Crisis Management

Crisis Management:An Overview

Crisis management is the discipline and science of managing breakdown and recovery

What is a crisis?

How do you manage a crisis?

Three examples of a crisis ...

What is a Crisis?

A crisis is sudden

A crisis is unexpected

A crisis is the result of an internal or external event that was not accounted for while planning

How do you manage a Crisis?

You accept that the kind of thinking that got you into the crisis is not the kind of thinking that will get you out.

You ask open questions.

You execute crisis plans.

If you’re watching a movie at a theatre and someone yells, “Fire!”, do you:

Panic?

Remain Calm?

Account for all of the panicky people in the theatre?

If you’re executing an employee reduction program, do you:

Lay off staff to meet cost requirements?

Lay off staff to match the productivity stats of your competitors?

Lay off staff to bring new people with new ideas into the corporation?

If your corporation is moving into a new business, market, or location, do you:

Plan to capture the benefits of the new business, market, or location?

Plan to expand what you already know?

Plan to start a conversation between the old and the new?

Crisis management requires mastering three kinds of learning:

Informational Learning - find problem, run solution

Motivational Learning - “I’ll be fine as long as I’m better than the next guy”

Transformational Learning - “I am new.”

Mastering the three kinds of learning requires knowing what they are and knowing when and how to use them

Informational Learning - efficient answers, cost / benefit, use resources within normal operations

Motivational Learning - energize and know the limits of your environment, your team, and yourself

Transformational Learning - Non-Linear, throw out the rule book, go to the War Room

What is a War Room?

In the War Room, you develop crisis plans.

In the war room, you execute crisis plans.

In the War Room, You question the assumptions that you have previously relied upon.

In the War Room, you ask questions that you are not allowed to ask in normal times.

Crisis management operates on multiple levels at the same time

Corporate - Large, complex organizations are less able to manage a crisis because they are large and complex

Professional - Knowing a specialty or discipline well makes it harder to “jump outside your own box”.

Personal - You can’t see what you’re not equipped to see; you can’t do what you’re not equipped to do

Crisis management recognizes the choice between competitive, cooperative, and structural thinking

Competitive - “We will kill or capture Bin Laden”

Cooperative - “It’s time to sit down and talk with the Taliban”.

Structural - “we can adapt what we learned from the Anbar awakening to Afghanistan.”

Use the principles of crisis management for all planning methods

Understand the assumptions upon which your plans are built.

Keep your plans efficient.

Keep your planners motivated.

Better preparation leads to better performance.

When to use a Crisis Management Specialist

If you’re ruminating, you haven’t defined the depth of the crisis, seek assistance.

It may feel like you’re walking off a cliff.

A crucible requires enough heat to change the ingredients but not so much heat as to melt the pot!

Choosing a Crisis Management Specialist

Broad background - education and experience

Experience matters, depth and breadth

Test their methodology and their creativity