Episode 16: Special Thought Experiment: The Ethics of Survival and Leadership in Crisis

Imagine standing on the deck of a sinking cruise ship, heart pounding, with the knowledge that there aren't enough lifeboats for everyone onboard. This is the scenario that sets the stage for a conversation about the tough decisions and survival strategies that come into play during such a crisis. Through a compelling thought experiment, I walk you through the moral maze of lifeboat allocation, the significance of leadership in times of chaos, and the resourcefulness needed when the stakes are sky-high. We also tackle the question of who gets to survive when resources are limited, as we ponder the weight of vulnerability, essential roles, family units, and the potential contributions of each individual.

My reflections on the harrowing experiences during the Kosovo conflict serve as a backbone to the discussion on the importance of training, leadership, and the impact of a commanding presence in the eye of the storm. I share personal stories that underscore the unpredictability of human behavior under stress and illustrate the transformative power of a leader who can steady the ship amidst upheaval. Together, we wrap up these narratives in a special edition that revisits past themes, preparing the ground for future deep dives into the heart of crisis management and ethical decision-making. Join me, Shawn, as we navigate the rough waters of survival, leadership, and the human condition in this latest installment of our podcast.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hello and welcome to Full Circle with Sean. I am your host, sean, and today we're doing something special. We're going to do a thought experiment and I'm going to share some stories with you. So let's start with a thought experiment, okay, and we're going to call this thought experiment the sinking ship. And I know what you're thinking business, personal. No, it is actually a sinking ship.

Speaker 1: 0:27

So you're part of a team and you're on a cruise ship and it's been designed to be unsinkable. And, of course, as all things are mid voyage, the unthinkable happens and the ship hits an unseen obstacle and begins to sink. Now the crew discovers that there are not enough lightboats for everybody on board. Now you're a team leader and you're tasked with solving this really bad situation. So let's go over some of the rules. So the crew has limited resources, but you have a wealth of skills. So you have a lot of people on the team. You have engineers, strategists, communicators, healthcare professionals. You have a lot of people. Now you must quickly devise a plan to ensure that the maximum number of people can survive, and survive until the rescue arrives, and that could be in several hours or even several days. You don't know. You're sinking. You've sent out your distress signal. So what do you do Now? If you're like me, your brain is racing right and you need to find a way to calm it down, get yourself organized and start listing out the things that you need to look at right, and start listing out the things that you need to look at right. So the first thing I guess we need to decide is who gets on an available lifeboat. So there are a lot of things that we need to think about here, and I'm not saying that any answer is right. Okay, because different situations I mean heat of the moment, who knows what's actually going to be chosen, and a lot of this is going to be hindsight. Okay, so we're going to go back to hindsight afterwards and go did we do it right, did we do it wrong? And you know, I would say, reflect in case it happens again. But if it happens twice in your life, then you know you probably shouldn't get on boats anymore.

Speaker 1: 2:24

But let's look at some things that we can address. So we'll look at vulnerability. So maybe we should prioritize individuals based on vulnerability. So we want to look at the children, we want to look at the elderly, we want to look at those with medical conditions, who might not last if they end up in the water, okay, so maybe a rescue will come in an hour or two and people could survive in the water, holding on to something in the water, but those people would not. So we want to look at that. And then let's look at roles, right? So what are the essential roles that will be required for survival and rescue operations? So we need to make sure that we have medical expertise, right? We navigational skills, so if you get stuck out there for a long period of time, people that might be able to operate or even repair the lifeboat in the case it needs to be repaired, okay. And then we might look at what a lot of people are probably thinking is we'll do a lottery system, right? So we might implement some kind of random selection process or lottery for any remaining spots, and we're trying to ensure fairness, right? We want to look at family units, so we know that by keeping family units together, it will increase morale and mental health, and those things are crucial in survival in these scenarios.

