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“Hey, did the power just go out?”

The number of times I’ve been in the office and the power has gone out, everything shifts and shuts down.

All on a moment’s notice.

Core functions of the day-to-day are disrupted, including the ability to communicate and even being able to do anything at the office. Since we were stuck and things were out of our control, we were told to go home early.

People gathered in the lunchroom, each other’s offices, talked and laughed, and waited for someone to find out what was going on. Nothing happened.

They were ultimately waiting for power and the use of wi-fi and cell phones to help them power their day.

But the show must go on. Business does not stop. Critical functions must continue.

Teams > Tech

We invest in many different aspects of our business, training, technology, operations, etc. Some more than others, some we just set it and forget it.

What happens when there is a disruption? Chaos? An immediate need for answers, and you need to pivot at a moment’s notice?

How do you make sure that you can continue executing your projects, your tasks, and delivering to the customer?

At the end of the day, when systems fail, humans carry the weight. It also leaves a good (or bad) taste in your mouth on how you reacted and delivered to the customer.

Here’s the truth nobody wants to say out loud: your tech stack is only as strong as the team standing behind it.

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The real wins come from the teams that thrive when normal turns into an emergency. This week, let’s talk about why high-performing teams, not the latest tech, are your insurance policy when disruption turns operations upside down.

Invest in a team that runs into the fire when the cables are cut; otherwise, your technology is just window dressing.

Let’s dance.

Here’s why this matters:

We've built businesses that can't breathe without Wi-Fi.

The lesson: Technology creates the problem. Teams solve the problem. Teams prevent future problems.

Check out a few articles here that discuss this below:

3 Ways to Prevent Meeting Disasters Before They Happen

2 Leadership Lessons from the Kitchen to Boardroom

Your Invisible Backbone - Increase Your Success with Your Support Team

Mental processing ability drops by 80% during high-stress situations. But here's the counterintuitive truth: while individual performance degrades under stress, well-trained teams actually perform better during a crisis than during normal operations.

The principle: Multiple people can handle critical functions, creating human backups when systems fail.

Real example: Amazon's "two-pizza team" rule ensures teams small enough to make fast decisions without dependency on centralized systems. When technology fails, these autonomous units continue operating independently.

Your move: Identify your three most critical business functions. Train at least two people to handle each function without system support. If you are customer-facing, who are your backups, as well as executive support, in case of any emergency.

The principle: Different backgrounds and skills create multiple solution paths when primary approaches fail.

Real example: Build as much depth with your customer as you can. Understand the network with the customer, their internal team, their pain points, and all the personnel who are with the customer.

Your move: Build teams with varied technical skills, industry backgrounds, and problem-solving approaches. When your primary systems fail, you'll have multiple ways to maintain operations.

The principle: Empower team members to make decisions without waiting for system-dependent approvals or centralized authority. Don’t allow for a single point of failure.

Crisis impact: Google's culture of employee autonomy mirrors decentralized tech systems; when central systems fail, autonomous teams can continue making critical decisions.

Your move: Define decision-making authority for your team members during system outages. When technology can't provide approvals or data, humans need clear authority to act.

The principle: When digital systems fail, human communication networks must function independently.

Crisis lesson: During major outages, 91% of organizations rely on mobile phones for crisis communication, but only 71% have mobile-accessible crisis plans. Teams with established offline communication protocols recover faster. If you (or your customer) have an outage, what are your backups? How is your proposal going to make sure it is delivered on time?

Your move: Establish communication chains that work without your primary systems, phone trees, physical meeting points, and offline documentation.

This week, stress-test your team's crisis readiness:

The questions that matter:

Technology amplifies capability, but it doesn't create resilience. People do.

When the power goes out, the network fails, or the servers crash, your competitive advantage comes down to one thing: Do you have a team that runs toward the fire instead of away from it?

Your tech stack makes you efficient during normal times. Your team makes you antifragile during crisis times.

Every dollar you invest in systems should be matched by the investment in the people who manage those systems when they inevitably fail.

Because in the moment of truth—when everything that can break has broken, your business doesn't run on code. It runs on courage, competence, and the kind of people who figure out solutions when the manual doesn't exist.

Build teams that treat technology as a tool, not a crutch.

When the cables get cut, you'll be glad you did.

From new tools, recent trends, and market updates, here is what has been on my mind.

When everything’s working, it’s easy to toast the latest technology and pat yourself on the back for another digital win.

But when systems crumble, outages cascade, and customers are desperate for solutions, it’s not your platform that leads; it’s your team.

The organizations that dominate aren’t the ones with the deepest pockets or the fanciest code. They’re built on people who run toward the chaos, adapt under pressure, and keep promises when the manual fails them.

Your competitors can copy your tech. They can’t copy your culture. The edge belongs to those who trust their teams to turn breakdowns into breakthroughs.

Don’t wait for disaster to prove your priorities. Invest now in people who deliver when everything else goes dark

See you next week.