[Applause]
this is a story of the day I thought I
was going to die it was September 14th
2012 and I was working at the US Embassy
in Tunis Tunisia I was in a safe haven
inside the embassy with a hundred and
three of my colleagues while thousands
of protesters and within that group a
core group of attackers had surrounded
our embassy and were trying desperately
to get in to kill us
now remember 72 hours earlier we had
lost four colleagues in Benghazi we were
fortunate that day none of us died but
what was most important wasn’t what we
did during the crisis but what we did
before see we had leaders and mac-10s
that took security and safety very
seriously they modeled the behavior that
they expected to see of us so whether it
was participating in a drill or
answering the radio we understood that
we were expected to make safety our
number-one priority regardless of what
our job was at the Embassy they would
tolerate nothing less from us the second
thing they did is they knew us they got
to know us they developed trust we
trusted them they trusted us so let me
step back for a second we started with
September 11th when we lost our four
colleagues in Benghazi it was a very
difficult day for embassy Tunis we had a
very close relationship with our
colleagues working in Libya we were the
adjoining country so we took that very
personally like most of the Foreign
Service did where all the Foreign
Service really that was a very very long
night for us we were up trying
desperately to think of anything we
could do to help and unfortunately you
weren’t able to on September 12th we had
a protest at the Embassy and remember
this is Tunisia a year after the Arab
Spring so we were supportive of
the concept of protests even if they
were protesting against us and while the
September 13th we got word by a social
media that there would be another
protest at our Embassy that Friday the
14th so that morning the embassy team
got together and we talked about what
was what we thought was going to happen
and one decision that we had to make was
whether we were going to send people
home that day now ultimately the
decision was that we would stay put
based on what had happened on Wednesday
we thought we would be fine
and to me this posed quite a conflict
because as the head of logistics for the
embassy I had the largest team and I
really wanted to get them off-site if I
could so I was able to come up with a
way that we could get most of my folks
off site to have them test a new
capability that we had just gotten the
ability to telework we wanted to see
whether we could do that effectively
after I’d sent most of them home the
remainder of my team and I got together
and we walked around and we took
pictures of the embassy and we played
something called the what-if game it’s
just something we had learned in our
training what if somebody wanted to hurt
us what if they came over the walls what
could they use against us we locked up
the gas pump we remembered that we had
we had received a delivery the day prior
of almost 20,000 litres of fuel we
dispersed the vehicles in the on the
compound so we sent folks home with some
of these cars and then we waited and
around 11 o’clock in the morning the
protesters started to show up and things
very quickly got out of control many
many thousands more than we had expected
and as they came over the wall and
things quickly spiraled out of control
the Marines working at our embassy
sounded what’s called the Duck and Cover
that’s the alarm telling us that we need
to get someplace safe and we all filed
into the safe haven so if you think
about it we actually had a best-case
scenario that day because you had a team
that had high trust you had a team that
was well trained but initially none of
that mattered
speaking for myself when the fire alarms
went off and I could smell smoke and I’m
in this room and I remembered what had
happened less than 72 hours earlier my
brain shut down I remember I felt like I
had tunnel vision my legs got weak I
mean I leaned up against the wall and I
kind of slowly sat down and I and I was
terrified I was terrified I had sent my
kids to school that morning the school
was across the street from the embassy I
didn’t know where they were and their
school was on fire and there were
looters I was afraid I was going to die
I had fallen desperately in love with
somebody and I hadn’t told them yet
there were a lot of things on my mind
now studies have shown that stress and
fear is an extreme form of stress has
the equivalent effect on your brain as a
15 percent drop in IQ this is why
training is so important because you
have to work from muscle memory I knew
that I had to get control of my fear I
found out that my kids had actually been
sent home earlier that morning as I was
running around doing everything I did
I’d missed that piece of information
that was key so I knew they were fine I
emailed my parents I told them I loved
them and I asked them please should the
worst happen don’t let my kids forget me
and I sent an email and I made that
person know exactly how I felt now I
learned an important lesson that day and
that’s a you can’t anticipate how you or
anyone else are going to react this is
why it’s so important especially as
leaders to know the people on your team
and it’s important for you as a teammate
to know your teammates this allows you
to adapt in the moment now my job that
day even though I was out of logistics
my job that day was to keep Washington
informed so I was on the phone we had an
open line because ours wasn’t the only
posting crisis as we were experiencing
what we were experiencing Cairo Sanaa
Khartoum Islamabad similar things by
about 10:00 p.m. we were able to leave
the embassy and it was immediately clear
as I exited the building it’s the smoke
was hanging in the air and there’s tear
gas even in the dark I could tell that
things were going to change I went
home and I packed my kids suitcases
because I knew I was going to have to
send them away and in fact they left two
days later and we would be reunited 9
months later the next morning I went to
the embassy and in the light of day I
could see the extent of the devastation
but my first priority once we made sure
nothing else was on fire literally my
first priority was putting the flag back
up it had been taken down during the
attack and the pole had been broken so
we went and got the big flag that we
used for the 4th of July we put it up
and that was a tremendous boost to
morale this is a our motor pool Friday
morning
this is our motor pool Saturday morning
