The other T-break

The archetypal English notion of responding to a crisis by ‘sitting down and having a cup of tea’ is not one that readily springs to mind in most situations, particularly when operating under intense time pressures or angry and anxious leaders. Tea breaks in those situations are likely to get your immediate colleagues and leaders to the boil much faster than the kettle..

During a crisis or significant risk event, people are more likely to identify with the somewhat different (and also allegedly English) response of ‘keep calm and carry on [doing whatever]…’ But there is often the potential for greater risk in ‘carrying on’ to the end rather that stopping, even for a moment. For one thing, what if the ‘end’ is not the same as it was pre-crisis? Has it changed or moved slightly, or do leaders perceive it differently? It also doesn’t help that we are ‘carrying on’ at a greater pace than we ever have before, with less reaction time and greater consequences if things go wrong.. And when things go south, we are even more likely to put the foot on the accelerator than the brake..

It’s not like we don’t know what a tea (or more likely coffee) break is. The time taken to walk with colleagues to get a daily caffeine fix offers a great opportunity to step away from the immediate, draw breath and change focus. But other than these breaks, our day to day activities and ‘busy-ness’ usually means we don’t make the time to actually stop and consider the risk ‘hows’, ‘whys’ and ‘what-ifs’ related to our work.

So how can we get off the decision making fast lane and start looking at the road ahead? By taking another form of tea break - a metaphorical ‘risk T-break’: Time, Thought and Talk.

Good decisions don’t happen by osmosis.. They take time, thought and talk. So to enable better decision making, start first with a smaller decision - allocate time for you and your team to think and talk. Build a temporary wall from emails, phone calls and all the other types of busy-ness. It may not be immediately popular with those wanting to contact you, but it allows the wheels of critical thinking to start turning so that you can assess, consider, review and talk about your current and future challenges. Without the time and space available behind these walls, often the only thing left to guide you is a ‘knee-jerk’ and risk averse operating culture.

So next time you are getting your caffeine hit, start planning your next T-break as well…