Turnarounds are already some of the most complex projects in the industry; thousands of workers, millions of manhours, and hundreds of simultaneous tasks compressed into a few intense weeks. Add an unexpected crisis, and the margin for error shrinks even further.
In a recent turnaround, an emergency forced the event to start nearly a month early. The ripple effect was immediate: unfinished pre-turnaround scope, labor shortages, and adverse weather conditions all combined to create significant strain.
This article does not question the decision to accelerate, because in reality, any organization faced with the same circumstances would have done the same. Rather, it examines the hidden consequences of reacting under pressure and how leaders can carry those lessons forward.
The emergency outage pulled the planned turnaround feed-out nearly four weeks forward. In doing so, it erased critical preparation time and pushed scope meant for pre-turnaround into execution. Tens of thousands of manhours that should have been completed ahead of time were forced into the middle of an already congested schedule. Skilled labor secured for the original timeline was no longer available, leaving less-experienced crews to fill key roles. And because of the shift, execution landed in the middle of winter, with snow and ice shutting down work for multiple full days.
On a complex turnaround, these disruptions weren’t small bumps. They became systemic, straining supervision, scattering priorities, and threatening both performance and safety.
The truth was simple: the plan had broken down. And when the plan fails, people look to leadership.
The original plan called for 54 days of execution, but the actual turnaround stretched to 96 days. By reacting to crisis and pulling the event forward by 28 days, the decision was made to forgo preparation and training time and that created larger problems. The urge to act quickly is natural and often unavoidable, but reacting comes with hidden costs that are not always visible until much later. But in the moment, the decision felt both urgent and necessary.
The takeaway is not to criticize the decision but to acknowledge the tradeoff: urgency without the buffer of planning may solve the immediate problem, yet it often adds hidden cost. It stands as a reminder that while everyone would have made the same decision at the time, clear-eyed reflection afterward helps us recognize the consequences and plan differently in the future.
Beyond schedule and cost, emergency events test people. The accelerated timeline created pressure across every team: operations, maintenance, contractors, and inspectors. With little time to prepare, individuals were thrown into long hours and constant adjustments. Fatigue grew quickly. Frustration mounted as resources were stretched thin and plans changed daily.
Leaders who focus only on schedule miss the human dimension. Teams under crisis conditions need clarity more than ever. They need to know priorities, boundaries, and who makes decisions. Without that structure, people feel the weight of uncertainty and lose confidence in leadership. Emergencies magnify this effect. The more chaotic the environment, the greater the need for leaders to provide stability.
Crisis leadership isn’t about pretending everything is fine. It’s about accepting reality quickly, creating clarity, and keeping teams aligned on what matters most. Here’s what proved essential and what could have helped:
Re-establish Priorities Daily
When schedules compress, leaders must constantly reset focus. A structured meeting rhythm — shift meetings, daily stand-ups, and leadership check-ins. This ensures everyone knows the top three priorities for the day. Clarity in the short-term prevents chaos in the long-term.
Protect Scope Discipline
One mistake was allowing fire recovery work to be absorbed into the turnaround. This blurred lines and overloaded already stretched teams. Leaders must defend boundaries; a crisis creates more need for scope discipline, not less. Recovery work should be managed by a designated team, not folded into an already compressed turnaround.
Over-Communicate
In normal operations, too many meetings can feel like overhead. In a crisis, over-communication becomes a lifeline. Crews need to hear consistent, aligned messages from supervisors, coordinators, and managers. Silence or inconsistency breeds rumor and resentment.
Stay Visible and Calm
People take cues from leaders’ presence. In this turnaround, the leaders who walked the site, listened to frustrations, and stayed calm earned credibility. The leaders who hid in offices or snapped under pressure eroded it. People take cues from leaders’ presence. Walk the site. Listen. Say: “This is hard. We’re short. Here’s the plan.” Honesty earns trust.
At its core, crisis leadership is about extreme ownership. When the schedule compresses and the plan breaks down, it’s easy to push responsibility outward; to contractors, weather, or events outside anyone’s control. But true leadership means saying:
“This is our situation. It’s not what we wanted, but it’s what we have. Here’s the plan moving forward.”
The lesson is not that crises can be avoided; they can’t. The lesson is that leaders define whether a crisis becomes chaos or just another challenge to overcome.
Emergency outages will always test leadership. They force rapid decisions, compress timelines, and strain resources. In the moment, urgency drives action, and rightly so. But leaders must also recognize that reacting comes with hidden costs. After-action reflection turns hindsight into foresight.
The lesson is simple: urgency may force action, but discipline sustains results. Leaders who balance both create organizations that can endure crises without losing alignment, trust, or momentum.
Without a Control Document, turnaround planning becomes fragmented and reactive. A Control Document aligns deliverables, owners, and due dates, giving turnaround leadership team the tool to enforce accountability and readiness.