110 vehicles were destroyed and includes
both personal vehicles this is the gas
tank that we had locked up the local
staff put their lives in jeopardy when
they saw that they were trying to set
fire to this and one of the greatest
honors of my career thus far was I was
able to nominate four of them for
heroism Awards because had they not
intervened there’s a good chance I
wouldn’t be standing here today to talk
to you 90% of our windows and doors were
damaged over 18 million dollars in
damage now despite the seriousness of
this situation I think it’s also really
important to maintain a healthy sense of
humor so in that spirit I would like to
share a career milestone with you I’ll
while we were in the safe haven I
actually posted this as a Facebook
memory last year forgetting that I’m now
friends with the ambassador and
fortunately he’s got a great sense of
humor and he said I could use his
bathroom anytime so I’ve taken the
lessons from this event and I now help
to train my colleagues before they go
out to the field there they’re 13
thousand members of the Foreign Service
serving alongside 25,000 host country
nationals and 276 countries and
embassies and sorry embassies and
consulates now my current assignment is
the director of crisis management in the
office of the secretary of state what I
always emphasize is it’s important to do
the work before the crisis you can’t do
that during an ultimately crisis
leadership whether it’s before during or
after is about communication you must
trust your team they must trust you you
must know your people you can’t predict
how they will react you must lead by
example if you take security seriously
so will they and this is critical
because during the crisis you have to be
make decisions and those decisions can
turn out to be wrong and you can still
be ok because if your team trusts you
and they believe in you they’ll just
rally and keep going you could argue
that the decision to not send people
home on Friday morning was the wrong
decision but it was fine because we were
able to move past it the other thing we
talked about is making sure that you
give everyone a job that ensures
unanimity of effort and gives people
something to focus on now that day my
job was communicating with Washington
another crisis also in September was
September 11th 2001 on that day my job
was to make sandwiches rank and position
doesn’t matter in a crisis and the
Foreign Service we are taught that
there’s no job above you there’s no job
beneath you you do what you need to do
to accomplish the job you have to
remember that for many the initial
reaction will be shock and fear and to
overcome that you must have trained
and trained and trained now crisis can
happen at anytime and we were certainly
caught by surprise that day in Tunis but
we were able to manage us successfully
because we had done the hard work before
we were well trained
we worked effectively as a team and we
trusted each other now hopefully none of
you will experience a crisis as dramatic
as this one but the lessons apply
regardless because whether you are a
leader or a team member what you do
before a crisis will set you and your
team up for success and will help you
manage whatever may come your way thank
you
[Applause] [Music]
this is a story of the day I thought I
was going to die it was September 14th
2012 and I was working at the US Embassy
in Tunis Tunisia I was in a safe haven
inside the embassy with a hundred and
three of my colleagues while thousands
of protesters and within that group a
core group of attackers had surrounded
our embassy and were trying desperately
to get in to kill us
now remember 72 hours earlier we had
lost four colleagues in Benghazi we were
fortunate that day none of us died but
what was most important wasn’t what we
did during the crisis but what we did
before see we had leaders and mac-10s
that took security and safety very
seriously they modeled the behavior that
they expected to see of us so whether it
was participating in a drill or
answering the radio we understood that
we were expected to make safety our
number-one priority regardless of what
our job was at the Embassy they would
tolerate nothing less from us the second
thing they did is they knew us they got
to know us they developed trust we
trusted them they trusted us so let me
step back for a second we started with
September 11th when we lost our four
colleagues in Benghazi it was a very
difficult day for embassy Tunis we had a
very close relationship with our
colleagues working in Libya we were the
adjoining country so we took that very
personally like most of the Foreign
Service did where all the Foreign
Service really that was a very very long
night for us we were up trying
desperately to think of anything we
could do to help and unfortunately you
weren’t able to on September 12th we had
a protest at the Embassy and remember
this is Tunisia a year after the Arab
Spring so we were supportive of
the concept of protests even if they
were protesting against us and while the
September 13th we got word by a social
media that there would be another
protest at our Embassy that Friday the
14th so that morning the embassy team
got together and we talked about what
was what we thought was going to happen
and one decision that we had to make was
whether we were going to send people
home that day now ultimately the
decision was that we would stay put
based on what had happened on Wednesday
we thought we would be fine
and to me this posed quite a conflict
because as the head of logistics for the
embassy I had the largest team and I
really wanted to get them off-site if I
could so I was able to come up with a
way that we could get most of my folks
off site to have them test a new
capability that we had just gotten the
ability to telework we wanted to see
whether we could do that effectively
after I’d sent most of them home the
remainder of my team and I got together
and we walked around and we took
pictures of the embassy and we played
something called the what-if game it’s
just something we had learned in our
training what if somebody wanted to hurt
us what if they came over the walls what
could they use against us we locked up
the gas pump we remembered that we had
we had received a delivery the day prior
of almost 20,000 litres of fuel we
dispersed the vehicles in the on the
compound so we sent folks home with some
of these cars and then we waited and
around 11 o’clock in the morning the
protesters started to show up and things
very quickly got out of control many
many thousands more than we had expected
