Tuesday, March 03, 2015

Pre-Crisis Management



After the crisis has passed and the lessons learned are being determined, it is important to add another stage. Too often the attention is focused on how the crisis was handled and resolved. An equally important question is "How did we get into this mess?"

In the post-crisis analysis, there will be plenty of opportunities to ask versions of that question. Not one should be missed.

"We failed to foresee the problem."
"How did we get into this mess?" [What kept us from seeing it?"]

"When we saw hints of it, we ignored them."
"How did we get into this mess?" [What caused us to ignore those warnings?"]

"By the time the problem was undeniable, we had limited options."
"How did we get into this mess?" ["Why were our options so limited?"]

"If we had taken action earlier, we could have avoided the crisis." 
"How did we get into this mess?" ["Precisely what should we have done and when should we have done it?"]

Of course, the best course is to engage in such questioning when a crisis is hypothetical and has not yet arrived. 

[As a management consultant, I long for when an organization calls me in and says: "We think we are in pretty good shape but we'll give you a small team and your sole mission will be to spot items which are not on our radar but which have the potential to create significant problems."]

2 comments:

Wally Bock said...

"Mess" was what Russell Ackoff called "a system of problems." We usually get into them gradually, without noticing what's happening or considering the consequences.

For post-mortems, after the bleeding has been staunched and the patient stabilized, I love asking "What's the story of this mess? Where did it all begin, what happened along the way to us standing here shaking our heads?"

When a group works through the story of the mess, all kinds of wonderful insights pop up into view.

Michael Wade said...

Wally,

Great use of the word "story."

When I taught business law, the examples used were "You Be the Judge." People like mystery stories and solving puzzles and that passion can be used to sort out the lessons learned.

I'm going to follow your idea and start using "story" more.

Thanks!

Michael