Publisher’s Note: It is hard to think about the lessons we learned 25 years ago today and in the subsequent months and years that followed. They do exist, and in today’s column, Dr. Franza identifies them while looking back at what his family experienced in the Northeast.
RICK: I remember it starting out as a beautiful, late summer-early autumn Tuesday morning in New England; specifically suburban Boston. When I left my house for my 45-50 minute commute to Bentley College (now Bentley University), the sun was shining brightly, and the sky was clear except for a few puffy white clouds.
The drive passed by more quickly than usual as I was preoccupied thinking about how my wife and I and our two young daughters (3 and 1 at the time) would be traveling to North Carolina in a couple of days for the wedding of my wife’s cousin. I was particularly excited for our three-year-old, Audie, who was to be the flower girl for the wedding. However, within 90 minutes of my arrival at my campus office, a commercial airliner crashed into the North Tower of New York’s World Trade Center. Seventeen minutes later, at 9:03 am, a second such plane hit the South Tower. While it was initially thought the first crash might have been an accident, immediately after the second crash, it was realized that a coordinated attack was underway. This was further confirmed when a third commercial airliner struck the Pentagon about thirty minutes later.
When these plane crashes happened, my first thoughts went to family and friends. While I assumed my mother was safe on Long Island, I was most concerned about some of my cousins who worked in New York’s Financial District and friends who worked in and around the World Trade Center. Fortunately, by nightfall, my mother had been notified that all my cousins had returned home safely. Once we were sure family was safe and there really was not much for us to do to help, our next step was to determine if and how we were going to get to the wedding.
Given the airplane hijackings that took place (and the fact that one of them happened at Boston’s Logan Airport), we knew our plane tickets to Greensboro were not going to get us there in time for the wedding and its related activities, including the Friday rehearsal. We ultimately made contingency plans to drive to Greensboro, leaving Wednesday evening. That meant dropping our dog off to be boarded earlier than originally planned and getting our toddlers fed and bathed in advance of an approximately sixteen-hour drive.
In retrospect, my wife and I learned some important lessons in those hours and days immediately following the attack that many businesses learned at the same time and continue to apply today. They include:
- People First: To effectively deal with a crisis, you must prioritize your people, and this manifests itself in so many ways. One way is to ensure your people are safe and do your best to maintain reliable communications to assist in limiting their danger. For me, it was about reaching out to my mother and cousins. For companies, it was about evacuating their people from any imminent danger and guiding them to safe locations. Another way was to demonstrate deep empathy during this critical time. For me, I had to realize that my mother was surrounded by people in her neighborhood and nearby towns who were directly impacted by the loss of loved ones who either worked in one of the Towers or were first responders. Businesses learned that only transparent and compassionate communication could stabilize both workforce morale and public trust. Finally, we all learned that catastrophic events inflict deep emotional trauma that requires mental health support during and well after such events.
- Resilience and Flexible Response: While it paled to the issues faced by those in New York City and Washington, D.C., being able to support my wife’s cousin on her wedding day was very important to us. Over the course of forty-eight hours, we attempted to arrange various travel methods to get to North Carolina in time for the rehearsal and wedding. Ultimately, we undertook a sixteen-hour drive with two very small children, which was both stressful and tiring as national security measures caused us to be rerouted multiple times during our drive. In the days and weeks that followed the attack, businesses learned to be resilient given the impacts on their people and facilities and to find makeshift solutions to allow for business continuity.
More importantly, beyond these lessons learned in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, businesses learned to do the following, which has served companies well in the face of other traumatic events, such as natural disasters that have happened since 9/11:
- Disaster Recovery and Data Backup: Companies learned to decentralize operations by not concentrating all critical staff and infrastructure in a single building or geographical hub. They also learned to maintain redundant data systems such as off-site digital backups, cloud storage, and robust disaster recovery plans.
- Risk Management: Companies learned to expand their risk assessments beyond simple financial forecasting to include geopolitical threats, physical security, and extreme disruptions such as those caused by man-made and natural disasters.
- Supply Chain Resilience: Companies began evaluating single points of failure in their supply chains and logistics, recognizing that external shocks can halt operations.
- Corporate Citizenship and Community Support: Companies realized their role in the communities they serve extends well beyond profit generation and into community well-being. Supporting societal resilience and community morale is an important role for business in times of need.
9/11 was a tragic day in the history of this country, and I pray that we never have to experience anything like it ever again. However, some good came out of this awful ordeal. In addition to bringing the people of this country closer together, it also taught businesses how to better deal with adversity and how to assist with recovery.
