The Resilient Entrepreneur, Edition #122
Hi there
I hope you had a great week!
Here are the topics in today's edition:
- Substance Over Form: Stop Wasting Time on the Wrong Things
- Employed, Elected, or Active Reserve: Switzerland’s Secret
Please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions for articles!
Talk soon,
Tom
TACTICS FOR RESILIENT ENTREPRENEURS
Substance Over Form: Stop Wasting Time on the Wrong Things
When people are short of time, why do they do unnecessary things? Three observations from a crisis simulation that apply everywhere.
Recently, I was teaching a crisis management course at the University of Lucerne. In contrast to a normal lecture, the course consisted of a five-day crisis simulation, during which participants had to address multiple problems simultaneously: flooding, migration, energy shortages, and a pandemic. They did so as a crisis staff that was constantly bombarded with new situations, an overwhelming amount of information, and a plethora of conflicts and dilemmas.
It’s normal to be constantly short of time in such a crisis scenario, both during a simulation exercise and in a real-world crisis.
However, there is an interesting observation: when people are short of time, why do they do unnecessary things?
Let’s look at a few things I observed during the crisis simulation exercise.
The Checklist Drawback
Checklists are helpful in hectic situations. They are designed to make sure you don’t forget anything important. As a consequence, many checklists come in the form of forms.
And what’s the problem with forms?
They look incomplete when you haven’t filled in all the available forms. You know this from all the online forms that cannot be submitted unless you fill in all the fields first. So, what do you do to submit the online form? You will fill in any nonsense into those fields where you don’t know the answer. Just to give the appearance that your form is complete, and you can submit it.
During a crisis, it’s the same thing. There are many checklists and form templates, yet not all the fields are relevant in every situation.
Implicitly, participants in the crisis simulation thought they always had to present complete checklists or forms. Who said so? If information is not relevant in a crisis, dare to leave the fields on those checklists and forms blank. The motto is “substance over form”, not “form over substance.”
PowerPoint or Flipchart?
In a crisis, decision makers must be briefed regularly by the crisis staff. This usually occurs through situation briefings. In a complex situation, visualization is essential: Where exactly is the flooding? How many migrants need sheltering in which town? How many critical pandemic patients do we have in which hospital? What’s the exact area that is affected by a power outage?
When people think of decision makers and presentations, they reduce their options to just one: PowerPoint.
Wrong.
In a crisis, you often don’t have the time to prepare fancy PowerPoint presentations. Plus, in the crisis scenario we used in the simulation exercise, who said you always have electricity to run your laptop during a blackout?
Have the courage to use flipcharts and post-its for your situation briefings. Stick up a map on the wall, write the relevant information on a flipchart, and use post-its to visualize important information that has recently changed. It’s that simple. Again, the motto is “substance over form”, not “form over substance.”
The Logo Syndrome
At the beginning of the crisis exercise, I gave the participants three tasks: I needed their staff organization, briefing rhythm, and rotation plan.
At the due time, I got only part of the products. But one of the products had a logo on it — the participants didn’t have the time to prepare all the products I asked for, but they found the time to create a logo for their exercise crisis staff.
That’s the ultimate form of “form over substance,” isn’t it?
Conclusion
Irrespective of whether you are in a crisis or just soldiering along the daily entrepreneurial grind, you will never have enough resources to do it all.
Train your senses to spot instances of “form over substance” and try to change them into “substance over form.” Yes, it requires courage to present to executives on a flipchart when they are used to shiny PowerPoint presentations. Yes, a blank white Word template without logo and corporate colors might look odd at first.
Courage is one thing, but there is another, much more practical aspect to “form over substance.” Have you ever thought about how much of your mental bandwidth you assign to form instead of substance? Just as you’re constantly out of time in a crisis, your mental bandwidth is constantly strained in a crisis.
And if you want to get out of a crisis quickly, you need to focus fully on finding the best solution rather than the most beautiful form to present it.
STRATEGIES FOR RESILIENT ENTREPRENEURS
Employed, Elected, or Active Reserve: Switzerland’s Secret
Employed professionals, elected officials, and active reserve volunteers: Switzerland needs all three to function. Two stories explain why.
A very long time ago, Switzerland chose to organize its society using a principle we call the active reserve system. This system remains the cornerstone of our society — in security, politics, education, and associations.
As unique as the active reserve system is, its benefits and challenges are unique. But that’s not the point of this article.
Although I am a huge supporter of the active reserve system, active reserve alone cannot get the job done. No matter if you’re engaged in security, politics, education, or associations, good solutions always require a mix of employed professionals, active reserve members, and elected officials.
Let’s look into a couple of examples.
Example 1: Inviting a Foreign General
As an active reserve officer in the Swiss Armed Forces, I preside over an officers’ association. The committee consists of both active reserve officers and career officers — thankfully, as the following example illustrates.
Every year, we invite a high-ranking keynote speaker to our annual general assembly. A few years ago, we invited a retired foreign general. That’s easy, as retired generals are civilians. However, a few months before the assembly, the retired foreign general informed me that he had a scheduling conflict. He asked me if he should look for a replacement speaker, which I affirmed.
A couple of weeks later, my phone rang. It was the active successor to the retired foreign general who couldn’t make it. The active general informed me that he would deliver the keynote speech himself.
As honored as I was, I realized that this change in keynote speaker would pose a few challenges: Inviting an active foreign general is a protocol matter. Try to do this as an active reserve officer. You’re lost if you don’t have good relations with career officers who can help you.
It’s quite simple. You need both active reserve officers and career officers to succeed in such a situation. A career officer cannot invite a foreign active general, while an active reserve officer can. But an active reserve officer cannot succeed with all the protocol matters, while a career officer can.
Example 2: Expanding a School
Change of scene. As part of my active reserve engagement, I am also the president of our local music school. The school has been growing for years, and there is no end of growth in sight. That’s why we decided to expand the school and buy an adjacent building.
The adjacent building belongs to a private company, but the plot underneath the building belongs to the local municipality. Plus, the private company selling the building needed a new plot of land to build their new home, which they bought from the municipality.
If this sounds complicated, it is. And that’s why it took us a few years to get it sorted and cleared by the municipal parliament. And it would have been impossible to get it done without an employed school director, an elected municipal mayor, and an active reserve president all working hand in hand.
Conclusion
When you enter the Swiss parliamentary building, look up towards the ceiling, and you will see a glass dome with the unofficial motto of Switzerland:
One for all, all for one.
The motto became popular in 1868, when a severe storm caused flooding in the mountains and the Italian-speaking part of the country. The Federal Council issued a nationwide appeal for donations. The fundraising for natural disasters helped to forge the identity of our nation of will and promoted federal solidarity.
So much for the history.
I often cite Switzerland’s unofficial motto because it illustrates the active reserve system like nothing else: No matter if you’re employed, elected, or volunteering, the country needs every person to be successful.
About Me
I’m a tech entrepreneur, active reserve officer, and father of three — writing about entrepreneurship, leadership, and crisis management from hard-won experience. No AI, no fluff, no promos. Just plain-text insights for people building and leading under pressure.
When I’m not solving problems, I find clarity in the mountains around Zermatt.
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