Irina Alexander

A speaker I know recently shared a story that perfectly illustrates what happens when leaders don't communicate during a crisis.

She was on a WestJet flight from Atlanta to Calgary. They lined up on the runway. Started accelerating. They were going about 100 miles an hour when the brakes came on. Hard. The takeoff was aborted.

And then... silence. Five full minutes of complete silence.

Finally, the pilot came on. "Oh yeah, we had to abort takeoff because the caution button came on. We're just going to taxi, look at things, and be on our way."

No acknowledgment of how jarring that was. No explanation. No reassurance.

About 30 minutes later, they're taxiing to another runway. Suddenly: *Bing.* "Flight attendants, please prepare for takeoff."

Zero conversation with passengers. Zero explanation. Zero reassurance that whatever caused the abort had been fixed.

The flight made it to Calgary. Everything was fine. But that's not the point.

When something goes wrong, people need three things:
Acknowledgment: "I know that was scary. I know you're wondering what happened."
Explanation: "Here's what we know. Here's what we're doing."
Reassurance: "Here's why it's safe to proceed."

The pilot didn't do any of those things. And in the absence of information, people assume the worst.

Even though the flight landed safely, that speaker spent the entire time wondering if the problem had been fixed or if they were just hoping for the best.

This applies to every leader. A project behind schedule. An unhappy client. A product that isn't working. Whatever the crisis, your team is looking to you for information. If you don't give it, they'll fill in the gaps themselves with assumptions that are always worse than reality.

Silence doesn't protect people. It creates anxiety.

Your employees are sitting in their version of that plane right now. Something unexpected happened. They're looking at each other wondering what's going on.

Don't leave them in silence.

Full post: https://motivaction.academy/post/communication-during-crisis

𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘂𝗺 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵.
We've all heard it. We nod. We agree. Maybe we even share it. But how many of us have actually sat down and mapped who those five people are?

A friend called recently. Someone she hadn't been close to in years had named her as executor in their will. Without asking. Without even telling her until after the paperwork was done. "We used to be close," she said. "But that was years ago. We barely talk now. And she thinks I'm still her person?"

That's the misalignment problem. What you think the relationship is versus what it actually is. What they think the relationship is versus what you think it is.

There's a framework for this. HORS. Hierarchy of Relationships. Four concentric circles: Core, Friends, Peers, Acquaintances.

Most people can visualize this immediately. They get the concept. But when you actually start filling in names, things get uncomfortable. You realize the person you thought was in your core group is actually a peer. Or the person you've been treating like an acquaintance is someone you actually trust at a friend level.

The clarity comes when you ask two questions for each person:
What must they do for me?
What must they never do to/for me?

Those two questions define the boundaries. In your core group, the "must do" list is short but significant. Show up when it matters. Tell me the truth even when it's hard. Protect my confidence.

In your friend group, the lists shift. The expectations are different. Peers have even clearer boundaries. And acquaintances? The boundaries are the widest. When you try to treat a peer like core, or expect core-level support from a friend, the relationship breaks down.

Here's the exercise: Think about your communities. Work. Family. Social groups. For each community, list the 1-4 people who are most influential to you. Not the people you like most. The people who actually shape how you think, feel, and show up.

Place them in the HORS map. Be honest. Not aspirational. Where they actually are. Then ask the two questions for each person. If you can't answer clearly, the relationship probably isn't as defined as you think.

The hard part isn't mapping the circles. It's what you do after. Because once you see where people actually are, you have to decide: Is this where they should be? And here's what makes people uncomfortable: Once you know where someone is in your map, do they know where they are?

Clarity isn't unkind. It's the kindest thing you can do. Because it lets both people know where they stand.

You are the sum of the five people you spend the most time with. But if you don't know who those five people are, you're letting it happen by default instead of by design.

Full post: https://motivaction.academy/post/you-are-the-sum-of-five-people

We didn't win. We didn't lose. Nobody won.

We placed a bid for a government contract. A leadership retreat. Our bread and butter.

Results were posted. But there were no results. Just a list of everyone who submitted quotes.

I emailed to ask who won. The response: They changed their mind. Nobody won. No award status.

Which sent me into a spiral about wasted resources.

For our quick quote, we invested about 15 hours of work. At a conservative internal cost of $100/hour, that's $1,500 in labor for us alone.

We weren't the only ones. At least 10 other bidders. If each invested similar time, that's $15,000 in private sector resources on a solicitation that resulted in no contract.

Government side? Conservatively 20-30 hours of staff time at $40/hour loaded cost. Another $800-$1,200 in taxpayer money.

This one quick quote that got canceled cost roughly $16,000-$17,000 in combined wasted resources.

So I tried to find data. Official government tracking of how often solicitations get canceled. How much money is wasted.

There is none. The government doesn't track this.

But here's what we can estimate:

An estimated 500,000-700,000 solicitations are issued annually across federal, state, and local government. If 10% get canceled (conservative estimate based on industry experience), that's 50,000-70,000 canceled bids per year.

Government side: At an average of $7,000 in staff time per solicitation, that's $350M-$490M in wasted government labor annually.

Private sector side: Average of 30 vendors per bid × 40 hours prep × $75/hour = $90,000 per canceled bid. At 50,000-70,000 canceled bids, that's $4.5B-$6.3B in private sector time wasted.

Combined: roughly $5-6 billion per year. For bids that produced zero.

The honest caveat: These are working estimates. The actual number could be higher.
And nobody in government is required to report it.

And when you question the inefficiency, people take it personally. "We're doing it by the rules we were given."

But nobody ever questions the rules.

Change doesn't start with blame. It starts with curiosity.

What if we asked: Why did this solicitation get canceled? What could we have known earlier?

What if we tracked: How much time and money is being spent on solicitations that never result in awards?

What if we measured: What is the actual cost of this process, and is there a way to reduce it?

These aren't revolutionary questions. They're basic efficiency questions. The kind any business would ask.

But government doesn't operate like a business.

And maybe that's the problem.

Full post: https://motivaction.academy/post/we-didnt-win-we-didnt-lose-nobody-won