windshear

blog post – second quarter 2023

a very human response
All the recent attention on AI – or artificial intelligence – focuses on how this nascent technology can benefit humans in numerous ways. Likely crisis management will be among the beneficiaries, especially as AI can sift through data faster than humans. Time, of course, is in short supply when crisis strikes.
The hubbub, however, also reminds me that there are things AI cannot, and should not, do when it comes to crisis response. All crises have people at their core; therefore, it should be people who make decisions about how to help and serve those touched by tragedy.
I learned early in my career about the importance of holistic crisis response teams. Usually when the team tasked with leading a response comes together, they do so based on the professional skills they possess. That is critical to the success of the mission. However, to best manage the response, those same individuals need to come together as well as the people they are outside of work.
Everyone brings life skills based on who they are as people. A single mom raising a child with a disability brings a unique perspective to a response effort. So does a devoutly spiritual bachelor who rescues stray animals every weekend. All the different life experiences we have as individuals strengthen the team’s power to listen more acutely, and better interpret, the various issues that arise during a response. When embraced as part of the team’s critical skill set, these prompt important questions to be raised, concepts to be advanced, and discussions to occur. They permit a very human response to human issues.
Before anyone accuses me of letting emotions run the show, let me say that is not what building a holistic team is about. This is a balance of head and heart decision-making. One practitioner explained it this way: Emotions have a role to play. I listen to them, but I am not beholden to them. Most of the decisions turn out okay when I am more mindful.
Think about how you feel when management at work makes a decision that impacts you negatively as a person and it seems no one stopped to think about how that could happen. Holistic crisis response teams can mitigate things going from bad to worse, preventing secondary assaults on people who have already been through a traumatic event.
At my last corporate role, I ensured our “executive crisis response team” spent a significant amount of time focusing on how they made decisions. We knew we had both a commercial obligation to the company and a moral obligation to the people touched by the tragedy. The best decisions toward both goals result from people sharing their expertise as professionals and everyday people.
AI may someday mimic people well enough to stand in for them in their daily lives. The Bruce Willis movie Surrogates gave us a brief glimpse of that. However, it will always take real people to help real people when tragedy strikes. That is innately human … as it should be. The organizations with holistic crisis response teams embrace that.
Be different. Be ready.