Hi! Managers: Leadership lessons from flood crisis

Over the last couple of months, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and her leadership team faced such a test, as 4 billion cubic metres of water poured towards Bangkok, submerging industrial estates, villages and rice fields along the way.
As of this writing, the seasonal peak tides have come and gone, and the worst of the flooding appears to have passed.
But neighbouring communities around Bangkok, such as Thon Buri, Ayutthaya and Pathum Thani remain devastated by flood waters, and low-lying districts remain vulnerable to residual flooding.
All of this chaos begs the question: what could the government have done better to prevent this mess?
To be fair, the heavy rains and severe flooding presented an unprecedented challenge. Past years of lethargic flood management and neglect did not help matters.
Unfortunately, flood waters see no boundaries and do not play favourites. Their destructive powers can create a crisis that exposes the weakest links of any leadership team.
This is precisely what happened to us.
As I reflect on our government’s leadership performance, there are four lessons that stand out.
First, there seemed to be a lack of unified direction. Throughout this crisis, there did not seem to be a single plan. Our leaders had weeks to anticipate and develop a comprehensive plan to protect our communities. Yet when the flood waters came, they spent most of their time fire-fighting, rather than executing a preventative strategy.
At the end of the day, the piles of devastation – submerged factories, swamped houses, people swimming in the streets – spoke volumes of how ill-prepared we were to combat nature’s rage. It looked as if we were blindsided by sudden flooding with no warning. In hindsight, the government could have planned more rigorously and executed more forcefully.
Second, a fragmented leadership team contributed to the problem.
At one point, Bangkok Governor MR Sukhumbhand Paribatra seemed to be calling the shots as to when and how much to open the sluice gates that would allow flood waters to drain though Bangkok canals. Then suddenly it was Yingluck, invoking the Disaster Prevention Mitigation Act, and taking control.
Who was really in charge? When and how much water was actually going to pour into the centre of Bangkok? In the absence of a cohesive team approach, no one seemed to have a grip on what was really happening.
There were a variety of opinions and little evidence of a coordinated effort that would reassure the general public that our leaders knew what they were doing. Even now, there are disagreements that confuse rather than reassure – disagreements that could lead to finger pointing and violence from disgruntled flood victims.
Third, inconsistent communication exacerbated uncertainty, confusion and frustration. For example, were we suppose to believe Bangkok Metropolitan Administration official Narong Jirasappakunakorn’s guarantees that Bangkok would not flood, or Justice Minister Pracha Promnok’s less-certain prediction that Bangkok would not be hit?
How about Science and Technology Minister Plodprasob Surassawadi’s erroneous warning that the sluice gates had burst and water was pouring into northern Bangkok? There were so many mixed messages, rumours and predictions changing daily that people did not know whom to believe.
People were so jittery that even when Sukhumbhand told people, “be alert, but don’t panic”, people panicked anyway and either stockpiled supplies, or bolted from the city.
Finally, indecisiveness hampered efforts to cope with the floods. In many cases, there simply wasn’t enough time to prepare and react. Witness the hundreds of new automobiles floating in flood waters outside Honda Motor Co factories in Ayutthaya. There should have been enough time to drive these cars off the lot and onto higher ground.
Last month’s flooding in Thailand was tough, but our leaders could have done better. They could have worked more closely together on a single agenda and communicated more consistently. Nothing was certain, but had they all been on the same page, we could have waded through this crisis more successfully.

Larry Chao is managing director of Chao Group, an organisation-change consultancy based in New York and Bangkok. Follow his articles every first Monday of the month.