13/11/2022 Avoiding The Fake-Crisis Trap
At some stage in our working lives, we’ve all found ourselves in the middle of a crisis. It could be an important customer who’s threatening to leave, a product release that’s suddenly on the line, or a crisis of confidence within the team.
Some of us may feel like we’re constantly in crisis mode — on a weekly or even daily basis. But when everything from a software bug to a crashed server or an angry customer are all dubbed a crisis, this creates two different problems.
Firstly, the word “crisis” begins to lose its meaning. If you’re sick of hearing something’s “urgent”, you’ll recognize the pattern — overuse leads to desensitization, and it becomes hard to treat each case seriously. Just like in the story of “The Little Boy Who Cried Wolf”, the real crisis, buried under the long list of fake crises, is at risk of being overlooked.
Secondly, when every day brings a new crisis, we find ourselves in constant fire-fighting mode. When being told to “drop everything” and focus on the latest fire becomes an almost daily mantra, we can lose our sense of purpose. What’s the point? We end up planning less and achieving less too. Constantly being in crisis mode is draining, adding to employee fatigue, taking a toll on mental health, and may lead to burnout.
Wait! Before we hit the crisis button ourselves, or respond to a crisis someone else has raised, let’s ask one crucial question. Is the crisis real?
To qualify as a crisis, a situation has to tick a number of boxes. While there’s no single agreed definition of a crisis, I’m a fan of the British Crisis Management Standard’s definition:
“An inherently abnormal, unstable and complex situation that represents a threat to the strategic objectives, reputation or existence of an organization.”
Three specific criteria distinguish between a crisis and an incident: Instability, Threat, and Abnormality.
- A crisis creates instability
It’s an ongoing situation, and there is a strong sense of uncertainty – no-one yet knows how it’s going to play out. A situation may be problematic, it may be damaging, but if it doesn’t destabilize the ship, then it’s not a crisis.
Imagine you’re in a customer-facing role. There’s been a huge infrastructure failure in your company’s back-office affecting systems used by your customers. However, there’s a redundant backup system which clicks into gear and customer service isn’t affected.
It’s worrying, it’s a problem, but work carries on. You know that the failure will be investigated and sooner or later, there will be a technical solution.
The situation is stable. The outlook is clear. It’s not a crisis.
- A crisis threatens important, long-term goals
The potential impact of a crisis is long-term and strategic. Imagine a customer who’s really upset. Unsatisfied with the support they’ve been getting, the customer has been sending angry emails in every direction and it’s escalated all the way up to the CEO.
Anything could happen — they might calm down, continue complaining, or even leave. The situation is unstable because we don’t know what will happen next.
But does it pose a threat to your strategic goals?
Let’s assume that the worst-case scenario is that the customer leaves us. If this “doomsday scenario” only makes a small dent in our results, without posing a threat to our operations, finances, or future – then it’s not a crisis, it’s an incident.
Should it be taken seriously? Of course. But should it trigger a full crisis response? Probably not.
- A crisis situation is abnormal, and requires change
The word crisis has its roots in the Greek “krisis” meaning breach and discontinuity. If this is a real crisis, the old systems and procedures that we have in place won’t help here. Tough decisions need to be made and change is required.
Imagine that the product you are responsible for has caused damage to three major customers in one week. No one knows what’s going to happen next. Will they demand compensation? Will we be able to fix the problem? Since these are three of your most strategic customers, if they were to sue or threaten to leave, it would seriously undermine your position and your goals.
The situation is both unstable and poses a real threat to our goals. But let’s imagine that this type of thing does happen from time to time. What’s more, as you have a tried and tested procedure for handling such incidents (for example: offering an unconditional apology, a clear action plan and full compensation), no new procedure is required here. While this type of incident may not be an everyday event, if it’s not abnormal, and the procedures you have in place can handle it, then no change is required and once again, it’s not a crisis.
The next time you’re about to hit the crisis button, or leap into action to respond to the latest crisis situation, ask yourself 3 questions:
- Is the situation unstable?
- Is there a threat to our strategic goals?
- Is the situation abnormal?
What if the answer’s no?
If the answer to any of these three questions is “no”, then take a deep breath, have a sip of coffee, and hold back. It’s an incident, not a crisis, and the procedures you’ve already put in place will do the job. Congrats! You’ve just avoided the “fake crisis trap”.
What if the answer’s yes?
If the answer to all three questions is “yes”, you’ve got a real crisis on your hands. While a deep breath and a sip of coffee might help, you’ll need a dedicated team, focused plan and different way of thinking.
Crisis management evolved out of major events that hit world headlines and had massive or long-term fallout, such as national food recalls, global health pandemics, and political crises. Here’s the good news. There are a clear set of
best practices for effective management and communication during crises. It’s built on the collective wisdom of people who’ve been there and done that.
These guidelines have served heads of state, national emergency services, and CEOs of huge multinationals. And they’re just as valuable to managers at all organizational levels who are facing genuine crisis situations with customers and colleagues at work.
By dodging the “fake crisis trap”, you’re already over the first hurdle. When you can distinguish a real crisis from a false alarm, you avoid over-investing time and effort in minor incidents and save your energy for when the full-blown crisis strikes.
When a crisis hits, will you know what, how and when to communicate? Our crisis communication workshop can be offered as a lecture, or as a half-day workshop – check here for more details.
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Dan Shalem
Senior Consultant and Trainer at Barry Katz
