Recently I was listening to a podcast and the host, like many people during this pandemic, was having panic attacks. His guest in this episode was author Captain Tom Bunn who wrote the book Panic Free. Tom is a retired commercial airline pilot and licensed therapist. While he specializes in fear of flying, this is just one of several common scenarios where people have panic attacks. It got me thinking that we may be having organizational panic attacks as well.
Let’s go to war
Captain Tom had left the Air Force before I joined, but we both shared some similar experiences. The military practices worst-case scenarios regularly. Before I ever sat in a plane, I learned how to use an ejection seat. I’ll never forget being told, “If you hear the words ‘bailout, bailout, bailout’ and wait for further instructions, you aren’t going to hear them. The pilot has already left the plane.”
When I was stationed in Korea, we digitally fought a future war with North Korea every few days with different scenarios. At that point, I had already done the real thing during Desert Storm. And while it does get your adrenalin up for an extended period, the execution is relatively panic free. This is because the military practices the situations they are likely to encounter regularly. Even with the various nuclear, chemical, and biological training that is done, Covid 19 is on a scale we never planned for.
This is new
Panic occurs in situations we haven’t encountered before.
The military does a good job of reducing the possible situations that we haven’t experienced. Knowing how to eject from an aircraft, or wear a mask during a chemical attack or what to do with a parachute after your plane crashes may seem anecdotal. But they reduce the risk of encountering a possible situation, and not knowing what to do. This also cuts down on people panicking. First responders in general also do a good job of training for worst-case scenarios. You don’t want firefighters panicking going into a burning building, or a police officer panicking at their first car crash or overdose. Businesses and government agencies don’t always prepare for worst-case scenarios in the same way.
There are of course exceptions. One business that has seen a surge during the Corona virus is Netflix. More people are home, so usage is up dramatically. This would cripple many web-based businesses.
Netflix runs a software program called Chaos Monkey which randomly terminates processes on their network. This forces them to build redundancy into their network to prevent being taken down by real-world threats. By constantly creating new challenges for itself, Netflix reduces the number of possible situations that it doesn’t know how to deal with. Organizations need to add some organizational chaos to improve resiliency.
Applying to your Organization
So what does this look like for most organizations? If you are a small business owner, and you can’t take a vacation, you’ve probably got a problem. We all like to think we are all indispensable. But if that is the case, it also means we are a risk to the organization at times of change.
We’ve all been told, at some point, (insert person name here) will get to it when they get back from vacation. But what about when they are on a ventilator or recovering from a stroke? Sales orders might not get filled. Bills might not get paid. And no one knows how to do the job that person did. Or worse, there may not be anyone who has the legal authority to do the job. Use vacations as an opportunity to learn where the vulnerabilities are in your organization.
Recognizing the Symptoms
In people, panic attacks typically have five elements; Pounding heart, hyperventilation, perspiration, tension, and psychological changes. While they may or may not all be present, one symptom causes another. This domino effect quickly results in overwhelm. Panic is generally triggered by being in a place where immediate escape is restricted. This is why many people have panic attacks on airplanes. It’s usually not the flying part, it’s when the doors close, or on landing when you can’t get to the door.
This phrase ‘Just Calm Down” should be banned from the English language. Anyone who has ever tried to deal with someone during a panic attack knows that no directives or even constructive guidance is likely to help. They just have to ride it out. Several years ago I was on a small plane from Atlanta to Baton Rouge. We were about 30 minutes into the flight at about 30,000 feet when we hit a bad storm. After several minutes, the woman across the aisle from me decided she needed to get off the plane and tried to open the door.
After wrestling her back to her seat, her boyfriend sat on her for the duration of the flight while she screamed at the top of her lungs. I think there was an ambulance waiting for her when we landed. She probably has no memory of the event, which is probably a good thing. The overwhelm that accompanies panic attacks interrupts the mind’s ability to maintain a sense of identity, location, or time. People can become completely disassociated with the normal anchors of reality.
Taking a Deeper Look
In organizations, the symptoms may be harder to spot. There may be an increase in staff meetings, shortened deadlines, funding cuts, layoffs, or other activities. While the symptoms may be specific to management or the type of business, the key trigger for businesses is an event where the path forward for the organization is restricted. It may be that your angel investor pulled their funding, your owner dies suddenly, or there is a global pandemic and no one can come to work. These types of events can create overwhelm on an organization-wide basis. This is where leadership becomes a key factor.
The mind of the typical organization is its leadership. And just like people, organizations have a collective perception of their identity, location, and time. They know their place in the market. There is generally pride in their tastefully decorated offices or cubicles. And there is predictability in service delivery, receivables, how long things take. All of these characteristics have been upended due to Covid 19.
Taking Control of a Panic Attack
Leaders can do several things to reduce organizational panic and reestablish anchors:
- Reinforce the mission of the organization. If it is changing, share it and get people on board.
- If people are displaced, help them feel comfortable where they are.
- Give people the technology to feel like they are in the office.
- Help people feel connected, while they are disconnected. Have fun with the 3-year old that makes a guest appearance in the video staff meeting. Wish happy birthday over the loudspeaker to a stock worker in your grocery store and get the whole store to sing. Have a beard-growing contest or compare “hairstyles”. Sure you want to stay professional, but finding ways to show we’re all in the same boat and people care are equally important.
- Help people reestablish a sense of time. Redefine the agency metrics for all processes. Let people know what the new expectations are. And for those who might be challenged, find ways to bring them up to speed. This can include how many clients can a person work with, how long do contracts take to process, and what is the delivery time for inbound and outbound products. Don’t forget to look at the internal processes of things like timesheets, expense reports, onboarding, etc. Then work to improve them.
I hope that the concept of an organizational panic attack doesn’t catch on. If it does, that probably means it’s happening enough that it needs a name. But for now, people and organizations are feeling the effects of being overwhelmed.
Leaders need to recognize this and take steps to get their organization back on track. When everyone knows what to do in a crisis, it’s much harder to panic.
