Do you know someone who seems to live their life in a continual crisis? Their electricity was shut off because they didn’t have any checks to pay their bill (they could have paid online, but never took the time to setup an account), they didn’t have any checks because they were waiting until they got paid again to reorder them, but then they had a flat tire which cost them $150 to replace and also caused them to be late to work for the 3rd time that week, so they were sent home missing a day’s work and pay. Now they can’t blow dry their hair which will cause them to run behind for work…again.
This kind of thing doesn’t just happen in people’s personal lives. It also rears its ugly head in business. It’s 5pm on a Friday and the pizza place has just run out of their most popular topping and orders are backing up quickly. The quarterly catalog is due to the printer in 24 hours, but the ads from the vendors haven’t even been received. The deadline to be included in the job fair is at the end of business today, but the job descriptions that have to be included haven’t been written. Frustrated yet? Does this remind you of situations you’ve observed or had to endure? Let’s look at how all of this chaos comes to be, and how these messy situations can be untangled and fixed.
When consulting for businesses I often come across a crisis the business is dealing with. Sometimes after investigating further I uncover a crisis culture. This is the type of organization that is continually dealing with a crisis. They heavily burden their people by overworking them at the last minute to barely pull off the task at hand, then jump immediately to working on corralling the newest crisis that’s arisen. To untangle situations like this you have to start at the end and begin asking “why questions,” then back up one step at a time until you reach the genesis of the problem.
For instance, the deadline to get the catalog to the printer is in 24 hours, but the ads from the vendors that are supposed to be included haven’t been received. After the ads are received your graphic artist will have to add them to the digital file and finalize it before submitting it to the printer. “Why don’t we have the ads from the vendors?” Because they haven’t been received yet. “Why haven’t they been received yet?” Because the vendors haven’t gotten the files back from their graphic artists. “Why haven’t they gotten the files back from their graphic artists?” Because they’ve been waiting three weeks for a response from your company about what file type and size they need to submit. “Why did it take three weeks to respond to a simple question, and why didn’t we get the vendors this basic information before they even asked?” Because Joni received the initial email from the vendors, but she is disorganized and a poor communicator.
Okay, so now you’ve tracked down what seems to be the initial domino that fell which lead to this stressful situation. Now what? Your people will be working late tonight, early tomorrow, then all day long to barely pull off getting the completed catalog to the printer just in time…like you always do. But don’t be fooled, the next crisis is already brewing and will quickly make itself know in the near future and you’ll take another spin on this twisted merry-go-round. How can you jump off and break this vicious cycle? It’s a lot of hard work, but it can be done: you have to #1 manage the current crisis while #2 beginning to plan for the next one.
Here’s what that looks like. Your catalog is printed every quarter (3 months). You have to manage the current catalog while beginning to plan for the next printing. Manage the current printing while setting internal deadlines for future emails that will be sent to vendors, select someone to write those emails, plan a meeting to review the emails to make sure there are no errors and make sure all the necessary information like file type and size for the ads is included.
Being caught in a crisis cycle is a horrible way to live personally and a terrible way to work professionally. It’s like being caught in the ocean with no sign of the shore while being continually pummeled by waves with only short breaks in between to catch your breath. To break this cycle one must first identify the problem by working backwards asking “why questions” to track down the source of each problem. This will let you see what you need to begin working on immediately to avoid this same situation in the future all while managing the current crisis. It’s a lot of hard work, but once someone decides that they are uninterested in being caught in a continual cycle of crisis, then they will be willing to put in the double effort of planning for the future while working hard and fast to resolve the current crisis. Eventually the work you put in ahead of time to plan for the next deadline will allow you to break free of crisis management. You’ll do this by simply carrying out your preset plan and you won’t have to cancel dinner plans with your family…again.
Please contact me if you’d like to see how this could look in your organization. I’ll be happy to help you put a specific plan in place so that you can break free of your crisis cycle.