Over the years I have managed several crises. My success depended on two actions. These actions were critical to success.
First, stay calm, analyze the situation and decide what you can do now in the current state.
Second, look at what you can do in the future now, in the current states. This means in the next minute, hour, day, tomorrow, etc. Understand that as the current moves now during a crisis, the situation will change. The future now can change your actions, so you must remain flexible.
You are always operating in the current state while moving towards a future current state.
Here are some examples of what may be useful to you.
My first crisis was simple. We close our restaurant at the Stafford Hotel from 2pm to 4pm every day. We kept our cafeteria open during this time. The cafeteria had few customers. I do paperwork in my room during this time.
We had a new waitress. I explained to her that she had done a good process and I think you can gain more experience working in the cafeteria during this slow time. This is what we did.
I’m in my bedroom. I get a desperate call from Mrs. Walker, my cashier. She said, “You’d better come down here, you’ve got a problem.”
I got to the cafeteria, it was full of customers. A tour bus had stopped at our hotel. My new waitress was not there. I went to the kitchen, she was crying. She said, “I can’t serve all those people.” I said, “Yes, we can. Here’s what we’ll do. I’ll start at the counter, you start with one booth. We’ll serve one customer at a time. They’ll probably just want coffee and cake. We’ll only focus on one customer at a time.” This is what we did. In the end, we serve all customers.
This is a simple crisis. But the method still stands. What can we do now? Stay calm and focus on the now.
Over the years I handled more complicated situations. I saw firsthand that a major crisis can be beyond your resources. This means that you must gather the resources you need from other areas. Communication channels are the most important for these resources to come to your aid.
As the Business Office Manager, I am in charge of keeping the lights on for our clients. At 4pm on Good Friday 1985, I was in the West Blocton office looking west. There was a black cloud coming towards the office. I was new to this situation being the new manager. I had been the District Accounting Manager prior to this position. I saw what the Operations Department did during a snow storm in February. Now, he would have to do this alone.
What to do now. She knew that trouble tickets would start printing shortly. I called my lineman into the office. We sit in my office and wait. The calm before the storm. Tickets were printed and we determined which areas to check first. They knew the system of distribution lines. We make decisions about which sections to review first. This was critical information.
My first now, I knew I needed the help of the office lineman. This was key, I stayed calm and sought help.
I feel like my lineman from the office to problem areas. They energized the line, or told me what it took to get it back on. The lineman found downed trees on the lines and downed poles. I called the district office and told them we needed tree crews and crew help. Then I sent out the tree crews and the line crews. We work all night. I got home at 10 p.m. on Saturday.
Now the biggie, April 12, 2011, the Tuscaloosa Tornado. I worked as a supervisor in our Western Division Control Center. Scheduled dispatchers and helped them get their job done. I was the coordinator of the transmission control center in Birmingham. These roles were assigned to me before this storm. We watched the tornado on our television monitors. Every member of our team knew what our role would be. We were calm and ready, we were trained. We did our work before in other storms. This storm was bigger. We work 16 hours a day for eight days.
We use communication in a big way. Our division leaders arrived in the storm room prepared for this purpose. His goal was to analyze and forecast our needs. These needs were tremendous. We had to have outside help from our company and our sister companies. We use contract crews, tree crews, and community agencies. These were the resources we needed to turn on the power for our customers.
Each member of our team knew their role. We were calm. We knew it would take days to attract our customers. We have never experienced a storm like this. In the end, there were more than 3,000 customers that we couldn’t serve; their buildings were gone.
The key to handling a crisis is to stay calm; you know the crisis is only temporary. You must do what you can do now. How can you help your team in their functions? How can you get the outside help you need? You operate in the current state while preparing for a future state.
You are key to setting an example. Be like a calm duck above and row as hell below