The biggest mistake when dealing with crises

Throughout my 26 years of working with crises, I have seen a lot of breakthroughs - and a lot of mistakes.

But there is one mistake, which, in my opinion, is the most dangerous, the most fundamental, and the most common.

Which one? What comes to mind? 

The biggest mistake that has killed the vast majority of organizations in the recent decades is treating each crisis as something rare, unique, and isolated.

An economic crisis? We come together for a big tense meeting, we brainstorm, develop an action plan, tightened our belts, and brace until the worse is over.

A new challenging demand from a client (a supplier, a governmental agency, a partner)? We come together for a big tense meeting, we brainstorm, develop an action plan, tightened our belts, and brace until the worse is over.

COVID-19? We come together for a big tense meeting, we brainstorm, develop an action plan, tightened our belts, and brace until the worse is over.

Every time we start from scratch. 

Every time we lose time, money, trust, productivity, and impact.

Every time we fail our best people who, no matter how successful and professional, begin to drown in this endless wave of fire-fighting.

This approach to crises was effective during the last century - when disruptions came rarely and there was no need to prepare for them in advance - or have an internal capacity for reinvention.

But that time has passed.

Since 1988, there have been 469 country-level economic recessions - one about every 25 days.

This is not counting regional, industrial, and global economic crises.

This is not counting political, social, natural, and other disruptions.

In this century, in our volatile uncertain world, a crisis is not something unique, rare, or unpredictable.

Crises is the norm, and this norm can become our enemy - or our greatest opportunity.

So, how can we make that transition? Don't start from scratch every single time - instead, develop a strong skill, a clear course of action, a super-simple, but effective approach to any crisis.

And to help you with this quest, in the past few days we've hosted a free 3-part series of live sessions on Facebook you can watch on your schedule:

• In Part 1, we look into the reasons for the constant pressure of the crisis we all experiences lately and did a deep dive into the speed of change, including the latest data on company life cycles. You can catch this session here>>>
• In Part 2, we explored the difference between Reinvention 1.0 and Reinvention 2.0 when approaching the volatility and uncertainty. You can watch this session here>>>
• In Part 3, we reviewed the six pillars of reinvention as a system - and explored which of these pillars you and your organization are particularly good at (and which need work). You can catch it here>>>

I hope you'll find these sessions to be provocative and useful at the same time - and look forward to your feedback.

P.S. The doors to our beloved foundational course, Breakthrough Reinvention, are closing this Monday, November 16th. Still time to catch this train (shoot me an email if you are not sure this course is for you) - here are all the details: www.learn2reinvent.com/yes

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Dr. Nadya Zhexembayeva helps companies such as Coca-Cola, Kohler, and IBM turn change and disruption into an opportunity.

Want to join our amazing reinvention community? Grab this FREE 85-page preview of my new book and you are in: https://www.learn2reinvent.com/handbook