Out of the Fire: Moving out of that “Now what?” Moment | 005

Maartje van Krieken: Hey, welcome back. Thanks for tuning in. Today's episode I've titled Out of the Fire. I want to talk today about first aid kits, so tools, tricks or tactics to help in business emergencies. And considering this is the first toolkit episode, I want to talk about the moment, the moment when the goings got tough, when you're wondering, what now? Now? What? What are the things that you can do in those initial moments when everything is too much, really. And I'll use one of the examples I've experienced to illustrate how I think this could work or should work. Should is really not the right word here, because I think there is a lot of fluidity, and most important of all is that you choose the ways that are most natural to you, if you're already under a lot of pressure, then follow your gut and choose methods and principles that you're used to, rather than following somebody else's style, because you will not have the energy to do so.

Which really brings me to step one, you're in this moment, and you realize that whatever it is that needs to happen, it's not what's happening right now, and that something's gone wrong big time, maybe, and that you need to get out of the situation. So now, What? What? Now, the primary thing in those moments is to start with yourself. Because, yeah, it's you. It's you who's gonna take charge and take it on and take step one. And it's not you for all of it and forever, but it's you to get things started on the path to recovery. So what is it you need to, at least get to a semblance of calm. I don't know. Some people just need to do, take some deep breaths. Other people would love to go stand in a corner and scream, roll out in a place where nobody else can hear. Do you need to go for a quick walk to clear your head, whatever it is, you need to at least get to a place where not everything that's going to come out of your mouth is going to sound angry or stressed or highly emotional, and so yeah, you need to take that moment, or nothing else will work. So this is the point where I'm going to tell you about an example of where I was in a team, and we found ourselves in one of these crisis I was working for the national crisis line two on one at the time, supporting them with systems innovation and for ad hoc project management support as part of the covid, yeah, covid timeline, or the covid response. And, um, around Christmas time, we changed out the phone system so for a organization that is accessible, 24/7 by phone. 365, days a year. You know, the phone system is everything. And the good news was, because of covid, the call volume had gone up quite drastically on that call center already. So at least in the change out of the system, some of that increase in call volume had been accommodated, but within weeks of us implementing that new system, the vaccine rollout happened, and this was in Pennsylvania, in Pittsburgh, specifically where, first of all the population is relatively old. Old is a loaded word, but the 65 plus share of the population is above average, and the category, what was described as one a so people who were entitled to vaccinations, or the first round of vaccinations, was considerable. Yet it been announced that these vaccines would be available and ready to go, and at the same time, it then still took, probably longer than people liked to actually get to the rollout. So the idea was that specifically for elderly who did not really know how to or were less comfortable navigating online systems quickly, etc. There would be a batch of appointments available for this group to to be booked through through 211, through the helpline. And so this was a limited number of appointments, let's say 200 slots or something, and it was going to be announced in a somewhat protected or smaller environments, so it wasn't going to be shouted from the rooftop, hopefully making sure that we were booking in, specifically the elderly, into these appointments.

