Jörg. H. Trauboth - Three Brothers

Every morning, Rudi arrives and is amazed that it doesn’t stink to high heaven here in this room with round-the-clock operation divided into three shifts. When things get really busy in the ministry, he has a back-up reserve of two hundred fifty trained government employees to man the phones. Everything goes through Rudi. He is a geek of a very special kind.

His office, though, is not a drab basement dungeon. On the contrary, it is just like all the other offices on the same level as the other department heads and directors and those on salary grade B 6 and is furnished according to the usual standards. A mahogany desk, heavy rug, conference corner with refined black chairs, an oil painting of the current foreign minister.

The man in the painting, the head of the Foreign Ministry, George von Rüdesheim, has a pleasant, friendly face.

Ministers come and go. And with them, the oil paintings. All that remains is the little black nail stuck in the wall. Decades long. It has also achieved a sort of ministerial status. A nail like the ideal governmental employee in this ministry – unseen and never failing.

Rudi has a sign fixed to the wall in his office that will, in contrast, never be removed and reads:

Failure is not an option .

Rudi lives his life according to this principle. It comes from NASA and is the phrase connected to the Apollo 13 crew in space that needed to be rescued. Avoid catastrophes by avoiding mistakes. This applies to his motorcycle just as much as to the crisis center. For Rudi, there is no room for error.

He enjoys working with the thirty-eight men and women of Department 04 in the secretive crisis reaction center – and they like him. Dr. Rudolf Kürten is not like the typical, slick-as-an-eel government employee. He is easy-going, heartfelt, and highly competent. He got his first taste of crisis management along with his first post as an Ambassador to Kenya, which included responsibility also for Somalia and Burundi. No one else in the bureau understands the delicate and vexatious issue of piracy as well as he does. At fifty-two years old, he has also come to learn that a casual work environment is the best guarantee for success.

His experience on the front and cooperative leadership methods are one thing, however. Rudi is by no means naïve. Here in the nation’s crisis management center, analytical and emotionless expertise is the key to success. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.

Rudolf has come up with and internalized a certain concept for solving complex situations.

It was four years ago, during a briefing for the top economic executives at the Bundeswehr Command and Staff College in Hamburg Blankenese. He can still see the colonel standing before him: his left arm in a sling, a scar above his right eye, and a very severe look. Reminiscent of World War II resistance fighter Graf von Stauffenberg who was executed on July 20, 1944.

“Before you make your decision, Ladies and Gentlemen, please follow these four steps:

1. Analyze the situation :

List all the factors of the situation without any evaluation. We soldiers call this ‘your own situation and your enemy’s situation.’ For you economics experts, this could be a product range and your competition, for example. For the ladies and gentlemen from the Foreign Office, your country’s political framework and the political situation in the troubled land. Understood? Okay, moving on.

2. Assessment:

Now use your analysis to evaluate your situation and that of your opponent. But please, no emotions! Remain objective. You will find it easier to evaluate according to factors. I can see, you are looking at me with questions in your eyes, what are factors? Very simple. For example, the ability of one’s own or their opponent’s resources, the market situation, the political situation, depending on where you are working. For us in the military, the weather can be a factor for example. The more you can break down the factors you are evaluating, the easier it will be to make a decision. Is that understood? Now, this brings me to:

3. Objectives :

You think you are ready to make a decision now? Sorry, Ladies and Gentlemen, but you are wrong. At this point, it is typically still too early and can result in making the wrong decisions. Take things down a notch. Look inside yourself and ask yourself: what do I want to achieve with my actions in this situation? What are my objectives? Your answer will determine the course. Do you perhaps want to win the big battle or prefer to satisfy the media at this point? In the case of the latter, your actions will be directed toward crisis communications options. You can see how quickly one can take the wrong path. And as such, on to the final point.

4. Conclusions :

Now, you can make your decision. Perhaps you already had one in your pocket. Very good, at least that confirms things. But perhaps after this assessment, you have come to a completely different decision. But be careful, Ladies and Gentlemen – there are usually many options! Make a list of them and chose the decision that best fulfils your goals and objectives. Weigh your options. But always keep in mind your means and possibilities and stay realistic.”

The colonel drew four letters.

“We call these the Leadership Process SAOC ,” he points to the first letter from S ituation Analysis , A ssessment , O bjectives , and C onclusions .

“This is the classic leadership strategy of the Special Forces. Wars are won this way, or at least avoided. Many of my comrades are now colleagues of yours in the world of economics and use this tactic with great success. Train your staff to use this process. And when the situation changes, you can adapt SAOC and reevaluate.

Last but not least: Don’t forget to take control. Any questions? Thank you very much.”

Rudi could have gone home afterwards, but that was something special! Sometimes things just simply click in life. And it sometimes helps to have a sympathetic and guaranteed authentic man in a uniform delivering the message.

Since then, SAOC has become ingrained in Rudi’s head just like shifting through the gears on his bike. From first, to second, to third, to fourth, and to fifth as he rides his motorcycle from the Spreewald to the ministry. Nevertheless, he has long given up trying to teach the SAOC method to his subordinate – Deputy Assistant Undersecretary of the Crisis Response Center Dr. Hartwig Bloedorn. He just can’t seem to get through to this man, or there is simply no chemistry between them.

Rudolf looks at the board on the wall. Twelve kidnapping incidents paired with various hand-picked crisis teams depending on the country where the incident happened. He knows every case in detail. Every circumstance. Every person. Every family.

But one case is different. One kidnapping incident has been dragging on for more than two years now without any new developments. Two men are being misused as human shields against permanent military threats.

In the meantime, the Federal Criminal Police Office has dismissed the team that was helping both families in Germany to cope. Yet, these families truly need psychological support most of all. To compensate for this, Rudi has access to a twenty-four-hour hotline that guarantees him a crisis intervention team available in almost every German city.

And for the last eight weeks, the ministry has been worried about two German company employees, Helmut Weier and Josef Fischer, who, despite the ministry’s travel warning, have gone to work in Northern Iraq. Thankfully, at least the two men registered with ELEFAND, a free, electronic registry of German citizens abroad. The Federal Intelligence Service fears they are in the hands of the Islamic State, a rapidly-growing group of militant Muslim terrorists that has long surpasses al-Qaida in its reputation world-wide. So far, however, there has been no indications from any side.