tube seven miles above the surface of
the earth heading home at last in a
funny kind of way the hum of the jet
engines in the dimly lit cabin are
strangely soothing there’s some faint
light from a few laptops most of the
passengers are sleeping except for the
lady next to me she’s got those red
Beats headphones Bob in her head damn I
keep meaning to order a pair of those I
take a picture beautiful sky moon hey I
got Wi-Fi up here I can show up on
Facebook and Twitter hashtag 38k feet
hashtag living the dream hashtag Yolo
now this plane starts diving metal
coffee cans and coffee jugs are banging
up on the front of plane means the milk
cart goes whizzing down the aisle I’m
thinking to myself did I see the pilots
in the bar drinking before we got on the
plane I’m gonna be sick where’s the
little white bag I’m just gonna puke on
my shirt my mom bought me this shirt I
should call my mom I should call the
kids my iPhone doesn’t work oh my god
this is Yolo close my eyes put my head
back brace myself and then we level off
don’t panic folks just hit some major
turbulence it’s gonna be a bumpy ride
fasten your seat belts
I look over at the lady next to me she’s
shaking I’m shaking we’re all shaking
are you ok I think I’m gonna be sick
and I know what you’re thinking I’m not
a wimp
I fly a lot of miles this was the worst
turbulence I’ve ever experienced
we all thought we were gonna die so a
week later don’t ask me why but I’m back
on the same flight I had to get home all
the other flights were sold out I board
the plane and I see Andy he was the
friendly flight attendant last week who
came over and smuggled me some of those
little minibar bottles of vodka hey Andy
same pilots as last week he smiles and
shakes his head I feel a little better
but I’m still anxious I take my seat we
take off we’re up in the air we’re about
an hour and a half into the flight and
so far so good no one planned nosedives
lookout not a full moon anymore but a
pretty good-looking moon skies pretty
blue and then it happens ladies and
gentlemen good evening
this is captain Thompson up in the
cockpit folks just wanted to let you
know that we’re coming up on an area
known for rough patches of turbulence
it’s gonna get a little bumpy folks but
we’ve got this under control
so please stay in your seats fasten your
seat belts we’re gonna slightly alter
course and everything’s going to be just
we actually did hit some turbulence and
it was pretty bumpy but it was nothing
like the week before we had the notice
we felt better it wasn’t as choppy I get
off the plane walking through the
terminal I see the little mini Starbucks
over there hey there’s captain Thompson
I can’t help myself I walk over that was
amazing you did such a good job tonight
thank you so much on behalf of myself
the other passengers I kind of felt like
what was so different because I was on
the same flight a week ago and it was
awful he just kind of tilted his head
and he smiled and you said I guess
that’s what a few tours of duty will do
for you in combat when you’re up in the
air you’ve got to own every second he
we said our goodbyes
I’m leaving the airport and walking out
I’m trying to thinking to myself of
turbulence in general and how it hits us
at different parts of our lives
and for the longest time I thought
leaders were good at avoiding turbulence
but what I started to think then is that
good leaders own the turbulence Capps
and Thompson didn’t avoid it he owned it
so I finally get home and I’m kind of
excited about this new thought process
and I’m a researcher and I want to start
researching things so I go on Google and
I look up turbulence happens often very
rarely does it result in harm to people
especially if they’re wearing their
seatbelts so a little PSA to wear your
seatbelts and in the last 30 years only
two major accidents attributable to
turbulence and most likely could have
been avoided had the pilots managed the
turbulence in the situation differently
so I write down managing turbulence now
start thinking how this applies in our
daily lives
turbulence conflict crisis volatility
we’re all gonna hit it at home on our
campus in our workplace and left
unchecked we will crash so we’ve been
studying for a while out in the
workplace how the best leaders are
managing turbulence and our current
research brings together a robust data
set on how top performing CEOs are
handling turbulence in crisis at their
companies and we’re finding three
overlapping practices they anticipate
they communicate and they quickly
execute anticipate leaders don’t always
know turbulence is coming take the
financial meltdown of 2009 456 banks
worldwide closed down thousands of
businesses closed down disastrous
consequences 500,000 families and the
United States alone lost their homes
five million had to move over a
five-year period but some CEOs did
anticipate the crash they thought to
themselves hmm my home appraisal just
came in and that’s double what it was
last year real estate prices across the
country are skyrocketing the stock
markets through the roof I keep reading
about these adjustable rate mortgages
and I don’t know how people are gonna be
able to afford the increased payments in
