The book “Trauma to Triumph” is authored by Mark Goulston and Diana Hendel. It was published in the year 2021. The book presents a roadmap for leading through disruption and thriving on the other side. It is designed to help leaders create stability amid chaos and make the best decisions in the face of uncertainty.
It provides a set of tools and strategies for overcoming trauma and building resilience in individuals, teams, and organizations. The book is filled with insights, case studies, and practical guidance for those facing disruption and seeking to emerge from it stronger than before.
How trauma disrupts your organization
Trauma can challenge the values of mission-driven organizations. Even when organizations have a set of posted values, stress and trauma can reveal weaknesses in their consistent adoption, eroding the values and creating lasting negative effects.
Trauma can also expose weaknesses in operations, performance, and turnover, making it difficult for organizations to recruit and retain talent. To prevent such crises, it is essential to have a plan in place beforehand. A rapid response process can help organizations make fast, sound decisions and respond to crises instead of reacting.
That which does not kill us…
You’ve probably heard the Nietzsche quote, “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” To an extent, we agree: Going through trauma can make an organization stronger. Trauma can be a growth experience.
But if we don’t handle a traumatic crisis effectively, it will instead make us weaker—and in a hyper-competitive marketplace, few organizations can afford to operate at a less than optimal level of performance.
Making the rapid response process work
As you put together your own rapid response process, you’ll want to keep it simple enough that it seems doable but detailed enough that it is effective. This will take some trial and error. That’s fine.
No one gets it right on the first iteration. In fact, that’s why it’s so important to both practice in advance and conduct an after-action review after a trauma has occurred.
Immediate response tactics
For most businesses, the requirement for an emergency action plan is focused on issues like calling 911, using a fire extinguisher, or evacuating the building. At best, an organization may have the occasional fire drill.
Even if it has a more advanced “emergency plan”—one that includes, say, role-specific responsibilities and phone trees to account for all employees—it usually isn’t well developed, well practiced, or well implemented. It may be buried in a P&P manual somewhere, and employees and leaders may not be fully trained.
#1 Rapid Response Team
The idea here is to put together a team that ensures all relevant key functions, subject matter experts, and decision makers are represented. You’ll want to include all senior leaders and leaders of key functions such as operations/logistics, security, finance, HR, communications/PR, facilities, etc.
Appoint people to this team before a crisis happens and make sure they know their respective roles and responsibilities. Conduct drills with a variety of scenarios to ensure that all who participate are trained, know what is expected of them, and are comfortable with the processes.
Understanding the impact of trauma
Before you can successfully navigate a traumatic crisis and use it as a springboard to becoming a stronger organization, you must adjust your mindset. First, you must become aware that what people are experiencing is trauma and not just typical workplace stress.
And second, you must realize that unprocessed, unaddressed trauma is extremely damaging to your organization. Only after you accept these two premises will you be likely to take the most effective actions.
We’ve moved from stress to trauma—and that changes everything
Sometimes trauma is a single, sudden event: a shocking act of violence, a terrible workplace accident that leads to severe injury or death, or a suicide. It may be an act of fraud or embezzlement perpetrated by a leader that threatens everyone with disgrace and financial ruin.
These kinds of acute traumas are easy to see. Leaders may assume that because these kinds of “shock and awe” events are rare and unlikely, it’s not as urgent to learn about their potential impact. But when you consider that there’s another type of trauma, one that’s far more prevalent, you’ll see why this subject is so crucial.
Complex Trauma
A third type of trauma—complex trauma—comes from exposure to multiple traumatic events. While this would seem to be rare, in our increasingly complex and chaotic world, it’s on the increase.
However trauma manifests—a sudden, shocking event, a sneaky process that slowly unfolds, or the confluence of several different ones—it will have a destructive impact. When employees experience trauma, they start acting from a place of fear. They are in survival mode, caught up in the “flight, fight, or freeze” response.
#2 Leader in Charge
You really need a central commander. This individual is appointed to manage response activities such as assigning personnel, deploying equipment, obtaining additional resources, and coordinating with participating partners or external agencies as needed.
Often, the leader in charge is the senior-most person in the organization. (You will likely need to tap a “second in command” in case the first choice is out of the office, unavailable, or incapacitated when a crisis occurs.)
This leader will want to delegate emergency management responsibilities to other specialists on the team as needed so that he or she can maintain the necessary focus on the overall picture of the disaster or crisis.
#3 Command Center and Alert Code
A command center, or operations center, is a predetermined location known to all. It’s a physical or virtual location from which the rapid response team runs its operations.
It should be sequestered (away from the chaos), large enough to house the entire team, readily available for meetings, have good resources necessary for communicating, and possibly have breakout rooms for teams to meet if necessary.
It’s also important to pre-identify a backup location in the event that the default location becomes inaccessible or is destroyed during the trauma.
Rapid Response Process
A rapid response process (also known as an incident command system) is a standardized, pre-planned approach for dealing with disruption. Putting one in place helps everyone know exactly what to do so that decisions can be made quickly, efficiently, and with a focus on safety. Here are some of the reasons why it’s so beneficial:
- It allows people to move into position quickly so they can spring into action. Delays can be costly.
- It conveys more confidence that the response to a crisis or trauma is organized and not haphazard.
- It supports better decision-making and communication.
- It helps to steady emotions and decrease stress for individual leaders and their teams.
- It helps leaders get information at a time when paralyzing fear stifles information flow.
#4 Information Gathering
In a crisis situation, it’s critical to centralize information, facts, and data. You’ll need a process for seeking, capturing, sorting out, and disseminating key information. What’s known? What isn’t known? What’s relevant—and, just as important, what isn’t? Who will serve as trusted advisors?
The goal of all of this is to organize and coordinate response activities, ensuring that the most pressing needs are met and that resources are allocated without duplication or waste.
#5 Promote a Unifying Message
A big part of this plan is shaping and disseminating the right messaging. It is vital to deliberately emphasize unity. Remember, when disruption strikes, the shared experience draws people together. This is a manifestation of the fourth F—friend—response.
If we jump in right away with a solid communication plan, we can capitalize on the “all in it together” camaraderie. This helps people transcend divisiveness.
Piled up Trauma
Sometimes trauma is ongoing and cumulative. For example, it may take the form of sexual harassment, racism, or discrimination. When trauma is not connected to a single event, many of us may not even realize we’re experiencing its effects.
In these kinds of scenarios, where the trauma is chronic and perhaps not visible to the whole organization, the organization is like the proverbial frog in the cooking pot. You know the story: At first, the frog is sitting in lukewarm water. Over time, the heat slowly intensifies until, finally, it is at the boiling point and the frog is in serious trouble.
