Leadership Apr 7, 2020
Your Organization Needs a Coronavirus “War Room”
And other advice on making tough choices during a pandemic.

Lisa Röper
Editor’s note: This is part of a series of articles based on Kellogg Executive Education webinars focused on COVID-19.
Harry Kraemer has long espoused a brand of values-based leadership that relies heavily on self-reflection, so that leaders can identify what really matters and what sort of leader they want to be.
Learn more from Harry Kraemer in Kellogg Executive Education’s Enterprise Leadership, Corporate Governance, Leading and Sustaining a Culture of Innovation, Leading for Impact within Family Enterprise, and Merger Week programs.
This is all in the interest of doing the right thing for their organization, their employees, and their customers. But, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, those priorities can sometimes be at cross-purposes and “the right thing” can be far from obvious.
“It’s an uncertain world and we have an awful lot of things to balance,” says Kraemer, who is the former CEO of Baxter International and currently serves on 10 boards of directors, including for several healthcare organizations. It’s a role that has given him a broad perspective on how to lead through the coronavirus crisis.
Kraemer is also a clinical professor of leadership at the Kellogg School and shared some of his advice in a recent webinar from Kellogg Executive Education.
To start, leaders must ensure that they are getting input from all perspectives within their organizations, as well as from trusted external sources.
For example, NorthShore University HealthSystem, upon whose board Kraemer sits, has convened a “war room” that includes not just doctors and nurses, but also other key voices, such as maintenance workers. The CEO is also in constant contact with local and state officials. For hospital leaders, this helps them decide how to do the right thing in terms of keeping both patients and staff healthy, as well as helping the surrounding healthcare community by sharing resources.
Kraemer urges all leaders to convene a trusted and diverse war room so that no important vantage points are being overlooked. “I would argue that no leader, if they’re honest, is bright enough to figure out all of that” on their own, he says.
Hospitals are under one sort of intense pressure right now. At the other extreme are firms that are facing a severe slowdown in business. They may be weighing the need for layoffs. How transparent should those leaders be as they make these hard choices?
“In my mind, there are very few things you cannot openly talk about,” Kraemer says. And given that your employees will certainly notice piles of inventory accumulating or the inability to serve customers, it would be doing them a disservice to ignore the obvious.
Tell employees what you do know and what you don’t yet know. Then, make sure that you share information that demonstrates that you relate to their fears. Say, “If, in fact, we have to have layoffs, here’s what our policies for severance would be. Here’s what we’re going to do to help you maintain your healthcare,” he says, adding that you should make sure people in the organization are scouring the federal CARES Act to help laid off or furloughed staff maximize their available benefits.
Another concern leaders have right now is that they’re being forced to make decisions with incomplete information—when will businesses reopen, when will the patient surge peak in a particular area, etc.
But, Kraemer insists, that is not an excuse to stop communicating with your teams.
“If I’m a leader and I’m in a crisis period, I’ll never have as much information as I’d like,” he says. But “it’s the uncertainty that requires leadership.”
You can watch the full webinar here, and see previous articles from this series here.
You can also read about Kraemer’s two guiding principles for leading organizations through the COVID-19 crisis.
-
What Happens to Worker Productivity after a Minimum Wage Increase?A pay raise boosts productivity for some—but the impact on the bottom line is more complicated.
-
6 Takeaways on Inflation and the Economy Right NowAre we headed into a recession? Kellogg’s Sergio Rebelo breaks down the latest trends.
-
How to Get the Ear of Your CEO—And What to Say When You Have ItEvery interaction with the top boss is an audition for senior leadership.
-
3 Tips for Reinventing Your Career After a LayoffIt’s crucial to reassess what you want to be doing instead of jumping at the first opportunity.
-
How Offering a Product for Free Can BackfireIt seems counterintuitive, but there are times customers would rather pay a small amount than get something for free.
-
Which Form of Government Is Best?Democracies may not outlast dictatorships, but they adapt better.
-
When Do Open Borders Make Economic Sense?A new study provides a window into the logic behind various immigration policies.
-
Why Do Some People Succeed after Failing, While Others Continue to Flounder?A new study dispels some of the mystery behind success after failure.
-
How Are Black–White Biracial People Perceived in Terms of Race?Understanding the answer—and why black and white Americans may percieve biracial people differently—is increasingly important in a multiracial society.
-
How Has Marketing Changed over the Past Half-Century?Phil Kotler’s groundbreaking textbook came out 55 years ago. Sixteen editions later, he and coauthor Alexander Chernev discuss how big data, social media, and purpose-driven branding are moving the field forward.
-
College Campuses Are Becoming More Diverse. But How Much Do Students from Different Backgrounds Actually Interact?Increasing diversity has been a key goal, “but far less attention is paid to what happens after we get people in the door.”
-
What Went Wrong at AIG?Unpacking the insurance giant's collapse during the 2008 financial crisis.
-
Immigrants to the U.S. Create More Jobs than They TakeA new study finds that immigrants are far more likely to found companies—both large and small—than native-born Americans.
-
Podcast: Does Your Life Reflect What You Value?On this episode of The Insightful Leader, a former CEO explains how to organize your life around what really matters—instead of trying to do it all.
-
How Peer Pressure Can Lead Teens to Underachieve—Even in Schools Where It’s “Cool to Be Smart”New research offers lessons for administrators hoping to improve student performance.
-
Why Well-Meaning NGOs Sometimes Do More Harm than GoodStudies of aid groups in Ghana and Uganda show why it’s so important to coordinate with local governments and institutions.
-
How Will Automation Affect Different U.S. Cities?Jobs in small cities will likely be hit hardest. Check how your community and profession will fare.