services to the members of the community suffered.

When I probed, I learned the following:

• All the management positions were located in one of the other communities in the consortium.
• There were complaints that the employees were all from other communities, however, there had been no applications for management positions from within the upset community.
• The upset community had failed to maintain facilities as part of an agreement around which services were provided.
• Management had lost hope of being able to solve the problem and largely ignored the community in terms of meeting with residents and community leaders.
• An annual meeting of the group was scheduled to be held in the community that was upset one week after our meeting.

We developed the following game plan:

• Develop documentation of the lack of job applications from community.
• Document the failed efforts to get the community to maintain its facilities.
• Commit to a schedule of a member of the management team traveling to the community each month for one full day to a) go door to door and hear concerns, and b) to meet with community leaders to identify and solve problems.

In the end, the meeting went well, peace has been declared, and they are now off to a different and hopefully better future.

Lessons learned

1. It is never as irreconcilable as it appears.
2. Truly understanding concerns of others smothers the flame of discontent.
3. Even small concrete steps to give something to the “enemy” can make huge a difference.
4. As my friend Ken Blanchard would say, “Give up being right, you will end up dead right.”

Communication is essential

At the end of the day, all discontent is sourced in a failure to communicate. That is, to face one another, to truly understand the other individual’s viewpoint and then to take appropriate action on what you learn.

Discontent lives on because we tend to dislike those who oppose us. That leads to avoidance, not to communicating or understanding. We revert to convincing ourselves that we are right and to discount the enemy because, after all, they are wrong, and their point of view shouldn’t be honored.

It has been my experience that on both ends of a disruption all the aggrieved party wants is to be truly understood, to have their views honored. Blaming them tends to be like pouring gasoline on the fire. Understanding them puts out the flame.

History affirms this truth

Wiser men than I have made this point throughout history. There is the ancient Arabian proverb, “Keep your friends close, hold your enemies closer”.

The great warlord, Sun Tsu, wrote in the The Art of War , “It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies and know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle.” In this context, ‘know yourself’ means know your strengths and weaknesses, do not become arrogant or overly confident. The same applies in other disputes.

Lastly, there is the famous quote from Abraham Lincoln, “The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend”.

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