I am a fan of Toyota.  I own one currently and have owned another one in the past.  They make great cars.

So it hurts me to see how they are responding to what is emerging as the greatest crisis Toyota has faced.  I want them to do better.  I want them to sell more cars.  But right now, I’m not sure they’re helping themselves.

Most of us non-caver dwellers have by now heard that Toyota has halted sales on eight models (representing over 50% of its sales) and recalled millions of vehicles because of gas pedals that stick.   As this piece points out, Toyota’s not saying much.   They haven’t apologized – really.  And while every defective vehicle will likely be fully repaired, somehow their handling of the situation has been less than optimal.

Here’s what great companies and leaders do when facing crisis:

• The top leader are involved.  Sending the VP of marketing (or associate pastor) out to do your dirty work is a failure of leadership.
• Great leaders name the problem honestly.  Any “probably most of you won’t die from this so it’s not that serious” talk from the CEO is not helpful.  Tell people it’s a serious situation and tell them you are aware of the consequences.
• Top leaders take full responsibility.  This is not the time to point fingers, assign blame or play they “it really isn’t my fault” card.  People who take responsibility inspire confidence in followers.
• Great leaders fix the problem.  Honestly admitting you have a problem is different than doing everything in your power to make it right.  Even if you are not sure how to fix it, publicly announcing that you will do everything you can do to find a solution is helpful.

I know that as a leader, it’s hard to do these things.  There’s something inside all of us that wants to turtle when crisis hits.  We’d love to cover up, underplay it and hope it would go away.   But that undermines confidence among your followers.  Doing the hard thing and owning it, assuming full responsibility and fixing the issue inspires confidence.  This has been one of my key learnings over the last number of years.  The more I do this, the better I (and the rest of our team) lead.

But I’m learning over time that the very best response I can have to bad news is to get on top of it and accept full responsibility.

What do you think?  What are some practices you’ve seen in crisis that either inspire or diminish confidence?

We’re all watching and responding to what’s happening in Haiti.  We don’t know the full extent of what the damage is or how many have lost their lives. But we’re praying for them and responding to them.  And we should.  And we will. It’s incredibly sad.  I think it’s only appropriate that our attention, hearts and response are focused on Haiti and helping as much as we can.

But what if we continue to miss something even more pressing than what’s happening now?

Whenever there’s a disaster that strikes, I think about Jesus’ teaching in Luke 13: 1-5.  Two tragedies were in the headlines in that moment two thousand years ago.  The government had killed some citizens and a tower had collapsed killing eighteen.   Jesus addressed the meaning of their death by pointing people to the meaning of their life.  Naturally, just like today, people were asking the why question (why did these people have to die?).  Jesus skirted it and said to those still alive – everyone’s going to perish, and our lives will have no meaning unless we all turn to God, confess our sins and repent.  For Jesus, that was the big issue – not just the tragedy of sudden death, but the tragedy of missing the point of life.

I think about that every time there’s a tragedy. We need to respond to Haiti.  We will.  But what if it’s not the biggest issue facing the people of Haiti or the people of Canada, the US or any other country globally?

What if we prayed as hard for people in peacetime as in war time?  What if we worked as hard for life change in the absence of disaster as in a moment of disaster?  You and I tend to turn to God in seasons of despair and tragedy.  What if we just turned to him that way and lived our lives out differently every day?  Love doesn’t just respond to crisis, it responds to people.

What if there was an urgency to the mission of the church everyday as intense as it is in crisis? What if we gave like we’re giving now to the larger issue of changing the lives of people in Haiti, Canada, the US and beyond when there was no ‘crisis’ other than the one Jesus identified?  What if we cared last week like we cared now?

What if we acted like there is a crisis even if there wasn’t a crisis?  Can we even think this way?  Is it healthy?  Is that what Jesus was driving at? What do you think?