When the brown stuff hits the fan, what’s the one approach that has to come into play?
When everything is going to pot, what is the one thing you need to do?
This is especially true in a team situation, as people quickly assess the danger they are in, how it will affect them and then how others will judge them.
We’re not just talking about physical danger of course, but any crisis that can crop up in the day-to-day running of a company.
Here’s the crucial action: you have to think, what’s important right now?
Most people quickly get into a flap, wasting time over how the situation happened, how it might affect them in the future in front of their colleagues, indeed, how it might affect their standing in the company.
People panic and fret over all the wrong things, rather than thinking about the immediate problem and its solution.
You need to be able to reboot your brain, to stop it thinking about the past and what might happen in the future, and laser focus on the here and right now. You have to be present in the challenge you are facing at that very moment.
Okay, let’s give an example. Sales manager Bob, slightly hung over from a liquid lunch, comes back to the office and pours a kettle full of hot water over himself trying to make a cup of coffee.
He sits on the floor, shouting and screaming that his leg is burning.
What’s important right now? The key thing is to ensure how Bob can be helped. What is the extent of his injuries? Can his pain be immediately relieved? Is he in danger? Someone needs to call the first-aider in the office. Should an ambulance be called?
It’s coping with Bob and how he can be helped.
It’s not, OMG, that’s Bob all over. Why does he drink too much at lunch? Why does he come back and always do something like this? Someone upstairs needs to have a word with Bob. Look, I don’t want to get involved, he’s always doing something stupid. Where’s the accident book – do we have to enter this in there? Is that kettle at fault? Will Bob end up suing us? Will I be blamed if Bob kicks up a fuss? What if Bob dies?
A rough example, but you can see the point.
A crisis creates all sorts of thoughts, arguments and emotions that suddenly fill our brains. Fighter pilots call it helmet noise, when they have to cope with so much coming as inputs, sifting through all the chatter to focus on what’s important.
So, in a crisis, resist all the distracting noise and ask yourself: what’s important right now?
Cope with the present and the future and past will look after itself.
