Open your eyes and look to find weak spots where trouble could start
Major organizations continue to be blindsided by crises on an almost daily basis, but how? They have the budget, they have the manpower, so what exactly is lacking that results in loss of reputation, financial woes, and other damage?
Forbes contributor Glenn Llopis hit the nail on the head in a recent piece titled, “4 Ways Leaders Can Avoid Crises of NFL Proportions”, and we thought we’d share his insight with you:
1. Seek to Understand
Don’t ever assume that you have considered everything you need to know about your business, its people and the marketplace. Things are changing so fast that you must see everything through a wide-enough angle lens that enables you to anticipate crisis and manage change before circumstances force your hand. Anticipating the unexpected enables you to see around, beneath and beyond what you seek – well beyond the obvious.
Regardless of how prepared you think you are, you can never be completely ready for the unexpected. Avoiding crisis requires a leadership team with a keen eye that is always on the look-out to improve operations. You want to ensure the team never gets blindsided with seismic issues that can force the organization to turn on its head and pay out a lot of money to resolve something it could have easily avoided.
If things have been chugging along smoothly for a while, it’s time to take a look around. Step outside of your organization (or hire someone else to do it) and take a serious look at your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and vulnerabilities, then adjust your crisis management plans as necessary. This can’t be done with the same mindset from one year to the next, either, your viewpoint must constantly be shifting to fit the changes in the world around you, or you risk missing out on vital warning signs simply due to being out of date.
The BCM Blogging Team
https://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com