Between a Rock and a Hard Place
“What is next?” was my first thought after I hung up the phone. The sudden announcement of the 100M+ business loss still tumbled through my head. It had taken years to develop, nurture, and deliver extraordinary services for this large customer, and now it was scheduled to disappear within 90 days. My facility was now on a different trajectory to finish the fiscal year, and my mind was uncertain. The questions continued to spool. How do I deliver an effective message to the team? Why would someone want to stay and risk future employment? How will we function as a team with 1/3 less volume at our facility? What does it mean to our relatively new ownership, and what other decisions might be made as a result? How would I conduct a potential reduction in the workforce? How do I precisely plan for a budget next year? And even what could it mean for my future as a leader within our organization? I began to feel threatened.
Uncertainty crept in quickly, and my brain’s focus immediately narrowed. As a leader, I needed to assess the risk, develop a plan quickly, and deliver on the daily business requirements. Our team also needed to roll out four new initiatives this quarter. The clock was already ticking down, and I felt myself slowly creeping into survival mode. My mind became overcrowded extremely fast.
The Brain is Powerful
In Dr. David Rock’s book Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long, I was reminded of and discovered new tactics for understanding the neuroscience of the brain and its limitations and how it can ultimately drive how I function during the day. This book provides tip-of-the-spear guidance to “be more focused and productive, work smarter, and stay cool under pressure.”[1] Reflecting on the earlier readings from this term, I concluded that if Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow was about the theory, and Duffy’s Why We’re Wrong About Nearly Everything was the data, then Your Brain at Work is a daily instruction guide to help focus, lower stress, and effectively aid the decision-making process.
Understanding the neuroscience limits of the brain’s pre-frontal cortex, Rock utilizes the imagery of a stage overwhelmed by too many actors, limited mental energy, and complex map formats to organize thoughts properly. His focus is simplification, eliminating the external inputs, and optimizing the finite mental energy we can control. Rock emphasizes the importance and health of our peak mental performance, which requires “just the right level of stress,”[2] which isn’t zero. He also recommends how to “consciously manipulate”[3] neurotransmitters to improve our overall alertness and interest levels.
Rock introduces us to the importance of knowing or observing our own brain at work through a character called the director, who is a metaphor for our “part of the awareness that stands outside the experience.”[4] In order to obtain peak performance, it is critically important to combine “knowing your brain and being able to observe your brain processes occurring in real time.”[5] This is the director’s role. Self-awareness and the ability to view oneself differently are essential to growth. “Becoming self-aware, having a meta-perspective on ourselves, is really like interacting with another person.”[6] Interwoven within the director role is the concept of mindfulness and our ability to be present in the moment. For leaders, “mindfulness turns out to be important for workplace effectiveness.”[7]
Circling back to my immediate business issue, I searched for an answer. Activating this director role while allowing my inner signals to inform my next course of action was a roadmap to overcome my heightened level of uncertainty. I would need to be increasingly mindful of that voice, along with the voices of my business partners, to navigate through this complex situation successfully while continuing to uplift the spirit of others.
Reappraisal for the short-term win
I spun around in my office chair to face the window, closed my eyes, and began to pray. I felt the sun beat in through the window and began to warm my face. I sat there without moving within the stillness of my office for ten minutes to help regain my composure. I also began reappraising the situation and leveraging “cognitive flexibility to unleash the capacity to see things from many angles.”[8] I regained composure and better regulated myself while present “in a quiet alertness, one in which you are able to think on several levels at once.”[9] One key memory that I often leverage as a grounding influence is my combat experience. I simply remind myself that I am not getting shot at and don’t have to sleep on a cot this evening. While this approach might be considered extreme, this “perspective of myself at another time”[10] has been invaluable.
Reemerging with renewed clarity, I quickly stood before one of my favorite tools again: the whiteboard. After an hour, I stared at a long list of topics “simplified and chunked”[11] by their importance to the entire team, risk to the employees or business, or time-critical decisions. Later that morning, I scheduled a meeting with my immediate senior leadership team to introduce them to the stage and share the new challenge. It was important to collaborate with them and gather their collective input on the considerations I drafted that morning. We continued to refine the action items and made decisions on what needed to be addressed immediately and what external resources needed to be included to succeed. While the team was overwhelmed by the original bad news, we were collectively in much better mindfulness to move forward with a rough draft timeline and a short set of action items to be addressed immediately. The eventual outcome of the reduction in business is yet to be determined as we approach the ninety-day deadline. During this timeframe, I am refining my daily practices and quiet time as I continually attempt to remain mindful of the desired outcomes.
[1] Dr. David Rock, Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long, (New York, NY: Harper Collins Publishers, 2020), ix.
[2] Rock, 71.
[3] Rock, 71.
[4] Rock, 87.
[5] Rock, 87.
[6] Rock, 89.
[7] Rock, 90.
[8] Rock, 133.
