How a company handles a massive outage like what CrowdStrike is experiencing can make or break a company and its team.
In the late '90s, I worked at NetZero, the largest free ISP in the U.S. One day, a seemingly small error spiraled into a massive crisis. An employee mistakenly pushed a completely blank phone list to every single customer on our network. Instantly, millions of users across the country were unable to access the internet. No emails, no meetings, no online activities—our service was paralyzed. We were dead in the water.
Chaos ensued. Our tech team, from Level 1 technicians to the CTO, scrambled to find a solution. With users unable to dial in, we couldn't push out a new phone list. The average wait time in our call center, which I managed, soared from three minutes to over three hours. We were unable to provide any ETA because we had no idea how or when we would resolve the issue.
In many organizations, such a crisis would trigger a hunt for the responsible party—a blame game. Executives would demand names, looking for someone to hold accountable, someone to shame. But at NetZero, we chose a different path.
Justin N., my current co-founder at Netki and the VP of Engineering for NetZero at the time, took full responsibility. He declared, “As the VP of Engineering, it was my responsibility to anticipate and prevent these incidents. This outage is 100% on me.” He shielded the individual who made the mistake and focused on finding a solution.
After several hours of intense work, the software engineering team developed a workaround, and service was restored. The relief and celebration that followed were profound. Not a single person was fired. Instead, we conducted a calm, thorough post-mortem analysis, focusing on:
- What happened
- Why it happened
- How to prevent it in the future, and
- Are there other processes or systems at risk of similar issues?
The entire team witnessed this response. They saw leadership address the issue as an honest mistake, something any one of us could have made. They saw a focus on moving forward, not on assigning blame. This approach fostered an environment of safety and trust. Employees learned that day that they too could own up to mistakes without fear of losing their jobs, promoting transparency and collaboration.
This pivotal moment transformed our company culture. Future issues were promptly addressed by teams working together, not by individuals hiding errors out of fear. This ethos of honesty and teamwork became the bedrock of our success.
To this day, when I meet former colleagues, they often reminisce, "NetZero was the best company I ever worked for." That is the legacy of leadership with integrity.
To the Crowdstrike team, I wish you the best in navigating your current challenges and seizing this moment to demonstrate exceptional leadership.
#management #leadership #CrowdStrike
