How to manage a crisis

Crisis is a stunning emotional, fiscal or circumstantial upheaval in one’s business or personal life. Crisis can develop suddenly due to factors beyond your control or it can seethe and smolder starting as a minor issue that due to ignorance or negligence develops into a full-blown, life-altering event.

Dealing with a crisis can be an extremely complex task. The key reason for that is that each crisis is unique and specific to one’s circumstances and resources.

Let’s take a very simple example of you loosing your keys, including your car keys. Now let’s contemplate only three sets of circumstances and related variables and their impact on this very common situation.

• Do you have a spare set that you can get to easily? If so, it is just a little inconvenience, nothing more.
• Are you just returning after a vacation in Hawaii, the weather here is a snowstorm with sub-zero temperature and you have a 3-hour drive before you get home, not to mention a 7 a.m. meeting at work. Now, this situation is considerably more serious.
• Do you have a job interview in 35 minutes, your first one in 8 months and you don’t have enough money for a cab? If so, this has far reaching negative impact.

I have just touched upon a few variables that can dramatically change the impact of an event. When you think through some of the scenarios that I have outlined above, you will gain a better understanding of the making of a crisis.

Our lives progress neither in isolation, nor in a linear fashion. Given our penchant for variety, excitement, adventure and interaction – we have more variables in our lives than we ever realize. This makes us vulnerable to being completely unprepared when a crisis hits.

Getting a crisis management plan in place is the third most important thing you can do. First being having a valid will, second being having a valid living will. If you have never bothered with a will, you probably don’t need a crisis management plan either.

The key elements of a crisis are:

• An imminent and serious threat.
• An element of surprise.
• Enormity of the potential damage or loss.
• Dire need for immediate action.

Crisis management involves dealing with the threat(s) and upheaval before it occurs (whenever feasible), controlling the events during the crisis and subsequently, handling the aftermath. As a practical matter, usually it is the aftermath that proves to be more complex than the crisis itself and can cause more damage. To contain and manage a crisis effectively, one must be able to:

• Quickly identify the key factors
• Fully comprehend each issue
• Identify the available options
• Accurately assess the practicality of each option
• Be equipped with the right skills, strategies and tactics to cope with a serious situation – from the moment it first occurs to well after its conclusion.

In order to accomplish the above, one must be able to contemplate the worst-case scenario and concurrently identify and then implement optimum solutions while making the needed adjustments. Additionally, one must be able to develop contingency plans and execute those in a timely fashion.

An in-depth understanding of human behavior, socio-economic systems and relevant protocols is crucial to effective crisis management.

One cannot foresee the future, however, one can anticipate specific problem areas and their impeding impact. It is prudent to have a crisis management plan in place, a common practice in large corporations and with significant personalities.