Crises - How To Avoid Them

Crises - How To Avoid Them

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.


By Carol Halsey
Contributing Author


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.


By Carol Halsey
Contributing Author

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