A healthcare leadership team I was coaching hit a full-blown crisis: a major system outage that impacted patient care.
They got the system back up and contained the damage—but then came the blame game.
Who messed up? Who signed off? Why wasn’t I informed?
Crises trigger threat state, literally taking our ability to think beyond “urgent” offline. The aperture collapses—by design.
Our coaching focused on what I call flipping the frame: lifting out of the here and now to see the problem differently.
Instead of “who screwed up?” the CEO asked, “where did the system break down?”
That question helped uncover structural vulnerabilities that had contributed to the breakdown:
Unclear decision rights between clinical and operational leadership creating failure points on critical calls.
Teams avoiding hard conversations about unrealistic timelines—not wanting to be seen as blockers or naysayers.
But “it’s systemic” could easily backfire into “no one’s accountable.”
The CEO didn’t let that happen: “We built this system. We reinforced these patterns. This is ours to fix.”
They clarified decision rights and protocols across critical levels, particularly at cross-functional nodes.
And they addressed how the desire to help—fundamental to healthcare—had become “go along to get along,” investing in skill-building around tough, timely conversations.
We’re prewired to defend ourselves—and in crises, blame is our go-to. Widening the aperture takes conscious effort, but it could be your most valuable contribution as a leader.
The next time you’re too close to the problem, challenge yourself to flip the frame.
And see what becomes possible.