[9] Rock, 130.
[10] Rock, 130.
[11] Rock, 25.
About the Author
Michael Hansen
8 responses to “Between a Rock and a Hard Place”
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Wow, Michael–what a challenge!
First, I spent a moment just now praying for you by name and for your team–that you would have wisdom and discernment, and that you would experience God’s peace and provision in astounding ways.
Second, your use of this real-time situation is a great way to see some of Rock’s principles at work–I felt my own anxiety level rising and can only imagine what it has been like to navigate all of that.
Do you have any “cues” that you use to know when to call on Rock’s “director” and recalibrate? What have you found is helpful in choosing responsiveness rather than reactiveness in moments like these?
Mike-
I appreciated both your opening and the connections with Kahneman and Duffy. In your case, you could thrown in a bit of Friedman and not wig out in front of your staff.
Reading your post, I was able to connect prayer to the stage. In the midst of an emerging crisis, pausing to pray in the quiet of my desk is a powerful and humbling way to center and to turn over what I don’t need to be holding. In effect, it is getting some of the actors off the stage and asking Jesus if he can take care of them.
Rock tells us of the significant energy drain required to get ahead of the crisis, the communications, and the decisions. Your situation is unfolding over weeks, not hours. What practices do you follow or actions do you take to maintain balance, focus, and endurance?
Jeremiah,
Thanks for the kind words and prayers. It was not anticipated (uncertainty abounds), and I struggled to navigate those commitments alongside the Portland Seminary requirements. Obviously, there is still more to come. There were days years ago when I would have blamed myself for the situation. Now, I extend myself more grace and figure that if I can support others regardless of the outcome, that might be the best I can offer at the moment.
On your question, this is still something that I am wrestling with. There have been times when those viewing from further away have commented that I am too unresponsive, while those working directly for me say that I am side by side with them to solve every day and one of their best leaders.
Due to the scale of this problem, I immediately went to a director-type profile. It was extremely hard with the number of questions that kept coming forward in my thoughts. Getting past those first 10-15 seconds(?) might be the most critical at managing the outcome.
In the past, when working with others, I have used examples of hierarchal needs to help recalibrate. For example, I have discussed the importance of safety and care on the site and our need as leaders to ensure that pay is always correct for our team. These can help de-escalate situations with others and provide a broader perspective when situations aren’t as dire. I would ask clarifying questions of others to help guide the process to ease off the reactiveness tendencies. Often, it is just having enough time at the moment that will help recenter. I also listen for behavioral aspects in situations. Within those and due to our type of work, I always focus on separating the people from the problem and view from an objective lens as much as possible.
I would be interested in discussing this further offline. I have a few questions and would like to know your thoughts.
Rich,
I appreciate your support. It’s been a journey.
I hadn’t purposely considered clearing the stage and potentially shutting the theater down for a period of time, but you are spot on about that action. No lights are beaming on the stage.
Self-care has been a key component. I worked 40+ straight days leading up to the software implementation, but that was a certainty. This recent event was entirely uncertain. Much more prayer combined with a dialogue of internal business partners at the company. I recently noticed that if I am absent from exercise combined with quiet time in the morning, the day is more challenging, and that also can surface in my attitude.
Thank you for sharing, Michael! I appreciate your honesty and the way you navigated such a challenging moment. I like how you connected brain science with practical leadership, particularly the concept of the “director” and maintaining mindfulness under pressure. I can resonate with whiteboards. I like them! Helped me with so much. It’s a wonderfully straightforward yet powerful tool that helps bring clarity when things seem chaotic. I’m curious, how did your team react during that first meeting when you introduced the news and the whiteboard strategy?
Ivan,
I spent a few minutes giving the leadership team the background from the phone call, and then we transitioned to the information on the board that spelled out the next 90 days. It was an immense of information to digest from an informational and emotional perspective. I realized it would take them a while to process, so I took a picture of the information, and we reconvened to go over it the next day. It went from a state of shock and disbelief to one of reality, but it took a day for them to catch their breath.
Michael,
In your blog, you mention using mindfulness and re-evaluation to regain clarity during a business crisis. In your opinion, could these strategies be implemented across an entire team or organization to improve how we collectively make decisions and manage stress during the difficult times? Do you think different leadership styles influence the effectiveness of these strategies?
Linda,
As we shared on Zoom, a series of thoughts, like you mentioned, crossed my mind. First, how could we broaden the aspects of the brain across individuals or team members to create a more multiplicative result instead of a simple addition? Understanding brain mechanics, like the DISC profile, is better for augmenting interactions with others. It provided a different lens than just emotional cues.
And this could shift to a group strategy instead of individuals. However, the leader needs to understand the audience and the actors on the stage. This is a distinct possibility, especially if it is a mature and cohesive team. And yes, the leadership style would play directly into this, combined with the capacity of others. For example, I knowingly have to draw out comments from a few of my longer-tenured employees.