When facing a crisis we tend to respond to our anxieties in a manner that often result in actions which tend to undermine our real interests, as these actions are not always the most effective way to gain the upper hand in the long run.
Crisis management expert Jonathan Bernstein, says that even though some organizations are prepared to respond to the operational components of a crisis, and as there are audiences potentially affected by any crisis, each of these audiences will need to know the facts as soon as possible. Otherwise, these audiences will start to needlessly worry or react inappropriately in the absence of these facts. But is that enough?
There is abundant material on the subject, and many theories and models associated with crisis management, and obviously, crises need to be addressed and in may instances addressed quite immediately. But at the same time, we ought to leave some spare cycles to look beyond the crisis and tap the collective intelligence and creativity of people to find innovative ways to forge ahead, rather than allowing these crises to hold us back by forcing our focus on “solving the problem”.
We have too many “problem solvers”, because our culture loves heroes. But how many of us are willing to exchange the mindset of problem solving for a mindset of innovation?