Speaker 1: 3:57

We also want to look at leadership and order. So we might want to prioritize some individuals that are capable of maintaining order and providing leadership within the boats. And then we want to look at physical ability, right. So we want to consider everybody's physical ability to endure conditions, and there's a lot of conditions that you're likely to face when awaiting a rescue. You know, can you withstand the cold or can you manage in confined spaces? So there'll be a lot of physical attributes that could lead to a more successful outcome. And then we're going to look at contribution potential. So what is the potential contributions of an individual in, say, skills or knowledge or leadership that may be required for long-term survival? So, if rescue is delayed, definitely last but not least is moral and ethical guidelines. So you want to look at the moral and ethical guidelines that respect the dignity of all individuals. You want to make sure that your decisions are communicated transparently and that they're all made without discrimination, and a lot of these are just aimed at maximizing your survival chances while maintaining order and while upholding your ethical standards. And this is again just for the lifeboat allocation process. So good job, you figured that out, it's all allocated. So now we want to move on.

Speaker 1: 5:31

So we want to move on to what innovative ideas can we create, can we build teams to develop to increase everyone's chance of survival with the available resources that we have on hand, right? So the first thing we want to do is we want to look at our resource optimization. So we want to start by implementing very strict rationing of food, water, medical supplies, so we can get the optimal usage. We want to look at, say, improvised floating devices so we might be able to create additional flotation devices using materials that are already on board. There might be empty containers. We can look at seat cushions and life vets. Empty containers, we can look at seat cushions and life vets and we can see how we can accommodate more people in the water safely or semi-safely. And again, there could be a lot of scenarios going on. We could be in the middle of a storm or we could have high waves. So we're not going to cover every aspect of this. This is more of a, like I said, a thought experiment.

Speaker 1: 6:36

The next thing we want to do is look at signal enhancement, right? So we want to enhance the visibility of the lifeboats using, say, reflective materials or lights or flares that can increase the chance of being spotted by rescuers, but also so they can see each other. Okay, we want to look at water collection systems. So can we develop a method to collect rainwater using available materials, and we can use, you know, tarps or plastic sheeting, because we're going to need a sustainable water supply if we're out there for a long period of time. We want to look at heat conservation, right, so maybe there's ways we can design things to help conserve body heat. We can create windbreaks or use insulation materials that we find around the ship and we can help that to protect ourselves against cold weather or even water.

Speaker 1: 7:25

We want to look into improvised medical aids. We want to use materials on board to create like splints or bandages, and we want to identify team members who have basic first aid and I say basic first aid because a lot of your medical professionals might already be in lifeboats helping to manage the lifeboats. And then we might do some emergency drills, right? So what happens if this happens? What happens, you know, as it gets to this level, or it starts to tip or anything like this happens. So we can conduct little emergency drills to ensure everyone knows their role in the crisis or what could happen, and this will help to really reduce panic and improve your chance of surviving. And then, finally, we can look at psychological support right, so we can look at activities to maintain morale and mental health, and we do this in storytelling, singing, group discussions, things that really help our endurance in crisis situations.

Speaker 1: 8:39

Now, these ideas really leverage creative thinking and teamwork to enhance survival prospects and and this is until, obviously, until the rescue can be achieved, or if they're out there for a long period of time and ensure the well-being of everyone involved right, so, so, so, moving on from that, so so we might have some innovative ideas, but what we really need to start to do is leverage the diverse skills within the team to tackle the problem. Right Now, you might have, you know, say, 20, 30 engineers, and you have, you know, some developers, and you have all this slew of people. You need to figure out what to do, okay. So, or, if you figured out what to do, you need to figure out how to make the right teams that can have the success to do what you, what you want to do. So the first thing we're going to do is we're going to do some skill mapping, right. So we're going to conduct an initial assessment and we're going to identify and map out the specific skill sets and the expertise of each person that's going to be within these teams, right, and that'll allow us to really have a clear understanding of our available resources and capabilities. Now, as we start to set up our teams, we can then assign roles and responsibilities and we base these on the individual strengths and the expertise of the individuals within these teams to maximize efficiency and effectiveness.

