Recent disasters show the importance of keeping your head on a swivel

Recent flooding disasters provide grim insight into the importance of remaining risk aware in life and work.

Geoff Wilson

First, an author’s note:  My heart aches for the lives lost and families forever changed by the recent flooding in Kerr County and across Central Texas. These reflections are not a critique of those who paid the ultimate price. They are offered with humility — a reminder that even as we grieve, we can reflect on the role of self-leadership when facing risk, uncertainty, and the unexpected.

Earlier this month, flash floods swept through Kerr County and neighboring parts of Texas. Rivers surged, bridges disappeared, and lives were lost — more than anyone even still yet knows, as recovery crews continue their efforts.

In the aftermath, the questions are surfacing. Could this have been prevented? Was there a breakdown in emergency response? Were there gaps in communication, in leadership, in planning?

Probably yes — to all of the above.

But even as we examine the failures in systems and structures, there’s a quieter, harder truth emerging: some of the deaths came down to risk decisions made at the individual level. Sleeping or camping near a river known for flash flooding. Ignoring the rumble of rain upstream. Trusting the past to be a guide for what the next night would bring. Or, importantly, thinking that somebody else would warn of major life-threatening risks.

It’s easy to point fingers when institutions fail. Harder to wrestle with the reality that self-leadership is the last line of defense. That no matter how well a system is designed — or how poorly — you are ultimately responsible for the risks you take with your own life, or with the lives of young people in your charge.

That’s not victim-blaming. It’s a recognition of agency. And it’s a principle that applies far beyond emergency response.

In organizational life, we often fool ourselves into thinking that risk is someone else’s job. We assume that someone — a finance lead, a risk officer, a committee, a consultant — is modeling the downside. Running the scenarios. Watching the flood gauges.

And then the waters rise.

When strategy falters, when markets shift, when the “one in a thousand” hits — the question isn’t who owned the spreadsheet. It’s who owned the decision. More often than not, the person who feels the full force of a risk realized is the same one who delegated the risk management in the first place.

There’s a lesson here. A call to self-leadership, even in the most structured organizations.

Keep your head on a swivel.

Look beyond the dashboard someone else built. Ask where the floodplain is. Know the signs upstream. And remember that just because a risk is being managed, doesn’t mean it’s being avoided.

This isn’t about paranoia. It’s about presence. Strategic leaders don’t live in a state of fear, but they do live in a state of alertness — especially in domains where the downside lands squarely on their shoulders.

If you’re going to sleep by a river — in Texas or in business — make it a conscious choice. Know the history. Understand the margins. Have a plan.

Because no matter how good the systems are around you, there’s no substitute for awareness.

And when the water starts to rise, you’ll want to be the one who saw it coming — not the one waiting for someone else to sound the alarm.

As of this writing, relief is still needed in the flood-ravaged areas.  WGP has made a donation to the Kerr County Flood Relief Fund, and I hope you will consider doing the same.  Here is a link.

What do you think?  Are there ways to keep your head on a swivel when it comes to business and career risk that deserve discussion?