About This Project

When Zachary Dearing sought refuge from Hurricane Harvey, he didn’t expect to be managing a storm shelter. He and a small band of volunteers kept others calm, dealt with leaks, and saved lives. None had leadership or emergency training.

What enabled Zachary, a writer and actor, to rise to leadership when others had not? How did the group succeed?

This ethnographic case study will dig past the obvious to reveal the deeper actions and motivations of Zachary and others at the shelter.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

In any major disaster, individuals and communities must fend for themselves for days, even weeks. A successful outcome often occurs when an individual has taken the initiative to coalesce a group of strangers to work together to everyone’s benefit. Often, they are not in leadership positions, have no interest in long-term leadership, and retreat when the crisis is over. Somehow, the spontaneous leaders have a mindset that gets them to step out of the crowd, and skills that enable a group to improvise collective action effectively. In contrast, many who are normally in leadership positions do not function well in the chaos of disaster. The question is why?

This work lies at the intersection of heroic action (individual action), and leadership (long-term collective action) research.

What is the significance of this project?

A reality of disaster is that the planned response system—police, fire, FEMA, Red Cross, etc.—may take days or weeks to reach everyone. Consequently, communities must be ready to help themselves. Those who do fare better in all measures than those who wait for help from others.

Conventional disaster preparedness aims to make everyone ready for all eventualities. However, it is impossible for most people, whose daily lives are already full, to prepare fully for a situation they may never face. Yet some individuals are able to initiate an improvised response in the event.

Understanding how spontaneous leadership leads to a successful improvised response is the first step toward preparing ordinary people to be unprepared rather than being trained for every eventuality.

What are the goals of the project?

The goal of this study is to gain a systematic understanding of the key events, people, and decisions surrounding leadership of the Live Oak Elementary School shelter, as experienced by the individuals involved.

This study will help form testable hypotheses to the key questions of

• What situational factors trigger spontaneous leadership?
• What personal qualities distinguish someone who rises to leadership from someone who does not?
• What leadership behaviors elicit successful group improvisation?

Reliable answers to these questions will, ultimately, answer the overarching question of

• How can individuals be prepared to help the people around them improvise an effective response?