There comes a point in every tale of disaster from Jon Krakauers 1997 Everest chronicle, "Into Thin Air," to last years blockbuster space movie, "Gravity" when you think, Could it get any worse?
Of course, it always does. And as readers or viewers, we can’t get enough.
Why are these books and movies so compelling? Are we simply fascinated by others misfortune? The worse their luck, the greater our thrill? Or is it a need for catharsis for acknowledgment of, and release from, all our repressed anxieties about the things that could harm us?
Perhaps both, to some degree. There could be another reason — the deep examination of moral choices they often offer.
Relate and compareWhat decisions did the climbers or astronauts or sailors or hikers or airplane passengers make in the direst of circumstances? And how would we behave in similar emergencies? Would your behaviour be guided by selflessness, self-interest or something else?
Crisis settings by definition present extraordinary challenges. Yet as Harvards Lachlan Forrow, an expert in medical ethics and palliative care, wrote we should almost always see exceptional moral situations as opportunities for us to show exceptionally deep commitment to our deepest moral values.
Shades of grayThe best disaster narratives offer up those types of character tests none black-and-white, all coloured in shades of gray. Sometimes the absence of moral choices can make a disaster story seem strangely empty.
Harvard Business Schools Amy Edmondson, in numerous case studies and articles, has analyzed both the flawed decision-making that leads to disasters and the tough choices people must make as a consequence. Her work has showcased leadership failures (at NASA, for example, in the run-up to the Challenger explosion) as well as triumphs, such as the willingness of the head of the 2010 Chilean mine rescue operation to try an innovative drilling idea suggested by a 24-year-old engineer. That open-mindedness took some moral courage a leader more concerned about protecting entrenched hierarchies might have ignored advice from someone so young and inexperienced.
Leadership qualities to foreIn good times and bad, before crises and after, leadership quality often rests on the strength of leaders intuitive moral sense. If that sense is powerful, the leaders will probably do the right thing when disaster strikes (or prevent trouble from happening at all).
If their commitment to ethics isnt exceptionally deep, to borrow Forrows words, they might find themselves cutting corners and thus courting catastrophe, or, in the midst of a crisis, pushing people aside to save themselves.
