When I was reading the Harvard Business review, one article written by Ranjay Gulati, Charles Casto, Charlotte Krontiris, about the Fukushima disaster, which actually occurred at my home country Japan, caught my eyes. I have seen many media programs and read articles about this natural disaster and its impact to the nuclear plants in Fukushima, but this one was especially interesting because it focused on individual’s outstanding leadership skills who worked at the ‘daini’ (which means 2nd in Japanese) plant along with his team members in an effort to cool down the plant and to prevent further disaster. His leadership was based on 2 key skills.
• Sensemaking process– adaptive behavior in which understanding and experience shape each other (from the article)
• Establishing Shared Value with his team.
@Thewonderdigest
If I put myself in a similar situation where I have to work under extreme condition such as the Fukushima disaster, I would most likely evacuate immediately in order to protect myself. This was not the same for the team at the ‘daini’ plant. Team members trusted their leader, held tight and stayed there until the mission was accomplished.
This took place in a nuclear plant but I also think this is applicable in the business world. If the company has leaders who can approach and resolve issues with sensemaking process and build a team which can create shared values, such company is unlikely to fail easily in a tough business environment. It is interesting to note that lessons learned from a non-business incident have much relevance to what takes place in the business world.