Opinion: Decisions to make before disruption strikes

Paden Grant

Every business in southwest Missouri eventually faces unexpected challenges. How do you make the right decisions for employees, customers, suppliers and partners when the unexpected happens?

Businesses that navigate disruption best are those that have already considered how their decisions can create sustainable, long-term outcomes for each stakeholder. But identifying those priorities on paper is not enough. Leaders also need to put their plans into practice through live drills that require them to make decisions when needs compete, information is incomplete and time is limited.

The operational problem is rarely the whole problem
A disruption may begin with a straightforward and unavoidable operational issue. Utility service is interrupted. Severe weather closes roads. A critical system goes offline. Employees need to know whether they should report to work. Suppliers may need to adjust schedules. Customers still expect clarity about their orders.

Several years ago, a nearby city water-main break disrupted operations at our Springfield facility. Restoring service was the obvious first task, but we quickly learned it wasn’t the only decision we faced. We needed to look beyond the immediate fix and consider how our short-term decisions could affect crew members, production plans and others relying on our business.

What must continue? What can pause? Who could be affected by our decisions? Which obligations take priority when two or more legitimate needs compete?

Those priorities are difficult to assess even under the best conditions. They become even harder when information is incomplete and time is limited. Our experience with the broken water main reinforced that we needed to practice those decisions before the next potentially larger disruption tested us again.

Practice decisions, not just procedure
Most organizations spend time developing emergency procedures. Fewer physically put their leadership teams in the same room to practice the decisions they may need to make for employees, customers, suppliers and other stakeholders when normal operations are interrupted. 

A procedure may explain how to report a facilities issue or notify emergency services. It cannot tell leaders what to do when operational priorities, employee needs and customer commitments pull them in different directions. These judgments often require cross-functional perspectives.

Mock crisis exercises give leaders from varying parts of a business room to work through stakeholder tensions before they must make decisions in real time. Bringing those perspectives together helps organizations identify where priorities conflict, authority is unclear or when critical decision-making depends on one individual.

The most useful exercises also introduce uncertainty. What happens if a disruption lasts three days instead of three hours? What changes if a decision-maker is unavailable? What if restoring one part of the operation creates a new problem somewhere else?

Adding a variable in this way forces teams to move beyond reciting a procedure. They have to weigh who will be affected, navigate competing needs and make the best decision with the information available.

Simulations aren’t about finding perfect answers. They’re about building good judgment before the pressure is real.

Decisions worth practicing
It is impossible to plan for every disruption, but leaders can prepare by working through three questions in advance:

What must keep moving? Identify the responsibilities, commitments and functions that cannot fail, even if normal operations are interrupted. Knowing what is essential helps leaders focus limited time and resources where they matter most.

Who has authority to decide? Clarify decision ownership before an issue crosses departments and creates confusion. Leaders should know which decisions can stay within one function, which require input from others and who makes the final call when priorities compete. Clear ownership reduces delay without requiring every answer in advance.

Who needs to know what, and when? Different stakeholders require different information. Employees may need immediate direction, while customers and suppliers may need updates about commitments or timing. Investors and community partners may have separate expectations. Planning those communications in advance helps organizations respond more clearly and consistently.

The value of these exercises is not the document they produce. It is the shared understanding they create among the people who will need to act. That preparation matters beyond a single organization. Businesses across southwest Missouri are connected through their workforce, suppliers, infrastructure and community relationships. When one organization experiences disruption, the consequences can extend beyond its walls.

When leaders have already aligned their stakeholder priorities, decision authority and communication plans, they are better prepared to make difficult calls under pressure. That strengthens their organization and the broader business community.

Paden Grant, a Missouri native, is Director of Environmental Health, Safety and Security at Vital Farms, where he leads the company’s health, safety, and environmental compliance. He can be reached at paden.grant@vitalfarms.com.