Speaker 1: 10:01

We definitely want to do cross-functional teams so we can create cross-functional teams that combine various skills, and this will facilitate even higher level of innovation and give you some really good, comprehensive solutions through their collaboration. You some really good, comprehensive solutions through their collaboration. Now, we also want to make sure that we have a lot of idea sharing, not only between internal and the team, but between the teams, right, so we can implement regular meetings. We can bring in leaders, we can bring in specific teams, but really we want to bring stakeholders in at least where they can propose solution, they can share ideas and they can receive feedback, and this will help us to get a much more diverse perspective and hopefully speed stuff up.

Speaker 1: 10:46

Right, because we're in a sinking ship. You need to empower your teams. You give them autonomy in their areas of expertise, you encourage them to take initiative, you encourage them to lead on specific elements of the project you don't want to hold them up, you don't want to slow them down. This is not the time for politics. This is life and death. And there's other things that you can do if you have more time right, so you can start some scenario planning, further than what we've talked about before. You can even do training and skill sharing sessions. So, let's say, might not be in a sinking ship, but you're in a ship in the middle of nowhere that has lost power and the engine's blown up, and so you might have more time, and then you can do, like I said, you can do training and skill sharing, you can do mentorship and coaching, you can do more scenario planning. So there's a lot more things that you can do. But let's step back. You're still on the sinking ship.

Speaker 1: 11:47

So let's discuss, say, the role of perspective in evaluating our options. We're under pressure and what is the importance of leadership in executing our survival strategy. So we can look at a few points here. First thing we want to do is we want to encourage our leaders to consider multiple perspectives and, as they evaluate the different options, this will prevent almost prevent them from tunnel vision, right, and it'll help lead to more balanced and inclusive decision-making. We can teach them or mentor them to be a bit calm under pressure, and good leaders should maintain composure under pressure, because without it, they can't assess the situation clearly, right, they can't make decisions that are reasoned, and then your leader becomes more reactive, and you want proactive. So let's look at.

Speaker 1: 12:43

Another point is your prioritization skills. So we need to be able to prioritize our tasks and we need to be able to prioritize our resources effectively. If we focus on the most critical aspects of survival, then we have the best chance of success. Remember, we are in a sinking ship. Anything can happen at any time. So you need to get the stuff you really need done as soon as you can get it done, and everything else is a nice to have. We need decisiveness, right, and this kind of goes back to autonomy. If leaders are empowered to take the initiative and move, then that's going to be your biggest chance of success.

Speaker 1: 13:27

At the end of the day, though, we don't want to forget to have empathy. We don't want to forget to have understanding. While you know in the military, you know you're taught to your emotions shut off and you react because you go back to your training. You always go back to your training, but you still remember that a lot of members team members or other guests have a lot of fears and a lot of concerns, and it's very emotional, and you need to make sure that you show empathy and you show understanding and you not only ensure the physical survival of everybody on board but you also support the mental well-being of everyone on board.

Speaker 1: 14:09

And then we can go on and on, and I'm really interested in some of the things that you might do or things that you might think about that we didn't talk about. And so, basically, this thought experiment was designed to talk about resilience, right, resilience of individuals, teams. We looked at leadership, we looked at innovation, we looked at problem solving and we looked at being under pressure, right. So what we didn't want to do is we didn't want to jump to conclusions. As I said before, there are no right answers. As I said before, there are no right answers and, in fact, you as a leader or as a team member might have an idea which is perfect, but the way that that idea is portrayed or the way you want to do that idea is not as optimal as somebody else has come up with. So we look at that, we look at all perspectives and we figure out what's the best way to get the job done, because, at the end of the day, the job is survival. It will be stressful, there will be unexpected things that happen, there are going to be changing conditions and you're going to have to be adaptable and you're going to have to have strategies. You're going to have to be adaptable and you're going to have to have strategies, and we're going to bring all this stuff together so that we have the information we need as the circumstances evolve.

