5 Keys To Crisis Management

Every individual and organization at some point in time will face a crisis and the way they respond will determine if the situation potentially becomes fatal or they experience a complete and total recovery.  I have learned a lot from personal experience on this subject over the years and probably the most important lesson is to be incredibly proactive and not stick your head in the sand and hope it will get better.

In Jack Welch’s great book Winning he gives some great advice on how he dealt with crisis situations at G.E.  These are his five guiding assumptions:

1. The problem is worse than it appears—No matter how hard you might wish and pray; very few crises start small and stay that way.  The vast majority are bigger in scope than you could ever imagine with that first phone call and they will last longer and get more ugly.
2. There are no secrets in the world, and everyone will eventually find out everything—Information that you try to shut down will eventually get out, and as it travels, it will certainly morph, twist and darken.   The only way to prevent that is to expose the problem yourself and tell the truth.
3. You and your organization’s handling of the crisis will be portrayed in the worst possible light—The very nature of a crisis means that you and your organization will be portrayed in a light so negative you won’t even recognize yourself.  Don’t hunker down.  Along with disclosing the full extent of your problem you have got to stand up and define your position before someone else does for you.
4. There will be changes in processes and people—Crisis requires change.  Sometimes a process fix is enough.  Usually not because the people affected by the crisis demand that someone be held responsible.
5. The organization will survive, ultimately stronger for what happened—There is not a crisis you cannot learn from, even though you hate every one of them.  After a crisis is over the tendency is to put it away in a drawer.  Don’t, teach its lessons every chance you get.

What have you learned that helped you get through a crisis?