Whatever It Takes

In dealing crisis situation in an organization managers should consider these ideas:

1.  Don’t overreact -  You need to acknowledge that mistakes   will happen.

If people in your organization are afraid to communicate problems or emergencies because of
your overreaction to their news, they may wait as long as possible or even stop telling you when
things go wrong.

2. Figure out if it’s a real crisis or just seems like one - Often you’ll  discover that what appears to be urgent crisis turns   out to be nothing at all.   A real crisi is something that is truly important that requires your immediate attention.  If the situation is a real crisis, then you may have to drop everything you are doing and eal with it.  If it is not a real crisis, and it  doesn’t require your immediate attention,  you can often delegate it and treat it as a training experience.

3. Avoind management by crisis - Management by crisis is allowing unexpected events, interruptions, problems, or emergencies to dictate your priorities and actions.

Sometimes we do need to react quickly to a crisis and contain it before it does more damage.   The  problem comes when crisis management becomes the routine rather than the exception.   If you spend more of your time putting out fires than doing your work, you are managing by crisis.

When crisis management becomes the routine, it can easily lead to what Stephen Covey refers to as “Urgency Addiction.”

People that are addicted to urgency enjoy putting out fires, they like stepping in and solving problems, and their bosses often reward them for doing so. They have no incentive to avoid or prevent the fires because they get a payoff
every time they put one out.

When crisis management becomes your normal way of doing business, it’s usually pointing to a more fundamental problem that you need to solve.

An old Chinese proverb says, “The superior doctor prevents sickness. The mediocre doctor attends to impending sickness. The inferior doctor treats sickness.”

Don’t just treat the symptoms of the latest crisis, cure the underlying disease and prevent it from recurring.