Wharton Management Professor Michael Useem and Andrew Eavis, the U.K. president of the International Union of Speleology, analyze the rescue mission of the Thai youth soccer team as a near-perfect coordination of efforts from a leadership perspective. Despite the tragic loss of life of one rescue diver, the successful rescue of all 12 boys and their coach after 18 days highlights more nuanced aspects of leadership–the crucial role that cooperation and altruism played in the rescue.
Approximately 10,000 rescuers were on-site to plan and execute the mission. The effort required intricate planning, money, and disciplined leadership, as well as cooperation from the team itself. With a strong base of leadership and cooperation, the mission could proceed with machinery doing the heavy lifting, and engineering feats, like pumping 500 million gallons of water onto neighboring farmland.
Here, Useem cites the altruism of everyone involved, including the cooperation of the farmers whose crops were damaged and, stunningly, accepted no monetary compensation that the Thai government offered for their loss. “When there is an emergency like this, people step forward expecting no compensation, no material consequence because of the circumstances,” says Useem.
Read the full story and listen to the interview at Knowledge@Wharton.