So somewhere in the process, the it been the heat been building up about people wanting these vaccinations. Right? People want. To be able to go see their grandchildren and etc, all the emotions that came with and the whole pandemic, the announcement went out at the wrong place, the wrong time, and many people caught wind of it, so the moment we switched on the phone lines and started accepting calls. It was in the 1000s of calls per seconds. It was in the it was like orders of 1000s of magnitudes, bigger than anything we'd ever put through the system. And so it collapsed within minutes, right? The whole system just didn't work. And of course, this is the first round, and we were supposed to do this, etc, so yeah, major disaster. This wasn't necessarily on me entirely. I'd say that some of my colleagues were the ones who carried the brunt of this. But yeah, in that moment, they all took a moment, right? They all took a moment to kind of scream and go like, and now What? What? Now, now what? So this brings me to point number two, which is that usually, in these situations, people say, Oh, the decisions are so hard. And unfortunately or fortunately in these situations, I believe actually, there's usually not a whole lot of decisions, or not a whole lot of options. Anyway. There's usually one, two, maybe a best three things you can do. And the hardest part is actually taking that first step. It feels sometimes like jumping off the high jumping board or jumping off a cliff, or it's just hard sometimes to take that first step, but delaying taking it is not going to make it any easier. What that first step, if you really think about it, is usually pretty clear, right? So in this case, it was like, Okay, shut it down. We're not going to do these appointments today. This way we we did manage to get the phone systems a little bit up and running later that day, and then, yeah, through through back doors, managed to cobble together an overview of at least people who fit the category and hadn't been able to make appointments and should have been. But yeah, we did not run that first session as needed, and learned a lot. So then the next question is, what's the first step is shutting it down and say, Okay, can we solve it? Any of this today? Well, what are now the top two or three things that really need to happen, and in our case, like, well, we need to fix this because we're going to have to take vaccine intake appointments. So we need to fix what the phone system can take on, but we also need to fix how this is communicated and regulated, because we realized that there was everybody's children and grandchildren, etc, were making also calls on people's behalf, and it was clear that took a few days to find out, but from the back end that there was people kind of had put their phones on automatic redial and stuff, and all of that was overburdening the system. So we were not reaching the target audience, but a much wider group. We We also realized once we did start taking calls, that we were not necessarily getting people qualified, just anybody who was scrambling and trying to call and trying to get in anywhere. So yeah, we needed to fine tune how we would get people calling and into the system and how that worked. So those were two of the biggest things. And then the third thing was, of course, that we also had normal operations, and this is a crisis line. So because of one aspect, which is these vaccines, we cannot shut down normal operations, and somehow have to figure out how to keep that operating too. So yeah, three major legs of work that needed attention yesterday, and all the rest of it on the back burner for a week or so. Yeah, we'll see how we deal with with whatever else is happening, not now. So then the question is, Who do you have, right? Who do you have, internally, externally, what

can you what and who can you tap into to climb out of these situations. So in this case, it was back to the company who helped us set up the phone system immediately. Right? We asked for some favors, but we also needed to put in some money to bring in some of the right resources climb out of this yesterday, right? And swallow that pill and make that happen. So yeah, the system guys came back in, and we set up a really close collaboration to immediately troubleshoot what was going on and how to fix that. The second was, of course, all the partners in this collaboration, so local government and health department parties. 90s, because, yeah, if every time we had such a limited number of appointments and nothing else was available, so this was it, we would get inundated in calls again, right? So the communication needed to be differently. There needed to be different routes made available for those who didn't need to make an appointment through the phone, some kind of online booking system so that those who are calling on behalf their parents, for instance, didn't need to talk to us. That this was really going to be a solution for those who didn't have somebody to help them out and were not able to make the appointments online or use that system effectively. So we needed to tap into our partners and engage and set up conversations and communication lines immediately and be clear about what we didn't know yet, but saying whatever we did last time that didn't work. So we need to do it differently, and we're trying to figure out what what we need at least here, we've already figured out we need this to change, and we need this to change within these parameters. Can you, yeah, what can you do in your site?

Which brings me to communication in these situations, I don't think anybody's helped by being tentative. You need to be very clear on what you know and what you don't know, holding anything back or disguising things. Because you maybe have to talk to suppliers. Yeah, for instance, we had to talk to the systems guys, right? Who would sold us the system, the phone system. And, yeah, they are a commercial organization, and so yeah, we could have said, okay, they're assuming to always make more money. So if we now invite them back in, do we open the and as a nonprofit, you know, we didn't pay premium pricing, probably for for what we got, and we probably also didn't take all the extra packages for care and service that you could have after with it. So if we would have been worried about them using or abusing the situation to sell us more what we didn't need, or to come up with different prices. There was no time for that right. We did not sign and weren't going to sign in those days immediately all sorts of contracts for the next 700 million days. We were going to bring them in for those days that we needed them, and maybe potentially at rates that weren't great, but we were open and transparent with where we're at. And then in later conversations, you can go back and evaluate and say, Okay, actually, some stuff slipped in in those moments, and we now need to go back to them and say, this is this is not okay, if that's what happened in my in reality, I believe that if you're open and transparent, it's not nobody really intentionally wants to abuse anybody else. And I'd say if you're truly in a crisis like this, the other side sees it too, and and is reasonable, yeah, it's at least fair in supporting you and working through it. So, yeah, communicate open and transparently, we also tapped into resources that were maybe less likely or because what we realized in that moment, in communicating and going around, that, you know, we were still going to be left for the next iterations of this was something that simply needed more people on the phone lines, the the volume we could put, we put in Smart Queue systems, meaning that there were smarter menus and that people had to answer some questions right? Type one, type, two on your key, on your keyboard, or on your screen. If you are, are you over 65 as in you to call, or are you, you know, etc.

