'Being a survivor' has taken on a grimmer and simpler meaning since the world-changing events of September 11th. Devastated organisations like Morgan Stanley have a massive task ahead: not just to re-build their wrecked businesses but also to help the survivors come to terms with what has happened. The same is true in any organisation facing what now seem like much more ordinary tasks but still painfully difficult if you are involved. What can you do if you are in a leadership or managerial role in an organisation which has shed many dozens, hundreds or thousands of people?

Typically, the attention goes to the people who are going. They get career advice, outplacement help, money. The people who are staying get very little.

Feelings

The initial response is not rational or logical. Overwhelmingly it is emotional and follows the well-known change or grief cycle first identified by Elizabeth Kubler Ross in her work on bereavement.

The period between shock and adjustment may be short or, as I'm sure it will be in New York, arduous and lengthy.

As a manager what can you do –- for yourself and others? Here are some ideas

• Make it legitimate to express feelings
• Make sure you have plenty of group forums – these are more powerful than one-to-ones
• One-shot cures and events don't work – you need a continuing programme
• Have a ceremony to say goodbye
• Involve the most senior people in all of the above.

The next stage

The need for information is literally infinite. Flood the system with information: meetings, focus groups, staff newsletters, personal letters, email, posters, one-to-one coaching, just walking about the organisation. Get into the informal grapevine as well as the formal.

Communicate both everything that is staying the same and everything that will be different. Where you don’t know, say so.

How to communicate

• Directly: don't leave it to the HR people or more junior staff
• Authentically: this is not the time for lawyer-speak
• Talk about your own sadness
• Talk feelings first, facts later; lead from the heart, not the head
• Forget the urge to control: the more you try to control, the less you will be in control
• Avoid blaming (more senior staff; customers; those who have left...)
• Tell the truth. Never promise that this is the last of the cuts, even though this is what staff most want to hear. It's never 'over'.

Some other pointers

• Avoid the 'if only' trap: if only you all work hard now, forget all that nasty stuff, everything will be all right. It won't. In fact life will probably be grimmer for some time to come. If it is going to be like that, say so
• Avoid the trap of messianic rescuing – "I am the saviour of this organisation" can feel exhilarating but it is another toxic trap – a way of avoiding the pain of the rest of the organisation and never lasts long
• Merger straight talk: don't fudge if your layoffs are the result of a merger. In a merger, the stronger organisation talks about an acquisition, the weaker of a merger. Underneath, everyone knows or suspects that the weaker organisation will be dominated, with its identity diluted and finally lost, its people chosen for layoffs. If this is going to happen acknowledge it.