September 11th, Hurricane Katrina, and other recent tragedies have shown that most organizations are woefully unprepared to contend with catastrophic events. After interviewing CEOs, managers, and countless others who dealt directly with organizational hardships resulting from catastrophes, authors Kathryn McKee and Liz Guthridge concluded that all workplace disasters share one important need -- a human resources department trained to lead others through the turmoil. This book helps HR professionals anticipate the emotional and psychological aspects of disaster and outlines an effective three-pronged approach for dealing with disaster's human side: creating an emergency plan that focuses on both human and business issues; preparing the department to take action and assume a leadership role; and knowing how to adapt and improvise on the fly. Adopting this approach enables organizations to act with courage and avoid the costly lessons learned by others.  

His conclusion: the winners have "good leaders who nurture the development of other leaders at all levels of the organization." These leaders urge their workers to see reality and mobilize the appropriate responses. Repeatedly, the authors single out the heads of successful companies such as General Electric and Allied Signal to discuss how much time their chief executives spend "formally and informally" on teaching. They conclude that those firms' success is a direct result of everyone's pulling in the same direction. The book's argument ignores small entrepreneurial companies where a product innovation, speed to market or customer service can make all the difference. But in discussing large companies, the book is on the money.