Crises - How To Avoid Them
Author: Carol Halsey

You have heard of Murphy’s Law, "If anything can go wrong, it
will." If you have ever had your best laid plans go awry, you
very well know that Murphy’s Law can rear its ugly head at the
most unexpected times. Things do have a way of going wrong,
and usually will, unless you take steps to prevent it.

Crises can pop up from just about anywhere, involve just about
anyone, and come in many different shapes, but the consequences
are always very similar - stressful and a big waste of time.
By anticipating crises and taking steps to prevent them, you
can reduce by half the time now spent reacting to them.

A crisis will take you away from your best laid plans and
priorities for the day. You may have an important deadline to
meet, but will be diverted to resolve a crisis. For example,
some information you are waiting for is late getting to you,
which means your project is behind schedule, and on top of it,
something else goes wrong.

Another example: One of your key managers becomes unexpectedly
ill or has a family crisis and has to be absent from work for
several weeks. These kinds of crises cause tension that can
have a devastating impact on your morale, quality of work, and
your business. But how can you prevent crises from invading
your well planned work schedules? You probably can’t, 100%,
but you sure can avert most of them. It is done by anticipation.

Crisis management is dealing with a crisis after it occurs, and
the best way to handle a crisis is to keep it from occurring in
the first place. And the best way to do this is to anticipate
what might happen and make plans to prevent it, or at least
reduce its impact. You may be wondering how you can know what
will go wrong, as you cannot predict what will happen next,
because a crisis is unpredictable.

The same way you anticipate the possibility of a fire, or an
emergency. You don’t know when, or if there will be one, but
you have the 911 number either speed dialed in your phone or
imbedded in your brain, and know the location of the fire
extinguisher and how to use it. There is also a first aid kit
handing. What you have done is taken some reasonable
precautions, just in case.

In the work environment, you would be doing essentially the
same thing. You cannot predict when a crises will arise, but
with careful planning you can be prepared when you see it
coming, and may very well be able to prevent it. The
techniques to be used for anticipating problems and preventing
them is called contingency planning. It is the most powerful
crisis control tool. In the example above, the 911 number,
fire extinguisher and first aid kit are contingency planning.
A contingency plan for business as usual if a manager is
bsent, would be to have someone trained as a back up for each
of your key personnel, so business can proceed at a reasonably
normal pace.

Get in the habit of asking yourself, *What can go wrong?* and
*What else can go wrong?* Try to identify potential problems,
and draw on past crises experiences. Go over thoroughly each
step of a project or situation, and keep asking yourself,
*What could go wrong?* When you have identified any potential
problem areas, consider the seriousness of each. By
prioritizing, you will know to concentrate on the biggest
potential problems which can be catastrophic, and work on ways
to divert or resolve them before they hit.

If similar problems have developed in the past, draw on that
experience. How did it happen? What was the cause? How was
it resolved? What were the consequences? What could I have
done to prevent it? Drawing on past experience is the only
benefit out of a crisis. At least you can learn from it to
prevent it from happening again.

Another good way to prevent a crisis is to give yourself time
to catch a minor problem before it becomes a major problem.
For instance, recognize that everything takes longer than you
think it will (is this another Murphy’s Law?). Always build
in a cushion of at least 20% more time than you think is
needed to accomplish a task, and when working towards a
deadline. On projects that will take more than a week to
complete, build in interim deadlines for completion of each
step of the project. This will keep you on target and give you
time to deal with any minor problems along the way.

Have you ever seen someone who never seems to get anything
done because they spend their day putting out fires?
Firefighting is not crisis handling because fires are minor
annoyances that eat up time. A firefighter is someone who
does not know how to anticipate, does not see the big picture
of their job responsibilities, and lives from moment to moment.
They continually have small problems erupting around them and
race around madly trying to resolve them. Their days consist
of a mixture of small annoying inconveniences that never
should have happened in the first place.

However, these small problems do not constitute a crisis.
But be aware that whether you have a pattern of continually
fighting fires or managing crises, you are undermining your
efficiency and losing a lot of precious time. Preplanning and
anticipation are your best ways of conquering these time
wasters.

©2002-03 Carol Halsey






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Carol Halsey is Founder and President of Business Organizing Solutions. She is a professional organizer, consultant, speaker, and author of "93 Organizing Tips to Simplify Your Work Day." You can get this booklet, articles and ideas on how to get 14 hours work out of an 8 hour day, simply by visiting her web site: http://www.PilesToFiles.com. Subscribe to her free organizing newsletter, "Organizing Ideas," sent twice a month.

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