The Silence of the Citadel...

When a crises hits a large organisation, suddenly, the top managers become ‘incommunicado’. Where are they? What are they doing? What’s going on? In this small essay ‘The Silence of the Citadel’ Arnold Blits gives some alarming answers to these questions. He makes a comparison with the use of the citadels during the Middle Ages and the behaviour of the upper management nowadays.

The citadel is the highest and most striking structure that tops late-medieval cities the world over. This architectural high-ground seldom fell to the enemy before a surrender or even peace could be brokered, because it was designed from the ground up to withstand the rigors of a prolonged siege. During more peaceful times, the citadel’s use was restricted to religious ceremonies or special festivities. But when trouble found its way to the city, the royal family and many of the generals, as well as the higher clergy, unceremoniously hastened themselves to the sole entrance of these internal strongholds. The reinforced doors were bolted shut and no-one of those who had sought refuge inside was to be seen until the danger had entirely subsided. Many citizen or soldier of the garrison must have looked up to those gates of ‘his’ citadel in apprehension while the enemy was taking up positions close to the city walls. ‘Where are our leaders?’ they must have thought. ‘Especially in these dire times that we need them most?’ During the terrible days, weeks or months of the siege, these ‘outsiders’ on the inside of their own city, observed carrier pigeons flying from and to the tiny portholes of the citadel. Stressed out couriers on fast horses also visited the besieged city. These messengers were under strict orders not to communicate with anyone so, ignoring all whom attempted to address them, they simply galloped on to the citadel.  A lot seemed to be going on in there, but what? And why don’t we hear anything? To wait, to hope and to just keep fighting seemed to be the only options left. History tells us of many cases like these wherein the best soldiers of the city deserted or had lost their fighting-spirit entirely. And it wasn’t in the least the enemy that led to their demise. A substantial part of their lives these loyalists believed in –and fought for- their leaders. These unfortunate and disillusioned fighters were simply hit the hardest by the silence of the citadel.

In modern and more ‘enlightened’ times, the citadel is still often the highest or most unreachable point of a corporate building. The room is normally used for large, international meetings or special functions. But now it is refurbished as a crisis-centre and its nomenclature has changed to ‘War Room’. It gets its citadel-function from one moment on the other when the hostile take-over gets to close and/or the stock-capital evaporates faster than was ever anticipated. From that moment on, the directors and board-members are suddenly unavailable and un-reachable. Cell phones are shut off, mailboxes remain unanswered and agendas are cleared entirely. Also for these executives the whole worlds will be restricted to the events that will take place within the walls of the citadel. A few days before the doors closed, most PA’s and staff members where shut out already. Most of them haven’t realized this, though. Therefore, at the beginning of the siege, they still maintain and uphold a professional front. “Mr…. is momentarily in a meeting. No sir, I don’t know when he will be available. Perhaps I can help you?” But after a week of staring at the closed doors, they’ll admit even to strangers that they haven’t spoken to their own boss for many days on end. The emotions in their voices often reveal the true tragedy. As many did, they at first thought that they were actually insiders. But during this siege, even the catering is brought in from external sources.

In the meantime, within the meeting-throne room, the heart of the citadel, few show themselves from their best side. Insecurity leads to fear and fear becomes paranoid suspicion. The matter of who’s to blame menacingly hangs over the table. All present, feverishly devote more time and effort than ever before to cover their own backsides. The air seems electrically charged with innuendo and accusation that crackles over the table in various gradations of subtlety. The first one that admits even a minor mistake, or can’t immediately parry an attack, can expect the worst. So called questions are the main weapon of choice. Events, decisions and -above all- numbers from the past are processed en re-processed into seemingly endless presentations that are passed as situation reports. To feed this aimless and unproductive practice, the already overstressed workers outside are bombarded with requests for even more numbers. Even though sides and alliances are formed, it is crystal clear for all that everyone is looking out solely for him- or herself. Knowledge becomes power so any information that one obtains is willfully buried, distorted or simply withheld from the others all together. All new data that enters the citadel is promptly dubbed ‘confidential’. It is virtually impossible to make any significant decision under these circumstances. Who can afford to make a mistake now? More and more, the citadel dwellers start to micro-manage their ever decreasing world.

The citadel becomes what they feel is reality and the company and people on the outside become more and more a vague concept. Even the most responsible leaders fall prey to this lethargy. During the first days they wanted to burst out of the room to inform, lead and motivate their managers. But in the suffocating world of the citadel, the subject of the well-being of the ‘others’ seems to be used almost exclusively when it benefits the own agenda. Therefore, these leaders are treated with an extra dose of suspicion or they are simply made fun of. This only feeds their reluctance to leave the room. There has been so much ‘blame-storming’ already, about people that happen to be on the outside, that even these people-managers fear that if they leave the sanctity of the citadel, even for a short stint, the doors will close behind them forever. Besides; in their absence, decisions that they don’t agree with, could still be taken. And that is why the doors stay closed... and why the citadel remains quiet...

Arnold Blits