Friday night a Kona storm rolled across Maui and knocked out the power.
For nearly twenty hours the lights were out. The street outside our condo flooded, and for a while it was impossible to drive anywhere—even if we wanted to.
Inside, however, everything was perfectly fine.
The condo was dry. We had water, flashlights, and enough food to last several days. Aside from the power outage, there was no real inconvenience.
And yet something interesting happened.
The storm itself wasn’t the most unsettling part of the experience. The real tension came from the what-ifs.
What if the water keeps rising?
What if we need to leave?
What if something else happens and we can’t respond?
When systems go quiet—when information disappears—the human mind fills the gap with speculation.
Organizations behave the same way.
During periods of disruption, leaders naturally focus on stabilizing operations. That’s important, of course. But just as critical is stabilizing information flow.
When communication breaks down, uncertainty spreads quickly through an organization. People begin running their own internal simulations about what might happen next. Productivity drops. Decision-making slows. The collective imagination starts drifting toward worst-case scenarios.
Ironically, this can happen even when the underlying situation is relatively stable.
The most effective leaders understand that in uncertain moments, clarity is a strategic asset.
Even incomplete information—shared honestly and regularly—helps anchor the organization. It prevents speculation from filling the vacuum and allows people to stay focused on the work that matters.
By Saturday afternoon the power returned. The floodwaters receded. The trade winds came back, and Maui looked almost exactly as it had before the storm arrived.
But the experience served as a useful reminder.
In both storms and organizations, the most destabilizing force is rarely the disruption itself.
It’s the absence of information about what comes next.
Executive Insight
When disruption occurs, leaders naturally focus on stabilizing operations.
But the fastest way to stabilize an organization is often simpler: restore the flow of information.
When information disappears, speculation takes its place.
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