Remembering Nine Eleven 记得那一天， 2001 年九月十一日

This was how Jereau Almeyde started his TED presentation on what happened on that vital day in the United States of America.

“When I was in my early 20s, I rode a sport bike to work. I worked in a skyscraper on the 85th floor.  “On top of the world,” I told my Mum. From the express elevator that made my ears ‘popped’ to the spectacular view of New York City, right from my desk. It all felt sublime.  Truthfully though there was a bit of a void in me when I routinely brushed off as I looked out of those windows.  You see the resume that I  submitted for that job listed bachelor’s degree as in progress.  

“After six years of university, I had accomplished only an associate degree plus a few additional credits that I managed to scrape by.  Although I was proud to be working high atop the Empire State, I knew my academic record was mediocre.

“As I zipped down the West Side Highway early that Tuesday morning I opened the visor of my helmet to let in the crisp 65-degree air, with a bright blue sky and hardly a cloud in sight, that was a near-perfect late summer morning.”

Watch the entire video of his talk entitled “When the Dust Settled” by clicking here: https://youtu.be/2BfUB8pdjj8

Jareau recounted his story on that Tuesday morning, September 11th, 2001, when four US planes were highjacked. American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the World Trade Centre’s North Tower at 8:46 am between 93rd and 99th floors. A little later, at 9:03 am, United Airlines flight 175 crashed into the South Tower between the 77th and 85th floors.

The militant Islamic extremist group, Al Qaeda, was responsible for these suicide attacks against targets in the United States. A third suicide plane hit the Pentagon, Washington DC. The fourth plane crashed into the field in Pennsylvania. More than 3,000 people were killed and this triggered major United Stated initiatives to fight terrorism. Then, on May 2, 2011, during the Presidency of Barack Obama, the leader of AlQaeda, Osman bin Laden, was killed by the United States Navy Warfare Force in Pakistan.

Returning back to the TED talk by Jareau Almeyda, the events of September 11, 2001, changed his life. He became more focussed on improving himself academically. He often recalled the image of his face, looking much older as his bloodshot eyes showed, and his entire head was covered with fine dust and building debris.

我20多岁的时候，我骑着一辆运动自行车上班。我在85层的摩天大楼里工作。“世界之巅，” 我对妈妈说。 从我的办公桌上可以看到纽约市的壮丽景色。一切都令人赞叹。说实话，尽管当我经常从窗户向外望去时，我内心有些空虚。您会看到我的简历提交给该工作的学士学位在列。
大学六年后，我仅获得了副学士学位，再加上一些我设法获得的学分。尽管我为能在帝国之巅上高高的工作感到自豪，但我知道我的学业成绩中等。
当我在星期二清晨沿着西区高速公路滑行时，我打开了头盔的遮阳板，让它进入65度的清爽空气，明亮的蓝天几乎看不到云，那是夏末的一个近乎完美的早晨。
Jareau在2001年9月11日星期二早上叙述了他的故事，当时四架美国飞机被劫持。美国航空11班航班在上午08:46 到第99层之间坠毁，冲入世界贸易中心的北塔。不久之后，在上午9:03，联合航空的175号航班坠毁在77楼至85楼之间的南塔楼。
想象一下，您即将有最后的想法。这些想法是什么？您如何评价自己的生活？”他设想了一个遥远的未来，我们将毫无遗憾地生活到晚年。他承诺，如果他在9月11日幸存下来，将完成学业。“ 我想象着我生活的各个方面都会以某种方式与该目标相关，在其中我会找到幸福和爱，并过上富有成效的生活。

Are we really strong enough to handle a crisis? Is the outlook really better? What if something totally unexpected comes into the organization? Are we prepared for a crisis?

“Imagine for a moment that you were about to have your final thoughts. What would these thoughts be? How would you grade your life?” He envisioned a long distant future where we world to old age without regrets. He made a promise then that if he survived September 11th, he would finish his education. “I imagined all aspects of my life would somehow relate to that goal and in it, I would find happiness and love and live a productive life.”

我们真的足够强大以应付危机吗？前景真的更好吗？如果组织完全出乎意外，该怎么办？我们准备好应对危机了吗？
想象一下，您即将有最后的想法。这些想法是什么？您如何评价自己的生活？他设想了一个遥远的未来，我们将毫无遗憾地生活到晚年。他承诺，如果他在9月11日幸存下来，将完成学业。“我想象着我生活的方方面面都会以某种方式与该目标相关，在其中，我会找到幸福和爱心，并过上富有成效的生活。”

Let us move on by taking a look at another video from CNN News. It was a live breaking news recording of the day, - 2 hours 43 minutes long. So, if you wish, you can delay this viewing until later. Some photo shots from that video are shown below. https://youtu.be/CH1nHRFQaIU

Paul A. Argenti wrote an article published by the Harvard Business Review in the December 2002 issue on the topic of “Crisis Communications: Lessons from 9 / 11”. https://hbr.org/2002/12/crisis-communication-lessons-from-911 Paul observed and studied the operations of several major companies (including Oppenheimer Funds, Verizon, Starbucks, Goldman Sachs, and the New York Stock Exchange) for ten months immediately following the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001. He came up with the following key lessons in Crisis Management for us all.

