Issue 1
HAVING AN INFRASTRUCTURE WHEN YOU NEED IT MOST: LESSONS IN LEADERSHIP FROM RUDY GIULIANI AND 9/11

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This issue of View From The Lighthouse focuses on lessons learned and important reminders about leadership and having the right infrastructure at the right time drawn from watching and reading about Rudy Giuliani and New York City after 9/11.

It also contains references to other information on this topic.
 

ISSUE 1—HAVING AN INFRASTRUCTURE WHEN YOU NEED IT MOST: LESSONS IN LEADERSHIP FROM RUDY GIULIANI AND 9/11

Recent events and reflections have converged to provide an opportunity for me comment on three related topics, each of which holds meaning for me:  New York City in the aftermath of 9/11, leadership, and organization infrastructure.  This issue is about former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, his response to the tragedy and crisis that befell New York, and my thoughts about some of the things that enabled his extraordinary leadership under the most unimaginable and unprecedented conditions.

The first thing you should know (or recall) is that I am a New Yorker.  Although I lived there very briefly and grew up in the nearby suburbs, being from New York is a fundamental part of my identity.  This excerpt from a post-9/11 poem says it well:

I do not live in the five boroughs or on the Island or Upstate
I may live hundreds or thousands of miles away
But I am a New Yorker
Whatever took me out of New York:
Business, family or hating the cold
did not take New York out of me.

This is not about liking or disliking Rudy nor is it about what he accomplished during the first seven and three quarters years of his administration except as it positioned him and the City to respond heroically.  The press on him is that if you live or work in the City, you either loved or hated him, appreciated what he was doing or thought he had the wrong agenda—though he won over many of his detractors with his accomplishments, his reaction to having cancer, and his leadership this past fall.  From my pre-September vantage point 3000 miles distant, and as an occasional visitor, the City looked and felt better—certainly cleaner and also safer and friendlier.

My most recent visit there coincided with the end of his term and his being named Time's Person of the Year, and in the NY Metropolitan Area, stories about Giuliani dominated the media.  That's when I began to "study" Rudy, using my doctoral research on transformational leadership as the lens.

The literature is filled with lists and descriptions of those factors that contribute to effective and inspired leadership.  Here are some of them, illustrated by things that Giuliani said or did that underscore their enduring power and led to numerous tributes to his leadership.

Vision: The essence and articulation of a leader's passion, drive to make things better, and tenacity is his/her vision.  Rudy has always had clear, compelling, and transforming visions for his work.  We know that this, along with purpose and mission, then defines the scope of ones goals, strategies, and activities.  Prior to his taking office, New York City, the fourth largest government in the US, was regarded as ungovernable and destined to continue its decline.  When polled, over half its population said they'd leave if they could figure out how.  In his own words, Giuliani's vision as mayor was to "turn around the city."  Certainly not a job for the faint of heart.

Purpose and Values:  One's sense of purpose, what one is here to do in this lifetime, is typically a reflection of one's values.  Rudy refers to these as "ideas" about what matters, especially in a community.  Creating alignment around and commitment to common values is an important ingredient in making change.  For leaders—and their followers--purpose and values are sources of inspiration, action, and perseverance: that which sustains all of us when the going gets rough, which if you're making changes that are significant and transformative, it will.  Some of his ideas about what matters at the most fundamental, human level--the idea that paying attention to and improving the quality of life at the level of broken windows, panhandling, graffiti, and drug dealing impacts crime; the idea that it's better to be indoors and not out on the street; and the idea that people should work and that we should do everything possible to encourage them to take care of themselves as an alternative to dependency and welfare--are core beliefs that were the foundation of his agenda, strategy, and administration. (NYT 12/27)

Mission, Commitment, and Staying the Course: Being clear and focused about where "there" is, devoting one's life and resources to that in which one believes, and persevering in the face of disagreements and adversity are attributes of leaders.  Some believe that Giuliani did this to a fault.  Said, Rudy, "I spent my first seven and three-quarters years as mayor living out my father's advice that it's better to be respected than loved, but I had forgotten the last part of what he used to say: 'Eventually, you will love me.'" (Time 12/31, p. 50)

