MM - I think this was a bit from where I was heading regarding "EQ" in day to day interactions. Non-crisis situations. Just being able to sort out feelings and recognize how they may influence decisions made under ordinary circumstances. Or in the case of getting sober, recognizing how reactions to past events or situations were cause to run off to find the bottle rather than asses the moment in a reasonable manner. Not the knee-jerk reaction to a stimulus but rather having a calm and cool demeanor, or at least the ability to not let emotions negatively affect decision making. It's tough and has to be a learned skill I think for some.
The 'scroo-u' I'm gonna drink just because you are mad I am drinking kind of mentality comes to mind also.
Your example brings to mind the folks at Fukushima following the 'flood'. Let's build our diesels and fuel tanks below the postulated worst case tidal wave. The tidal walls were too low - they knew it but never got around to re-designing them following newer data. But even if the design basis tidal wave were to breach, the tanks were still at "ground level". In the worst of worst possible circumstances- not knowing if your entire family was dead or missing among other bizarre circumstances - cool heads realized the only way to get DC back to put water back in the can was to collect all the car batteries they could from the devastation in the parking lot. And that they did. Dedication - untold sacrifice. They collected enough car batteries and wired them to get a few DC pumps running to cover the core. THAT is thinking outside the box. TMI should have never happened either. That's for another time.