What do your people need? Lessons from natural disasters

Recently I read an article on how Starbucks responded to Hurricane Irma hitting the USA. In the piece, it referenced Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

This catapulted me back 14 years to one of the most powerful leadership and personal experiences of my life, the aftermath of Hurricane Ivan decimating the Cayman Islands.

Today let me share some of what I learned, referencing the work of Abraham Maslow and also how Chip Conley, shortly after Hurricane Ivan hit Grand Cayman, developed Peak, which became a book where he took Maslow’s hierarchy into business, which is how I first came across someone I am privileged to now call a friend.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

This is Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Fairly self-explanatory, one key being that one can only operate at successively higher levels once the needs below that on the pyramid are met.

Hurricane Ivan — Cayman, knocked back to the stone age

On September 11, 2004, Hurricane Ivan sat over the Cayman Islands, with sustained winds of over 100mph for 24 hours.