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2/17/22, 1:20 PM Leading in a Crisis: Building High-Performance Teams https://www.govtech.com/analysis/leading-in-a-crisis-building-high-performance-teams.html 6/8 (temporal or other) boundaries for arriving at a decision. Challenge 4: Tunnel vision and mental fatigue High performance can operate on the edge of failure. Adrenaline and stress can enhance the ability of individuals to perform and even thrive, but they can also create a false sense of being able to cope if only we keep pushing ourselves. Separation from friends, loved ones and indeed many colleagues can be necessary in order to function, but prolonged insulation demonstrably leads to alienation and clouded judgment. Well-meaning commitments to the group’s work and its key decisions may escalate and succumb to blinkered thinking that any decisions it has taken must have been the right ones. Particularly, in long-running crises (such as COVID-19), sheer fatigue and "bunker syndrome" can be the enemy of good team performance. Recommendation: First, teams should build in regular and short (20 minutes at a time will do) but purposeful "stop, reflect and reconsider" moments into their proceedings. During such "balcony time," members are encouraged to give voice to what they notice about their own and the team’s mindsets and behaviors, and what might be questioned and improved. Second, all team members should have fallbacks/deputies who regularly attend team meetings. This enables the pacing of each individual’s workload and pre-empts any illusion of irreplaceability and misguided sense of duty to gain hold of team members. Third, efforts should be made to ensure team members do not remain locked in bunkers or on executive floors. Force them to see "real people" (frontline staff, citizens, loved ones) regularly to hear and feel different voices and maintain a sense of perspective. Fourth, periodically bring in a respected outsider (senior peers, independent experts, experienced facilitators) to purposefully challenge the shared beliefs, norms and practices that have developed within the team. Such "critical friend" scrutiny may feel like a luxury when in fact it is a necessity. Eric Stern is Professor and 2019-2020 Faculty Chair at the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity, University at Albany (SUNY). Paul 't Hart is a professor of public administration at the Utrecht University School of Governance and the Netherlands School of Public Administration (NSOB) in The