Don't Be Surprised; Be Prepared

A good basic rule in business (and in life) is “No surprises.”  It was one of the basic principles that I tried to instill in my teams. As a leader, I would rather know what was happening than to have it sprung on me. And my teams expected no less from me.  I always hated to get a last minute report from a team that they would miss a deadline. And there is nothing more frustrating to a team than to think that they are about to complete a task and hear the leaders utter the phrase, “There’s one more thing…,”

This goes to strong communication and transparency in an organization.  But that said, as a leader you nonetheless always need to be prepared to be surprised.  Why?  Simply because you are dealing with human beings.  Humans are capable of any behavior that you can conceive of, and of a range of behaviors that are beyond anything you can imagine.  I regularly received phone calls that started with, “You won’t believe this…” My standard response was “Yes, I will, but go ahead.” 

Solutions to bizarre situations come more easily if you treat them academically--as exercises in critical thinking.  No matter how strange the circumstance, there is a logical response once you peel off the weird veneer.  Maybe the best example I can remember comes from one of my stints as a university department head. On the first day of class for the fall semester I received a call from HR informing me that I needed to find an instructor for an English composition course that was to meet later that same day.  I allowed that I already had an instructor assigned to the course, and that he was in his classroom preparing as we spoke.  “Not anymore,” came the reply.  “His wife just walked into the classroom and shot him.”

I have to admit I didn’t see that one coming.  The first order of business was to manage the immediate situation. I asked whether an ambulance had been called and if anyone else had been injured.  Once those details were addressed, I needed to tackle the problematic issue of finding an instructor at the last minute. So I taught the class that day and found a new instructor for the next meeting.  The whole matter was fairly seamless for the students involved.

To some this sounds like a callous approach to the proceedings.  Of course I was appalled and dismayed at the turn of events. But I had to manage those things that I could and find the best solution possible to keep things under control. 


Oh, and the instructor in question?  Turns out his wife was a deadly good shot.

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