So whatever the questions were, are to make sure that people actually were on the phone. Who should be on the phone, doing that in the phone system was just not enough to wind down the volume. So then it's like, okay, where in times of covid do we set up, you know, 20 or 30% extra operators at any point of time now or yesterday? So two on one as it is, in much, not everywhere, but in much of the US was in Pittsburgh, co located with the very local United Way chapter, which is actually a fabulous organization full of very willing people who know each other all well. And so yeah, we tapped into that. We recruited volunteers from amongst the United Way staff, because at least they were on the same computer systems, etc. So we stood a chance of getting them onto onto phones and onto onto the phone system. And then we made really clear scripts. And originally, of course, the intent was that that. These people would do any and all calls. And it became really clear that that was, then again, too much of an ask. So we had to cycle a little bit. And ultimately, we put the most straightforward kind of badge job, covid vaccination scheduling calls with those groups. But it was such an alleviation of pressure, right and and no, none of these people who wanted to necessarily become permanently operators in the call center, but I do think that the positive side effect was some kind of cross fertilization and appreciation for what went on in both of these very different sides of the organization. And yeah, the willingness was amazing, right? It was because, yeah, I definitely know for a fact that some of these people went way out of their comfort zone, but they were willing to do that, and they bought us time. They bought us time to find out other resources. So in the moment, look for those people who have energy, who can do something, and may not be the best place in term of what their knowledge or expertise is, but willingness goes such a long way right? And if you have 10 people who can do 70 or 60 or 70% of the work that needs doing, and can do that, well, at least that part's taken care of, right? And it might mean that some of the other resources end up with a bit more of a mismatch of tasks that is also left. But Beggars can't be choosers in these situations. And just realize that there is somebody out there who can take on some of this, and just look right, they're there. There really are there. Which brings me to another aspect of working through these, what now? Now, what moments, which is around the scheduling timeline.

So when the situation hits, when we had to shut down because that, you know, the phone, phone lines were inundated. Our scheduling timeline was an hour or two hours, right? It was like, Okay, call to the city council, the health department, we're shutting it down, or the system is shut down, so we have to shut it down. We'll send out a message that the phone lines are down now and and then it's like, okay, let's reconvene in two hours. We're going to figure out some stuff on our end and then come back. Right. And initially it was all on the call centers and to find out a few things, because it was our systems that it shut down, and then it was a reconnection in two hours and saying, Okay, this has happened. We now seen the numbers. No wonder it went down. We understand also that an announcement went out that maybe shouldn't have and that might have driven to it, etc. So then we met with various part parties, and then there was a timeline that probably went to okay by close of business today. These are the things we're going to go after. And then it's the next morning, and then it was the next 24 hours. And gradually these planning timelines become longer. I think that's much needed because you don't know what you don't know, and at the same time, there's so much going on that if you try to work too long independently, you might, yeah, you might actually become ineffective, right? So if all parties break up a little bit and go and figure out the pieces that they need to figure out, and then bring it together. Then you have a collective, progressive insights, because then it's like, oh, okay, we found something similar on this end, and that means that this was probably connected to this. Then it's much easier to create a picture quicker with facts and have alignment, right? There's people behind what these facts are and what, what are the truths of the things that happen or need to happen. So these short timelines really help reconvening in these huddles and in these huddles, I think more is more. I'm not saying bring in everybody, but if in doubt, bring in that extra person, they might represent a slightly different angle. Again, more is better in terms of as long as people kind of represents different groups of different sets of information, there is, I don't see much sense in having in some of these sessions, two people who are going to talk about the exact same topic in a different in a different personal style, right? So have the relevant departments bring in their representative and make sure that these departments then also play back to the rest of their teams. But yeah, if endowed, bring in more and again, transparency.

