What the Suez Canal Can Teach Us About Accountability and Resilience

Join CCL's Ren Washington and Allison Barr as they explore what we can learn about accountability and resilience from the Suez Canal.

Something like 90% of the world’s goods are transported by sea. About 60% of that includes basically all imported fruits, gadgets, and appliances. As March came to a close, the Ever Given, a container ship almost as long as the Empire State building is tall, ran aground in the Suez Canal. The Suez Canal is the shortest sea link between Asia and Europe and about 30% of the world’s container shipping volume transits through the canal. 

This issue, which piqued the interest of Maritime buffs, quickly became a global concern. At one point, some 400+ ships were stuck waiting to pass through the canal from either side, costing an estimated $9.6 billion a day. That translates to $400 million an hour, or $6.7 million a minute. But now that the ship is free, the problem is over, right?  

What happened with the Ever Given can be chalked up to basic physics, the massive size of the actual ship, potential human error, and maybe even climate change. But at CCL, we don’t only look at the circumstances or the symptoms of a problem, we want to find out the source and the root of issues. So where was leadership during all of this? How did leaders make a difference or contribute to this accident in the first place? How did leadership find the fix? Let's take a look at the lessons in accountability and resilience that we can learn from the Suez Canal and lead with that. 

Related Resources:

Yes, You Can Increase Accountable Leadership: https://www.ccl.org/articles/leading-effectively-articles/yes-you-can-increase-accountability/ 

8 Steps to Becoming More Resilient: https://www.ccl.org/articles/leading-effectively-articles/8-steps-help-become-resilient/ 

Leadership Development: https://www.ccl.org/leadership-challenges/individual-leadership-development-high-potential-employees/ 

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