and as they came over the wall and
things quickly spiraled out of control
the Marines working at our embassy
sounded what’s called the Duck and Cover
that’s the alarm telling us that we need
to get someplace safe and we all filed
into the safe haven so if you think
about it we actually had a best-case
scenario that day because you had a team
that had high trust you had a team that
was well trained but initially none of
that mattered
speaking for myself when the fire alarms
went off and I could smell smoke and I’m
in this room and I remembered what had
happened less than 72 hours earlier my
brain shut down I remember I felt like I
had tunnel vision my legs got weak I
mean I leaned up against the wall and I
kind of slowly sat down and I and I was
terrified I was terrified I had sent my
kids to school that morning the school
was across the street from the embassy I
didn’t know where they were and their
school was on fire and there were
looters I was afraid I was going to die
I had fallen desperately in love with
somebody and I hadn’t told them yet
there were a lot of things on my mind
now studies have shown that stress and
fear is an extreme form of stress has
the equivalent effect on your brain as a
15 percent drop in IQ this is why
training is so important because you
have to work from muscle memory I knew
that I had to get control of my fear I
found out that my kids had actually been
sent home earlier that morning as I was
running around doing everything I did
I’d missed that piece of information
that was key so I knew they were fine I
emailed my parents I told them I loved
them and I asked them please should the
worst happen don’t let my kids forget me
and I sent an email and I made that
person know exactly how I felt now I
learned an important lesson that day and
that’s a you can’t anticipate how you or
anyone else are going to react this is
why it’s so important especially as
leaders to know the people on your team
and it’s important for you as a teammate
to know your teammates this allows you
to adapt in the moment now my job that
day even though I was out of logistics
my job that day was to keep Washington
informed so I was on the phone we had an
open line because ours wasn’t the only
posting crisis as we were experiencing
what we were experiencing Cairo Sanaa
Khartoum Islamabad similar things by
about 10:00 p.m. we were able to leave
the embassy and it was immediately clear
as I exited the building it’s the smoke
was hanging in the air and there’s tear
gas even in the dark I could tell that
things were going to change I went
home and I packed my kids suitcases
because I knew I was going to have to
send them away and in fact they left two
days later and we would be reunited 9
months later the next morning I went to
the embassy and in the light of day I
could see the extent of the devastation
but my first priority once we made sure
nothing else was on fire literally my
first priority was putting the flag back
up it had been taken down during the
attack and the pole had been broken so
we went and got the big flag that we
used for the 4th of July we put it up
and that was a tremendous boost to
morale this is a our motor pool Friday
morning
this is our motor pool Saturday morning
110 vehicles were destroyed and includes
both personal vehicles this is the gas
tank that we had locked up the local
staff put their lives in jeopardy when
they saw that they were trying to set
fire to this and one of the greatest
honors of my career thus far was I was
able to nominate four of them for
heroism Awards because had they not
intervened there’s a good chance I
wouldn’t be standing here today to talk
to you 90% of our windows and doors were
damaged over 18 million dollars in
damage now despite the seriousness of
this situation I think it’s also really
important to maintain a healthy sense of
humor so in that spirit I would like to
share a career milestone with you I’ll
while we were in the safe haven I
actually posted this as a Facebook
memory last year forgetting that I’m now
friends with the ambassador and
fortunately he’s got a great sense of
humor and he said I could use his
bathroom anytime so I’ve taken the
lessons from this event and I now help
to train my colleagues before they go
out to the field there they’re 13
thousand members of the Foreign Service
serving alongside 25,000 host country
nationals and 276 countries and
embassies and sorry embassies and
consulates now my current assignment is
the director of crisis management in the
office of the secretary of state what I
always emphasize is it’s important to do
the work before the crisis you can’t do
that during an ultimately crisis
leadership whether it’s before during or
after is about communication you must
trust your team they must trust you you
must know your people you can’t predict
how they will react you must lead by
example if you take security seriously
so will they and this is critical
because during the crisis you have to be
make decisions and those decisions can
turn out to be wrong and you can still
be ok because if your team trusts you
and they believe in you they’ll just
rally and keep going you could argue
that the decision to not send people
home on Friday morning was the wrong
decision but it was fine because we were
able to move past it the other thing we
talked about is making sure that you
give everyone a job that ensures
unanimity of effort and gives people
something to focus on now that day my
job was communicating with Washington
another crisis also in September was
September 11th 2001 on that day my job
was to make sandwiches rank and position
doesn’t matter in a crisis and the
Foreign Service we are taught that
there’s no job above you there’s no job
beneath you you do what you need to do
to accomplish the job you have to
remember that for many the initial
reaction will be shock and fear and to
overcome that you must have trained
and trained and trained now crisis can
happen at anytime and we were certainly
caught by surprise that day in Tunis but
we were able to manage us successfully
because we had done the hard work before
we were well trained
we worked effectively as a team and we
trusted each other now hopefully none of
you will experience a crisis as dramatic
as this one but the lessons apply
regardless because whether you are a
leader or a team member what you do
before a crisis will set you and your
team up for success and will help you
manage whatever may come your way thank
you
[Applause] [Music]
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