So these timelines, it allows you to work every time in the next two or the next four hours through the stuff that needs to happen to get you to the next point of calm, which is, okay, we've done this the past. Let's bring it together. Sit down, take a deep breath, look at what we have, and then plan for the next four or six or eight. Hours, or whatever, how long it is. The thing that's important to also discuss in these sessions and to think about is, what is the information we need to collect to bring to that next engagement, to that next crossroads? Because that's what you and your team need to be working on. Right? What is it we need to find out? Where do we who do we need to figure out is available? What do we need to check from a resource perspective, what are the numbers we need to get? And you just make a list of what you want to have and be okay that only 80% will get delivered, or maybe even less right, but at least having an idea of what you would want in terms of insight really helps to empower your team, because then you can divide these tasks and say, okay, you know, can you go and run the numbers on the system, or can you go and sit with the system guys and find out with what we have in terms of lines and Setup, what is the max volume that we can handle right? At which point will the system automatically shut down? And is it the system? And then somebody else might need to find and say, okay, the interface between the actual phone lines in the system. Where is the bottleneck really? And so maybe you can talk to the phone people, right? What is the restrictions are there? And, yeah, what is it that we need to keep open in terms of being able to handle our normal calls for support in that timeframe? And how do we manage that? Can you come up with a bit of a proposal of how that could work, or what the bare minimum is we need? So these are some of the examples that these are tasks that you can bite sized chunk that you can give to people, and yeah, they might come back with a spreadsheet or a post or numbers that are not in a manner that you normally expect, that are maybe not as complete as you would want them to be. But I can tell you that if you give people tasks in these moments like this, they will use all their ingenuity and fire fire up on also lenders to help and to do as much as they can in a form that works for them. And who knows, I'm in my experience in these situations, people actually positively surprise others, right? We are so used to working within fixed structures, and it's intriguing to see how if people are then giving the freedom to get on with our tasks their way, we suddenly realize that their way is actually maybe more useful than the way we've been asked them to do things. So yeah, tap into your team, give them discrete tasks to pursue, so that you can then put the piece puzzle back together again when you get together. So in summary, in the moment my tools and tricks are first, you yourself, get yourself to a place where you can at least somewhat calmly communicate, figure out the first two or three three steps, and no, it's you, right?

Those first two or three steps and figuring out what they are, and putting each of these journeys in motion by taking that first step is you. But then from that point onward, you can start tapping into those around you, right? And remember that there is the usual resources, there is usually also some external resources. There is also usually some unusual resource. So you start with what you know, but you'll do that automatically, because that's your comfort zone when you then still have stuff left, then you you need more capacity. Have a look around, even if you're a solopreneur or on your own, we all have a friend or a buddy or a peer who, if we're really in a pinch and we need some hours of somebody's time or capacity, we can get that. And we know sometimes just harder to ask, right? So remember, there is capacity out there, and you can get it. And if you're okay with 6040, 7030, there is a lot to be had to help you through the moment. Clear, open and transparent communication. Tell everybody what you know you don't know, and where we where you want to go. Empower those that you've enlisted to help by giving them discrete tasks and just with defined outcomes, like as much as you can find about topic X or numbers on Y, or whatever it is that you need, and leave it at that you have no time to micromanage and short planning timelines that slowly increase, and you will realize that suddenly, a Couple of days in, you've just gone through the motions, emotions, emotions have come down because you're actually doing stuff and making progress and slowly tackling the situation. And then you find yourself at this point where the timelines and the planning timelines and the engagement are come back. To normal operations, right? So, yeah, then these, these things are, tend to have a natural end and last but not least, if you're looking at help or support in these situations, my example was a true heat of the moment crisis. If you have more than two hours or 24 hours to respond to a situation, then you can also reach out to somebody like me and hire an external consultant or interim manager to step in and start help dealing with the situation, right? So, yeah, in a slightly less high pressured environment, that's definitely an option open to everybody. Thank you for tuning in today, and I look forward to seeing you here again next week. Have a good one. Thanks.