A note from Hugh
I just finished reading 24 Hours Inside the President's Bunker, and I could not put it down. Then I got to sit down with the man who lived it.
Robert Darling was inside the bunker on September 11, 2001, supporting the president, vice president, and National Security Advisor. What struck me was not the drama. It was how ordinary the discipline was. Stop. Decide what matters right now. Communicate. Move.
That discipline works on a job site, in a branch, and in a shop with four trucks. This week we put it to work.
Hugh Hornsby
Blue Collar Smart
01 / The real problem
Most of us plan for growth, not for disruption.
In the trades and in distribution, we plan for the busy season, the next truck, the next hire. We rarely sit down and name the three things that could stop the money tomorrow. So when the key tech quits, the system goes down, or a customer sues, the whole company waits on one person to figure it out in real time. That is not a plan. That is hope with a phone in its hand.
02 / What experience taught
On 9/11, the chain of command went flat.
Robert Darling was the airlift operations officer in the President's Emergency Operations Center on September 11, 2001. He told me that the US government is the most vertical chain of command imaginable, and that day it laid down completely horizontal. The president could have talked to a lance corporal if that lance corporal had the information he needed. Robert said Condoleezza Rice, the National Security Advisor, sat right next to him and asked what he needed, water, food, or a call to a world leader. She treated the people doing the work as the experts and made herself the support. He also described what the Marine Corps drilled into him at Quantico: compartmentalization. Dismiss what is not important, focus on what has to happen first, second, third. Aviate, navigate, communicate. Then build the plan and move.
- 01
Compartmentalize when it gets loud.Robert's rule from flight training is aviate, navigate, communicate. Handle the thing that keeps you in the air first, figure out where you are second, call for help third. Do not solve payroll in the middle of a fire.
- 02
Flatten the chain when it counts.On 9/11 the most senior people made themselves support staff for whoever had the information. In a crisis, the person with their hands on the problem should be doing the talking, not waiting for permission.
- 03
Stop being a jack of all trades.Robert says you do not have to be an expert in finance or law. Build your cabinet. A part-time CFO or the right advisor costs less than the years you lose trying to learn it all yourself.
The conversation
Robert Darling
Lt. Colonel Robert J. Darling, author of 24 Hours Inside the President's Bunker
Robert flew Cobra attack helicopters in Desert Shield and Desert Storm, later flew with Marine Helicopter Squadron One, and retired from the Marine Corps after more than twenty years. Today he leads Flash Emergency Management, a crisis leadership training company. On the show he talks about why he believes the trades are the most employable people in America right now, because companies have plenty of generalists and not enough hands-on experts. He also said something worth taping to the wall: crisis leadership is a mindset, not a rank.
Listen to the full conversation 03 / Your Yellow Pad challenge
One page. Your core. Your risks.
Take out a yellow pad. At the top, write one sentence: what we actually do to make money. Below it, list every risk that could take you off that mission. One key person. One piece of equipment. One customer who is too big a share of revenue. Cash. Cyber. Then rank them one through five by how badly each would hurt you.
Pick the top one. Ask the person closest to that risk what they would do if it happened Monday morning. Robert makes the point that your employees are the sensors. They see the unhappy customer and the bald tires before you do. Write down what they tell you and one step you will take this month.
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