Lesson # 1: The morale of employees and contractors has to be rebuilt. When the events of September 11, many companies lost scores of employees, contractors, and suppliers. Many companies saw key components of their infrastructure destroyed. There were also breakdowns in communication and transportation. In such a time, internal communication takes precedence over everything else. Effective leaders know that, in crisis, workers required concrete evidence that the management viewed their distress as one of the organization’s key concerns. To have empathy with the staff and to maintain high levels of visibility amongst their followers become the number one priority. Getting on the actual scene fast and acting calmly, rationally, and humanely are of paramount importance.

Lesson # 2: Choose appropriate media for communicating messages. Disasters disrupt the normal flow of communications as phone and power lines may be destroyed. Groups of employees may be stranded or isolated. To reach these people, leaders have to be creative in using unconventional media to communicate.

Lesson # 3: Stay focussed on the Business. A focus on work can be helpful to workers in a time of crisis. It provides an outlet for their desire to help to get them back to a normal routine. It also fosters pride in the organization.

Lesson # 4: Always have a crisis plan in place. https://youtu.be/WzzLKQ3_lAI. Enlightened leaders are forward thinkers. They realize that managing any crisis requires planning in advance. This needs the same focus and dedication and resources that they typically provide to other dimensions of the business. They also recognize that a strong internal communication system can function as a unifying force and thus strengthen their organization internally. Every employee can only know what to do in a crisis if he has been absorbing the organization’s guiding principles of a crisis plan that are well communicated to them in advance. Oppenheimer Fund’s Chief Executive John Murphy had said: “Two of our organization’s guiding principles all along are ‘dedication to caring’ and ‘team spirit’. If we have a strong culture, we have the ability to maintain focus. On September 11th, we had a structure, a belief system, and a hierarchy all in place. That helped us to get through that crisis.”

Lesson # 5: Improvise from a strong foundation. Operations during a crisis should be decentralized so as to encourage individuals to suggest improvisation ideas to a centralized decision making management. Messages could then be sent from a centralized source in order that the implementation of the ideas could be smoothly carried out. During September 11th, for instance, several companies already had improvisations designed around the passing of valuation information to employees. Morgan Stanley’s urgent toll-free number was widely televised minutes after the attacks on World Trade Centre. “People need to think on their feet and to make quick decisions. Until the crisis comes, in whatsoever form, we don’t really understand how valuable all the preparation was,” said Robert Zito, the Executive Vice President of the New York Stock Exchange, when interviewed on the importance of improvisation soon after September 11th.

第1课：必须重建员工和承包商的士气。 9月11日事件发生时，许多公司失去了数十名员工，承包商和供应商。许多公司看到其基础架构的关键组件遭到破坏。通讯和运输方面也有故障。在这种情况下，内部沟通优先于其他所有事情。有效的领导者知道，在危机中，工人需要具体的证据，证明管理层将自己的困扰视为组织的主要关切之一。与员工保持同情并在其追随者之间保持较高的知名度已成为第一要务。快速进入实际场景以及冷静，理性和人道地行动至关重要。
第2课：选择适当的媒体来传达消息。由于电话和电源线可能会被破坏，因此灾难破坏了正常的通信流程。员工群体可能被搁浅或孤立。为了吸引这些人，领导者必须具有使用非常规媒体进行交流的创造力。

第3课：专注于业务。在危机时期，专注于工作可能对工人有所帮助。它提供了满足他们帮助他们恢复正常生活的愿望的渠道。它还使组织感到自豪。

第4课：始终制定危机计划。 https://youtu.be/WzzLKQ3_lAI。开明的领导人是有远见的思想家。他们意识到应对任何危机都需要提前计划。这需要它们通常为业务的其他方面提供的相同的关注，奉献和资源。他们还认识到强大的内部沟通系统可以充当统一力量，从而在内部加强组织。如果每个员工都已经吸收了事先与他们充分沟通的组织的危机计划指导原则，那么他就只有知道如何应对危机。奥本海默基金会首席执行官约翰·墨菲曾说：“我们组织一直以来的两个指导原则是'奉献爱心'和'团队合作'精神。如果我们拥有强大的文化，我们就有能力保持专注。9月11日，我们有一个结构，一个信仰体系和一个等级制度。这帮助我们度过了这场危机。”

第5课：在坚实的基础上即兴创作。危机期间的业务应分散管理，以鼓励个人向中央决策管理部门提出即兴创意。然后可以从集中的源发送消息，以便可以顺利地执行这些想法。例如，在9月11日，一些公司已经围绕将估值信息传递给员工进行了即兴创作。摩根士丹利（Morgan Stanley）紧急的免费电话在世界贸易中心（World Trade Centre）遭到袭击后的几分钟内被广泛播放。纽约证券交易所执行副总裁罗伯特·齐托说：“人们需要认真思考并做出迅速的决定。在危机到来之前，无论以何种形式，我们都无法真正理解所有准备工作的价值。” 9月11日之后不久，在接受交流时就即兴创作的重要性进行了采访。