Presence, Visibility, and Overcommunicating:  The best leaders understand that in order to inspire and enroll, they must be role models, clear and relentless communicators, and meaning makers about their vision—that they must walk-their-talk.   In the first 16 hours after the WTC was hit, he utilized the media to both inform and reassure people, set up a command center, made hundreds of decisions, visited hospitals, and returned to Ground Zero four more times. (Time 12/31, p. 42)  With Bush out of sight in Nebraska, he emerged as the national spokesperson, later saying, "…it seemed to me that they needed to hear from my heart where I thought we were going." (Time p. 44)  In the days and months that followed, he took numerous people to Ground Zero, attended over 200 funerals many of them for friends, escorted a bride, flew to Arizona for the World Series, and was back in time for the NYC Marathon.  After the memorial service in Yankee Stadium when, exhausted, he thought her couldn't attend another funeral, he did it anyway.  During the anthrax scare, "he treated the public like grownups, offering unvarnished information and never having to backtrack." (Time p. 54)

Learning from Life's Lessons:  Leaders learn from their experiences.  The most transformational of them seek and create experiences, are self-reflexive, and seek to integrate their learnings and use them in ways that will be self-enhancing rather than self-limiting (Gibbons, 1986).  Giuliani says, "…I changed more from the prostate cancer (than from the experience of 9/11).  Having to deal with that had a bigger impact and gave me…more wisdom about the importance of life, the lack of control you have over death.  It removed some of the fear of death."  (Time 12/31, p. 51)  Big lessons….

Early Lessons from Significant People:  Transformational leaders frequently received encouragement from significant people in their early lives, including messages and lessons that shaped their direction and character.  Giuliani's father had an enormous impact on him.  An ex-con who wanted different outcomes for his son, Rudy frequently tells of an important lesson that he learned from his father:  "… in a crisis or when everybody else gets all upset you should become calmer, and the best way to figure your way out of a crisis is force yourself to be actually calmer than everyone around." (MTP 12/23)  This is, I think, describes his grace under pressure.

Most Important Lesson from 9/11:  "Be honest with people.  Just be who you are.  Don't do all the spinning and the poll watching…all that little contortion of humanity that sometimes happens in politics... Go with your heart and your conscience and tell people the truth." (MTP 12/23) A good lesson for all of us...politics are not just in government.
 

Some Thoughts On Infrastructure:

It's the basic system or framework on which your organization is built and operates.  Every organization has one. When it's well matched to the mission, vision, values, and strategic direction of the enterprise, be it a company or a municipality, it enables lasting success and sustainable returns on investments.  Infrastructure is not an end in itself; rather, a solid infrastructure is necessary-but-not-sufficient-condition on which all else is built.

It needs to be robust enough to carry the weight of the day-to-day requirements as well as the sudden or occasional demands placed on it.  If it's not, then it will gradually deteriorate along with the enterprise that it's meant to support.  Or, more frighteningly, one strong perturbation that exceeds the design limits will cause it, literally, to collapse, taking the organization with it.  I call this the Cypress-Structure-In-the-Earthquake-Effect.  By September 12, I was worrying that this might happen in New York.  (Yes, along with everything else, I actually worried about Infrastructure.)  How can anyone create an infrastructure that could withstand the effects of a catastrophic event unprecedented in the history of the world, I wondered?

There are three particular examples from New York that I want to cite.  I picked them because they represent different elements of organization design that were critical to the ability of Giuliani and the City to respond to 9/11.

His Staff Team:  Giuliani systematically and relentlessly built his team, and all of them were people who understood his style and were willing and able to work with him—not always an easy thing—but an essential one.  (Ask former Police Chief Bratton who was replaced because he was so successful that he was seen as a rival.)  Nevertheless, Rudy's quick to praise and credit them:  "I had a very good team, and we knew how to work like a team." (NYT 1/16/02)  He had clear governance processes in place, including a daily, don't-miss-it 8AM staff meeting.  On 9/11, when his emergency command center at the WTC was evacuated, his staff moved together to locate a new site.  He insisted that the Fire and Police Commissioners, who wanted to stay at the scene, come too. (Time, p. 77)  This probably saved their lives when so many others in the NYPD and FDNY leadership were killed.

