Dan Erwin

A Personal Perspective on Crisis

. . . all kinds of crises.

More and more people find themselves in situations that get labelled “crisis.” But very few of us will have to engage in the messy stuff of crisis leadership. In fact, most of us end up on the sidelines, sometimes trying to make sense of the situation and other times taking sides. If not overtly, then covertly.

Of course, newsmakers and entertainers would have us believe that we are almost always in crisis, a perspective that’s more wrong than right. But crisis language keeps surfacing regularly, even though it’s unnecessary and unrealistic. My basic attitude over the years is to begin with the obvious fact that we live in a 24-hour world, not a 12-hour world. By that I suggest that since the at the 1980s, digital innovation intends to keep the eyes and ears of John Q Public on news and entertainment. So, conflicts and crises are the best process for doing that. In my mind that understanding eliminates a lot of the interactions that are called “crisis.”

How to Recognize Someone Is Using You

It was a seemingly innocent question. But actually, he was just using me.

On Easter Sunday, after spending a rare day alone at home, I decided to grab a small bite and a glass of wine at a local pub. Since I would be alone, I took along a book that I intended to finish. A terrific little volume by Mark Edmundson: “The Age of Guilt.”

I sat at the bar, slowly drinking my cab and enjoying a crabcake, all the while reading and marking up this fascinating book. One of the most intriguing and enlightening works I’d read in years.

My reading habits began in elementary school, developed while I was in seminary, blossomed while I was in the pastorate and a seminary faculty member—and exploded in my consulting business. Although I am a lot more than this, I am my books.

I take a lot of time marking my books and papers, and putting notes in the front of the books and also outlining my research papers notes on an added single page, all making important substance available immediately. I’d be much less a person without my books and my studies. No question but that my effectiveness in church ministry, seminary—and especially in business—was tied to a substantially developing knowledge base and—I don’t want to ignore this—an extensive experience in the performing arts that continually shaped and reshaped my decision making.             

The Bias for Doing . . .

And the Lost Art of Thinking

On numerous occasions as a management consultant, I asked execs about how much time they took to think about process, innovation and strategy. Often, the response was that they didn’t have time to think. A couple said that they were paying me to do the thinking. A compliment, but very unwise. And I provided a very deliberate rationale for refusing that business opportunity.

So how did we get to the place where managers don’t realize that thinking is part of their job?  
In a very thoughtful and fascinating article in the MIT Sloan Management Review, Duncan Simester pointed out that the bias for doing, not thinking, is built into business. Companies succeed by creating a successful business model—and then scaling it massively. Massive scaling requires a “finely tuned system with highly standardized processes.” So, getting promoted requires “almost a singular focus on execution.

In other words, it requires action more than thinking.” So guess what? It’s inevitable that we focus on what we get rewarded for. And in business, that’s execution.