Christopher Stitt, CEO, CrisisLead makes the case for mindfulness in crisis situations.

What is a crisis?

Crisis situations are high-pressure, involving high stakes.

Lives, property, brand reputation and more are all on the line.

While an emergency has been planned and prepared for, a crisis takes the need for critical thinking and decision-making to a higher level.

In both situations, the picture evolves as new and clarifying information comes in, revising initial reports with new data.

This requires fast and accurate decision-making, coupled with clear communication.

Many studies have examined decision-making, particularly in fast-moving situations.

One of the most respected authors is Daniel Kahneman who, in his book Thinking, Fast and Slow, describes the concepts of System 1 and System 2 thinking.

In short, System 1 is reactive, typically automatic, based on shortcuts and heuristics, pre-existing mental models that we rely on for everyday sense and deriving meaning.

System 2 is more holistic and integrated, using more effort to understand connections and carve new pathways.

In System 1 thinking, you’re more likely to overlook connections, especially those in separate domains, but in System 2 thinking, you’re more likely to make connections between disparate pieces of information.

This is particularly important in crisis situations, when formulating ideas to resolve them.

System 1 thinking offers good solutions to obvious problems but can result in unintended consequences without engaging System 2 thinking to examine second and third-order effects.

Also, relying on System 1 thinking may preclude you from identifying key factors to the situation that do not fit with the heuristics you are using to solve the problem you face.

In some crisis cases, switching between the two systems is automatic, such as when confronted with mathematical calculations, or other stimuli requiring the additional attention, focus and brain power of System 2.

In other situations, especially when the input seems familiar, we overly rely on System 1 thinking.

In time-sensitive situations, being able to switch between the two systems takes practice.

One practice to help you do this is mindfulness.

Mindfulness and strategies to achieve it

Mindfulness is a form of meditation that causes you to slow your thoughts and deliberately notice what is going on around you.

According to the Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience: “Mindfulness is focusing your attention on experiencing the present without judgment from the past or worries about the future.”

What are some of the benefits of mindfulness in emergencies and crises? A big one is that it can help you interrupt runaway System 1 thinking and engage System 2 thinking.

It helps you recognize variables and draw on different perspectives.

This leads to better decisions with holistic resolutions of underlying causes rather than simply focusing on the symptoms.

But who has time for a mindfulness practice in the middle of a crisis? Many take a minute or less!

One of the easiest is, “observe, listen, learn.”

As part of my preparation to lead deployments to some of the most dangerous places in the world, I trained on how to enter and manage an operations center during a crisis.

Many leaders want to step in and immediately take charge, peppering staff with questions to get up to speed “as quickly as possible.”

We were taught, according to the Diplomatic Security Training Center, to step in quietly, observe interactions between the team in the operations center and review the content on the whiteboards, screens or flip-chart.

Finally, allow the Senior Watch Officer to deliver their detailed update.

This process does two things: first, it forces you to slow down and engage your System 2 thinking to absorb and process the current state of play; second, it allows you to identify the differences between your assumptions and the reality of the situation.

This also helps you check your biases to ensure your decision-making is not pre-conditioned in ways that jump to inaccurate conclusions.

Mindfulness is not just for senior leaders. Everyone involved in the situation can benefit from the practice.

There are some great, fast ways to practice including a list of 21 that take one minute or less from Ryan Kane’s Mindfulness Box.

Practices I use include taking advantage of “transition moments” between locations.

This is intentionally slowing your steps and focusing on the act of walking or noticing what is going on around you as you walk from one location to another, ride an elevator or wait for something.

Don’t have time to get up and walk around? Techniques that can be used at the desk include, “box breathing”, “mindful breathing” and “focus.”

For box breathing you inhale for a count of four, hold for a count of four, exhale for a count of four and then hold for a count of four before repeating the cycle.

Going through the cycle three or four times has a tremendous effect.

This is so effective, military and law enforcement personnel learn it to help regulate their pulse rate, focus and decision-making in high-stress situations.

Mindful breathing is simply choosing a focus point, such as the feeling of the breath flowing through your nostrils or the rise and fall of your chest, as you take measured breaths, counting off each breath for a cycle of ten inhales and exhales.

Focus is simply choosing a focal point (e.g., item on your desk, piece of jewelry) and investing your entire focus on it to the exclusion of all other stimuli.

The goal is to interrupt the race of thoughts and emotions, restore some equilibrium and reduce the heart rate.

A final one I use is a variation of focus referred to as “let go”.

The goal here is to deliberately let go of frustrations, anxieties and ego.

You can visualize them being bundled up during an inhale and sent away on an exhale.

Personal mindfulness

Mindfulness takes practice. It’s best developed in non-stressful situations and incorporated into your daily routine.

Then, when you need it during high-stress situations, you can use it effectively.

Done right, this is not simply developing personal resilience, but personal Presilience.

“Presilience is the evolution of resilience, embodying a risk-intelligent approach aimed at opportunity-centrism and proactive preparation,” the Institute of Presilience says.

“This strategy is designed to maintain high performance in routine operations, while also equipping individuals and organizations to thrive in times of disruption.”

Part of the Presilience philosophy is the 80/10/10 ratio.

Eighty percent of the work is done in preparation, 10% during the incident and then 10% afterwards as a reflection on what worked and what didn’t, to improve for the next time.

In the case of mindfulness, this means developing practices before you need them.

During an event, recognize the need for a mindfulness break amid complexity and chaos and then use these strategies to ensure equilibrium.

After the event, reflect on what worked, what the results were and how you can improve for the next time.

Conclusion

Crises require attention, focus and good decision-making.

Reliance on heuristics, jumping to conclusions and allowing biased System 1 thinking to drive the response may worsen it, or at least not lead to the quickest resolution.

Presilient personal mindfulness helps you slow down and resets your mind to engage System 2 thinking effectively.

Many mindfulness practices take less than a minute, if you have an established practice.

After the crisis, reflect on what worked, what did not and prepare for the next crisis.

About the author

Christopher Stitt is CEO of CrisisLead, LLC and a Senior Consultant for Risk 2 Solution.

Chris spent over 25 years leading converged security and integrated risk programs around the world as a Diplomatic Security Service Special Agent before founding CrisisLead to help organizations navigate risk and prepare for what’s next.

This article was originally published in the December edition of Security Journal Americas. To read your FREE digital edition, click here.