| Winston Churchill is reputed to have
taken a brief nap each afternoon. He gave instructions that he was to be
interrupted only in case of a crisis and that “…a crisis is defined
as an armed invasion of the British Isles.” He knew what was wrong
about crisis management. It leads to doing very stupid things and to constantly
creating new crises because prior crises were so poorly managed. The best
approach to crises is to have a plan already formulated that can be put
in motion when the crisis hits. Much is made about the need to ‘put
out fires’ on a daily basis. Actually, firefighters carefully rehearse
how to manage different types of fires so that when one happens they are
ready. They do not rush about frantically, as happens in many work places.
They act methodically. In fact they act as though there is no crisis at
all. We could all learn from firefighters. Good planning reduces crises. |
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