WHAT TO ASK IN A CRISIS SITUATION
Imagine this. Your team is together in a room and it’s a crisis situation; the proverbial has hit the fan. You’re the boss. You hear about this crisis, so you storm into the room and say, “What happened? Why did it happen? And who is to…blame?”
What is your team’s objective following your intervention; is it to try and solve the problem? Heck no! Their objective is to survive. They want to make sure that when the music stops, they still have a chair. They cannot participate in solving this problem. Their reptilian brains have taken over; this is fight or flight.
Now let’s imagine; same crisis, same room, same team. Only this time, you walk in and say, “What happened?” And then, “What is the best outcome from here?”
First, most people in that room will fall over in shock. They were expecting to get murdered. “What’s the best outcome from here?” is not what they were expecting. What’s the second thing that will happen? Everyone will lean into that problem with everything they’ve got. Why? Firstly, this approach assumes there is an outcome. Secondly, it assumes that the people in the room are the ones to solve it. Most importantly, your approach accepts where “here” is. You don’t like it, but you accept it. “What is the best outcome from here?” You don’t spend any time in regret, blame or victimization. “How could this happen? Why did it happen?” And so on. That’s just fear. It’s useless.
Is there a time to come back and figure out what went wrong and why? Of course. Is the best time to do that in the middle of the crisis? Absolutely not. You will never get a real answer anyway because everyone is in survival mode.
“What is the best outcome from here?” This is the best question you can ever ask to get people out of the crisis and into the solution. And once you solve this problem, they will be bonded to you forever because you showed them what real leadership looks like.
INSPIRATION FROM OTHERS
“The speed of the boss is the speed of the team.” – Lee Iacocca
“A successful team is a group of many hands and one mind.” – Bill Bethel
QUESTIONS TO REFLECT ON
- How do you respond in a crisis?
- What outcome does that create?
- How can you respond more constructively?
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