The New Leader's 100-Day Action Plan, 5th Edition

CHAPTER 14Lead Through a CrisisA 100‐Hour Action Plan.

The New Leader's 100‐Day Action Plan is a sequential methodology for leaders and their teams to get done in 100 days what normally takes 6–12 months. In a crisis or disaster, this time frame is woefully inadequate as teams need a way to get done in 100 hours what normally takes weeks or months. This requires an iterative instead of sequential approach. That disciplined iteration is detailed below.

Leadership is about inspiring, enabling, and empowering others. Enhance that with the idea from the British philosopher Carveth Read that “it is better to be vaguely right than precisely wrong.”¹ Then add Darwin's point that “it is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”² Add them all up and you get leading through a crisis being about inspiring, enabling, and empowering others to get things vaguely right quickly, and then adapt along the way—with clarity around direction, leadership, and roles.³

This plays out in three steps of a disciplined iteration that should be aligned with the overall purpose:

1. Prepare in advance. The better you have anticipated possible scenarios, the more prepared you are and the more confidence you will have when crises strike.
2. React to events. The reason you prepared is so that you all can react quickly and flexibly to the situation you face. Don't overthink this. Do what you prepared to do.
3. Bridge the gaps. In a crisis, there ...