Soon after, Sandberg created a new “strategic response” team, reporting up to Justin Osofsky, vice president of operations and corporate development. The group’s mandate is to bring Sandberg up to speed on the biggest immediate risks facing the company. The group is seated next to her conference room in Facebook’s Menlo Park, California, headquarters and meets with the COO every Friday at 10:30 a.m. local time.
It's a team that attempts to handle critical and time-sensitive situations, the “types of problems that cut across the company, touching a lot of different product teams,” Osofsky said. Before the meetings end, Sandberg either makes a decision or escalates the issue to Zuckerberg, Osofsky added.
Two months ago, Facebook showed off a “War Room” that brought employees from different teams together to quickly spot and fix issues like misinformation during the U.S. midterm elections. At the time, the company said the War Room might be deployed for future elections. But it’s been disbanded. Facebook says it was never intended to be permanent, and the company is still assessing what is needed for future elections. The strategic response team is a more-permanent solution to crisis problems, a Facebook spokesperson said. The group coordinated Facebook’s response to a tip from the Federal Bureau of Investigation on potential Russian activity ahead of the U.S. midterms, something that may have previously taken the company longer to address.
Osofsky, who spoke to Bloomberg News with Facebook’s blessing, disagreed with employee criticisms of Sandberg’s leadership. “Sheryl's style is very fact-based,” he said. “She sets an exceptionally high bar for my team and all the teams that report to her. I often have conversations where I personally disagree, and she's very receptive.”
Sandberg is also recruiting advisers with different experience. Schrage is currently training his replacement — Nick Clegg, a former U.K. deputy prime minister.
“One of the things Nick brings, which is very helpful given his political experience, is a perspective to the table that is different from a person who works in California,” Osofsky said.
And just in time. Over the weekend, the U.K. government seized Facebook documents that include emails between executives about data sharing with third-party app developers. Clegg will be tested in handling Facebook's next potential crisis on his home turf.