I'm presently doing a consulting assignment at a hospital out of state, and last week, while there, the hospital had an internal crisis that became an external crisis that pretty much shut it down for the day.

It's interesting when hospitals shut down; they don't really shut down. What happens is people start to mobilize into different roles, but patients who are already in the hospital have to be evaluated to determine who needs to go elsewhere because of how critical they are, and who will be staying, in which case the medical staff that's still around has people to take care of.

What was remarkable was how people fell into roles of leader and follower, and it wasn't necessarily along the lines of position. A couple of the people who report to me picked up the pace and took the lead as far as their interactions with people coming into the hospital without realizing the duress it was under. They were instrumental in making sure that there wasn't a logjam or any other situations that may have occurred, and all of this in extremely cold weather. See, the power went out, which meant some outside doors had to be opened since, without power, the turning doors wouldn't work, and it was not only less than 10 degrees outside, but the winds were blowing.

For those who didn't jump into leadership spots, they were willing and waiting to be led, to be told what to do and where to place themselves to help others. Frankly, most people outside of healthcare would probably believe that hospitals would always be ready for something like this, but it's not the type of disaster most medical facilities prepare for. So, it was great to see the energy and the consideration everyone gave to each other, and just how efficient an organization could be when it needed to pull together for the greater good.

Of course, there were some problems here and there. But overall, things went really well. To me, that shows how the top leadership is responsible for how people decide to respond when something negatively extraordinary crops up. Many people could have just gone home for the day; almost no one did. That's when you know that leadership works; I'm proud to be working with this facility on their issues.