I have been agonising whether or not to write this article.
Hillsborough is an extremely emotive subject – especially now as earlier this week, the inquest concluded that the 96 fans who died as a result of the crush at the FA Cup semi-final in April 1989 were unlawfully killed.
I cannot begin to understand how it must feel to wait 27 years for the truth to emerge.
What I wanted to know is what can we learn from Hillsborough?
How do we understand those awful events so that we can make sure that they don’t happen again?
The facts of the case are shocking, specifically that 164 police statements were altered – 116 to remove comments that were unfavourable to the Police. On the day, Officers were told not to record the day’s events in their pocket books in line with standard procedure – but to write down their ‘recollections’.
Deflection for blame was passed onto the fans culminating in the now infamous headline ‘The Truth’ on the front page of the Sun.
Mistakes were obviously made on the day – and it is not my intention to judge people with the clarity of hindsight.
Looking back, it is easy to see that the decision to let the fans into the stadium was the wrong one because it directly contributed to the crush.
I know what it is like to make a decision in stressful circumstances and I don’t think that it is fair to judge people for decisions they made in the heat of the moment.
So what can we do to help prevent people from making the wrong decisions in the future?
All members of the Military make decisions under pressure but I would argue that Soldiers and Marines on the front-line have to make the toughest calls.
Why?
Well firstly, the majority of the infantrymen on the front-line are young – most will be under 24. They don’t have years of experience to fall back on. Secondly, they have to make decisions about whether or not they pull the trigger and take a life – the most important decision a person can take.
So how do you prepare young men to make these decisions? How do you help them to make split second decisions – to shoot or not to shoot?
We spent a lot of time discussing these decisions – helping people to develop an understanding so that when they pulled the trigger, they were confident that it was the right thing to do.
The first thing we used to do was make it clear ‘where the line was’ – what was acceptable and what wasn’t. I am not going to talk about the rules of engagement because that information is restricted but we made it very clear that the decision had to be taken based on their perception of events.
We discussed events in the past where people had taken the shot and it was viewed as the wrong thing to do. We discussed imaginary scenarios and asked them, ‘what would you do in this situation?’ We talked and talked about it until we were confident that they understood where the line was and were best prepared to make the right decision in a variety of circumstances.
We also explained to them that after a shooting incident – no one would have exactly the same recollection of the events.
Everyone would see things differently – and that’s okay. We used simulation training to explain this. We’d use training videos pausing them to ask ‘how many enemy did you see?’ – the range in numbers was always significant – a symptom of the fact that people were focussing on different things.
In short – we prepared them by making it clear what was right and what was wrong – and then discussing the potential grey areas.
This is how you prepare people to make difficult decisions, you give them the information that they need and you test and test their understanding until you are confident that they ‘get it’. Preparing your people to make difficult decisions is what leaders do – they don’t just stick their heads in the sand and hope for the best.
For large planned events or deliberate operations, we used to ‘war-game’ various scenarios. We ‘strength-tested plans’ to make sure that they would survive unforeseen circumstances. We used to ask people ‘what will you do if this happens’ – making it clear that ‘this might happen’ and that they needed to be prepared in case these events played out.
Whilst I don’t think it is fair to use hindsight to judge actions that were taken on the day, the fact that the Police were told not to follow their standard procedures is simply wrong.
In the Corps, I think that this would have constituted an ‘unlawful order’ giving the individual the right to refuse… I am on shaky ground here because I am not a lawyer but I know that every Sergeant and Corporal I ever worked with would have had the moral courage to tell me where to ‘stick it’ if I’d ever told them not to follow a standard procedure.
This is where leaders stand out – they push back when they believe something to be wrong. They don’t just say when things are wrong – their moral code forces them to act. This is why I disagree when people tell me that an organisation only really has room for one leader and that the rest are managers. Leaders exist at all levels of an organisation – not just at the top.
A former Royal Marines Colonel once told me, ‘if you think something is wrong – it is wrong, trust your intuition and your ‘spidey-sense’ then find the evidence to support it’. Sound advice. I have followed it ever since.
Hillsborough is an example of what happens when leaders get it wrong. It is an example of what happens when people follow unlawful orders and the truth is covered up.
But Hillsborough also provides us with inspiring examples of leadership.
Anne Williams’ son, Kevin, was 15 when he was killed on that day. She was furious when the initial inquest gave a verdict of accidental death and fought a 20-year campaign – tracing people who were there on the day to find out what happened. She died in April 2013 having never given up.
Leaders are not leaders because they have a position of authority.
They are leaders because they do the right thing. They have an unshakable moral code and integrity to do what is right. Anne Williams provides us with a shining example of leadership. If she were in charge that day – would she have told Officers not to follow their standard procedures? I doubt it.
Summary
- If you think that your people might have to make difficult decisions – you have a moral obligation to prepare them to make them. This is important – if you fail to do so, you are failing to prepare them adequately.
- It may take time but one day the truth will come out. How do you want to be remembered when it does?
- If you’re being asked to do something that you honestly believe to be immoral or even illegal – push back. If in doubt, don’t do it. ‘I was simply following orders’ is not a good enough reason – we are all accountable for our own actions.
- Take inspiration from people like Anne Williams. Never ever give up.