Answer extracted from the 3 Takeaways™ podcast — listen to the full episode below.
How should a leader manage the impulse to act immediately when responding to a crisis?
The best crisis decision-makers resist the pressure to act immediately by deliberately consulting advisors with opposing viewpoints—not just for validation, but to find wisdom in the middle ground. Drawing out the decision-making process, even by a few hours, often reveals that immediate action was unnecessary and could have caused more harm.
The Practice of Deliberate Consultation
Jay Johnson, who advised presidents as Secretary of Homeland Security and General Counsel of the Department of Defense, developed a concrete method to resist the crisis impulse. He would draft public statements five times and show them to five different key advisors, each without leading questions, to gather their authentic perspectives before sending anything.
This practice has a direct impact: advisors representing different philosophies—some aggressive and action-oriented, others cautious and methodical—often pushed back against rushing. As Johnson discovered through his agency work leading 250,000 people, the weight of diverse counsel frequently advises restraint, revealing the political and tactical costs of immediate action that the initial pressure obscures.
What Emerges in the Middle
The real breakthrough isn't that advisors always reach unanimous agreement. Sometimes Johnson found consensus; sometimes he simply blew off steam by 11 a.m. and moved on to something else entirely. The value lies in the deliberate pause itself—giving the emotional urgency time to settle before the decision hardens into irreversible action.
As discussed at length in this episode of 3 Takeaways™, the same dynamic exists at the highest levels of national security decision-making, where a president's first instinct to "do something" can be the most dangerous advice in the room. Building a practice of structured consultation—not endless debate, but authentic input from people with different risk tolerances—is what separates reactive crisis management from sound judgment.
"You rarely have all the facts before you have to make a decision. You had to make a judgment based on what you know and what you didn't know, and it was not going to get any better anytime soon."
Jay Johnson — Secretary of Homeland Security and former General Counsel of the Department of Defense. Johnson advised presidents on war, terrorism, and national security for years, spending significant time in the Situation Room observing how America's highest-stakes decisions are made. He was instrumental in shaping Barack Obama's positions on executive authority regarding military action during the 2007-2008 presidential campaign.
If you want to hear Johnson's detailed reflection on how the Constitution was designed to slow down decisions about war, and why today's culture of speed makes that protection even harder to maintain, the full episode is worth your time.
Key takeaways
- Deliberately consult advisors with opposite viewpoints and risk tolerances before acting, not just for agreement but for genuine perspective.
- The emotional pressure of a crisis fades within hours; a structured pause often reveals that immediate action was unnecessary.
- The most effective leaders build a practice of authentic consultation into their decision-making, not as delay but as a guard against costly mistakes.
See also
Why can the pressure for immediate presidential action during crisis be dangerous to national decision-making?
Presidents and their appointees are accustomed to responding to public urgency and cries for action. The most effective decision-making requires advisors with diverse perspectives and risk tolerances, not unanimous agreement with the impulse to act.
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