It is this same team that is now the core of Rudy's recently announced new consulting business, Giuliani Partners. (E&Y, 1/15)

Anticipation and Preparedness:  Giuliani recognized that New York was a target for terrorists and created critical infrastructural solutions. First was the Office of Emergency Management.  In addition to insuring critical capabilities, it also reduced the known conflict and competition between the police and fire departments.  He increased security around City Hall and instituted emergency response drills for city workers that, no doubt, saved more lives and reduced the likelihood of chaos during the disaster.  He also anticipated the possibility of anthrax attacks and had met with both the CDC and the FBI prior to the first attack. (Time, p. 54)

Technological Systems Solutions:  Compstat is the NYPD's crime analysis system.  The data show patterns and trends about types, locations, and frequencies of crimes.  This has enabled much more strategic and focused deployment of resources.  The crime rate has been cut by half and murders by 70%.  The FBI has rated New York the safest large city in the country for five years in a row.  Shortly after 9/11, there was a (one week) spike in violent crime that was attributed to the diversion of personnel to the WTC.  Compstat pinpointed the location of the problem, and detectives were returned to specific assignments.  The result—a reduction in crime to a rate lower than the same period the previous year.  (NYT 12/27)

The lesson:  It takes time and focused attention to build a resilient, effective and responsive infrastructure.  Giuliani has said frequently that he thought it was better that it happened after he'd been mayor for seven and three-quarters years, because he'd been through a lot, he had the right team in place, and they were prepared to respond. (MTP, 12/23) Consider the alternatives….

Sadly, there are some post-9/11 conditions for which the necessary infrastructures don't exist.  The process for deciding how to distributing the monies collected for victims and their families is one. (BW 1/21)  Another involves small businesses in the area surrounding the WTC.  Many were destroyed.  Others were looted.  Still others have experienced precipitous declines in traffic or business.  They are unable to find the financial assistance they need to reopen or rebuild.  In a massive Catch-22, they're being denied loans because they don't have income (duh!).  The State, the City, the SBA, and other federal agencies have been unable to respond.  (SJMN, 1/21)  And finally, the contracting firms that are working at Ground Zero 24/7, the same ones that have removed over 1 million tons of rubble under the most physically and emotionally demanding conditions in less time and at a lower cost than anyone predicted was possible, have been working without a contract and have been unable to get liability insurance. (NYT 1/13, 1/21)  And they're doing it anyway…because they are New Yorkers.
 

RESOURCES:

Rudy Giuliani: Emperor of the City, Andrew Kirtzman, HarperCollins, 2000.
This is the book to which the movie rights have recently been sold.

Sayings of Generalissimo Giuliani, Kevin McAuliffe (ed.), Welcome Rain Publishers, 2000.
amazon.com calls this "a collection of the most memorable, (unintentionally) hilarious and downright alarming statements to have come out of Giuliani's mouth…".

Time, Person of the Year Issue, December 31, 2001.www.time.com/time/poy2001/

One Nation: America Remembers September 11, 2001, Life Magazine Staff (eds.), Little Brown and Company, 2001.
Considered to be the best book that's been published about 9/11; includes text and photos.

Leadership, James MacGregor Burns, Harper Torchbooks, 1978.
This is the original and now classic conceptualization and exposition on transformational leadership.

Leadership and Performance Beyond Expectations, Bernard M. Bass, Free Press, 1985.
Bernie Bass was the first to research the differentiation of leadership orientations, bringing it into the context of contemporary organizations. The question that this book addresses is, "Why do most leaders or managers elicit merely competent performance from their followers, while a select few inspire extraordinary achievement?"  If you're interested in transformational leadership this is an important resource.

Revisiting The Question of Born vs. Made: Toward a Theory of Development of Transformational Leaders, Tracy C. Gibbons, unpublished doctoral dissertation, The Fielding Graduate Institute, 1986.

Sources for the newsletter article:
Meet The Press: transcript for 12/23
New York Times: 12/27, 12/30, 1/13, 1/16, 1/21
BBC News Online: 9/14
Ernst & Young Press Release: 1/15
San Jose Mercury News: 1/21
Business Week: 1/21
Time: 12/31