Speaker 1: 15:32

And I really do like doing thought experiments. Obviously, a lot of people have heard you know the sinking ship. I have quite a few that I do, different ones that I do or different scenarios that I think of every once in a while, that I break it down and I have my own little thought experiment around it. Right, it is good for reflection. It's good to put your you know your boots in a different place to where you can really dive in and learn something, and maybe even learn something about yourself. Now, this story really resonates with me in a way, because people act different under pressure and, as I said, in the military, you normally go back to your training, okay. So, while that's good, that could also be something that has a different, profound effect, right?

Speaker 1: 16:19

So we are in Albania. So during the Kosovo conflict it's one of the combat tours I did and we're in the middle of an airfield, basically, and there's shooting going on right in front of us. So you can see it, the fence is made up of a single strand of Constantino wire, which is that little barbed wire in like a circle that we put out and and it's going on right. So, and I am out, there's a truck that's broken down. I am away from everything. There's my sergeant out there. So I was a private at the time. There was a sergeant and there was a specialist out there there. Right now I have my bulletproof vest, he has his bulletproof vest, the sergeant and the specialist does not have her bulletproof vest. Ok, and there's, there's bullets coming in now. Whether they're coming directly at us, you can't tell Right, but there is definitely a firefight going on in front of us.

Speaker 1: 17:28

So we get behind the truck and the sergeant says the specialist, low, crawl back to the tent and get on your bulletproof vest and your helmet, right, and so she low, crawls back to the tent and low crawling is basically where you lay down and you're as flat as you can while you're still moving forward. Right, so it's the lowest crawl, right. And so she makes it back to the tent. It probably takes her 15 minutes to get back to the tent. 20 minutes she gets back to the tent, she gets on her gear and low crawls back out to us. And when she gets out there, the sergeant's like what are you doing? You just came back into a live fire incident. Why didn't you stay where you were? And she just? It's because she was overwhelmed. The stress got to her and she went back to her training. Right, shut it down, do what I'm told. Go get my bulletproof vest Okay, I got my bulletproof vest. I better go back out. Go get my bulletproof vest Okay, I got my bulletproof vest, I better go back out. And it's normal. It's absolutely normal. And everything was fine.

Speaker 1: 18:29

By the way, it ended right after that and it was fine and we all learned, right. And I was just sitting behind the truck. I was a private. I've never been in that situation before, most people haven't and I was just listening to orders as well. Heck, I might have done the same thing, given the opportunity, but another thing that happened was somebody else. So we're getting incoming, so they're basically bombing the base and the bunker was locked.

Speaker 1: 18:59

And I might have talked about some of this on one of my earlier podcasts. But the bunker was locked. So we went around the back of the bunker same sergeant right and he's like people are freaking out and he said drink water. And by giving them direction and focus, he took away some of the mental instability that was starting to form and kept order, was starting to form and kept order. And it's these things that we need to think about. And he was previous 82nd Airborne. He came to our unit to retire and he had a lot of experience and that really helped the unit in these very critical times where we needed the direction. And I learned a lot from him. Right, he ended up being one of my mentors in the military.

Speaker 1: 19:50

So that's two stories. But those stories show you, if you go back to the sinking ship, some of the complexities that you're going to have outside of just figuring out how to survive, you're going to have to figure out how to keep everybody calm. You're going to have to figure out how to be decisive and not share how you're feeling, because if you freak out. As a leader, the people will definitely freak out, but if you keep it calm and keep yourself calm, then you'll be able to make better decisions. You'll save more people Okay, and that's your job. So you'll save more people, but you'll also give a sense of calm to everyone around you and that will help you get better information. That'll help you make better decisions again, because people are actually doing the things that you need them to do at that very critical moment.

Speaker 1: 20:48

So, yeah, so this was a bit of a special edition and, yeah, I hope you enjoyed it. We will be doing these every once in a while to cover some previous topics. So if you look at some of the previous topics that we've done, you'll notice that there's a little trend there, right? Some of these topics are covered in these thought experiments or the stories that I've told you, and we'll be doing that every once in a while as a recap as we start to move forward in some of the deeper conversations that we're going to be having. So thank you for joining me on Full Circle with Sean, and I look forward to chatting next time.