a couple years and just this morning my
gardeners gossiping with me about how
the doctor down the street
flipped four houses last month
something’s not right here
and those CEOs made the calls they spoke
to the experts Kathy what’s your take on
these derivative swaps Bob what do we
know about subprime mortgages how can
those hurt the
communities that we serve or take
Hurricane Katrina anticipate leadership
was on autopilot they got the call days
before Katrina hit hey we got a stage
five right off the coast we better act
they waited too long and as a result
eighteen hundred and thirty six people
died thousands of people lost their home
and over a hundred and eight billion
dollars of damage what happens when we
can’t anticipate we all remember the
morning of September 11th when those
planes hit the towers and the Pentagon
and unlike Katrina there’s no way
that leaders or us could anticipate
exactly what was going to happen but in
a way we were a little prepared and
there had been some anticipation there
had been safety drills in simulations
and procedures in place for major
catastrophes to happen and that helps
save the lives of thousands and hundreds
of thousands of people and helped
restore semblance of order much quicker
than usual the second practice that
we’re finding our top performing ceos is
communicate not just within their teams
to gather data and not just to spin
things but more importantly to
communicate with everyone involved to
reassure them we’re on top of this it’s
not as bad as we thought we have a new
and through our research we’ve learned a
don’t panic so you hate it when people
say don’t panic in all the panicle
situations in the world yes I just made
panic abullah and all the panic Abul
situations in the world saying don’t
panic
never has helped it’s kind of up there
on the list of top things not to say to
your spouse right below calm down the
best leaders never say don’t panic not
like the first pilot you remember the
first words out of his mouth don’t panic
the third piece that we’re finding is
that CEOs are executing and that’s how
they’re really owning the crisis first
they anticipate then they communicate
and then they execute they’re relying on
their teams to gather data they’re
running fast analysis and then they’re
swiftly executing they’re not thinking
houses can impact our share price or
worse how can we spin this one of my
most significant experiences with
execution is when I was working at a
dot-com company so it’s December 22nd
2000 and I’m at one of those fancy comms
spending millions of dollars on fancy
offices $2,500 office chairs ping-pong
foosball kind of sounds like what’s
going on now with a bubble we’ll talk
about that later
so I’m sitting in my office full window
I’ve got a view of the boardwalk the
sand and the ocean there’s some roller
skaters going by palm tree the phone
rings I’m in a great mood hello
the venture capitalists pulled all our
funding we had to quickly put a plan
together and execute within the next
couple days to save our company and in
this case that meant letting 35 people
go just a few days before Christmas
somebody said hey let’s just have Jen
and HR do it I shook my head I said no
we own this we’re accountable we’re
responsible we need to be in that room
with them so we hold ourselves up in
conference room a that afternoon and
that was a brutal time a lot of those
people that we let go of my close
friends people who’d put money into the
company that I’d known for 15 or 20
years and I’ll never forget about
halfway through there was a woman single
mom of three and as we’re in her exit
interview she says hey can we hurry this
up I need to get to Toys R Us and inside
I’m thinking wow how can she be thinking
about Toys R Us at a moment like this
and then she finishes her sentence I’ve
got to go return most of the toys
because we’re gonna need that money for
other things as she was walking out of
the conference room she turned around
she looked at us and she said I know you
didn’t have to be here today and I
appreciate that you were thank you I
still felt like a jerk and I can’t take
credit for being there that day or for
the rest of the team who joined me I was
thinking about somebody else who managed
crisis
Martin Luther King jr. when he said the
true measure of a man is not where he
stands in times of comfort and
convenience but rather where he stands
in times of challenge and controversy
and I didn’t know it at the time but
thanks to MLK
we were owning that crisis and we were
there for those people and here’s an
interesting twist about two years later
the woman who needed to get to Toys R Us
called me she had joined a new company
they had an executive position and she
commended me for that position kind of a
silver lining to a terrible volatile
situation
so we’re all gonna hit bumps we don’t
know when it’s coming or what it’s going
to be and hopefully none of you will
ever have to face a major catastrophe
when it does use the framework that we
have inspired by captain Thompson black
ace anticipate communicate and execute
because remember it’s how we own and
manage turbulence that determines the
outcome for everyone thank you [Applause]