Running a Rescue: Thad Allen Interviewed for Sloan

Former Sloan Fellow Thad Allen SM ’89, the former National Incident Commander for the unified response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, spoke at the MIT Sloan Alumni Weekend, May 13-15, as part of Building the Future, a school-wide event that included the dedication of MIT Sloan’s new building.

Starting today, videos of the Building the Future sessions will be available online.

Catch his full interview on the Sloan Experts blog—meanwhile here a few excerpts:

Q: You’ve been involved in so many extraordinary events. Was there a class here that helped you in dealing with these challenges?

A: Absolutely. There was one course everyone remembers when they leave: Choice Points: Readings on the Exercise of Power and Responsibility. For several hours every Friday morning, we would read classical literature and derive ethical dilemmas from it. You can bring your spouse and friends. It’s an extraordinary course and directly transferable to leadership and managerial dilemmas you face on the outside.

Q: In many of the events you’ve been involved in, people experienced strong emotions. As a leader, how do you handle these situations?

A: One aspect to the emotional content of work like this is the natural reaction of communities that have been traumatized. Often, it’s anger and frustration. There is personal and societal grieving. You need to understand that, but you can’t let it hobble your response. You can’t become so overwhelmed with emotion that you can’t focus on what you have to do.

People often are very angry, and they’re using a lot of energy being angry, when you could be using that energy to fix the problem. It’s often possible get emotional buy-in for a unified effort.

Read the full interview.