Do You Have a Crisis Playbook?

How to Create Your Crisis (Resilience) Playbook

Most of us were cought off guard by the first wave of the pandemic. Many companies responded by creating a New Crisis Playbook to not only survive but thrive during Black Swan events such as Covid-19. During this global event, agile became synonymous for survival. But Covid-19 isn't a Black Swan event any longer. Scientists are predicting many new variants for years to come so Covid-19 is no longer a surprise, rather a problem to be solved.

If your company has strong leadership, they undoubtedly developed a New Crisis Playbook for an uncertain world to keep cashflow healthy, but what about thier employees? Did your company develop an Employee Resilience Playbook to keep employees healthy?

What did you learn about yourself during the first year of the pandemic? How did you take personal accountability? What aspects of your life did you decide needed improving? Do you have a plan for the next 12 months or are you just winging it? Are you expecting adversity and if so, are you planning to survive or thrive? What can or can't you control? What do you need to learn? What's most important to you? What's limiting or holding you back? These are just some of the questions that get answered when you start developing your own Resilience Playbook.

The most important thing about having a Resilience Playbook is that it helps you feel like you are taking control of your life, not just reacting to whatever crisis comes next.

Outline for Developing Your Resilience Playbook:

Ask Better Questions That Demand Better Answers.

1. Do you have a clear vision of who you aspire to be 5 or 10 years down the road?
2. Are you investing in the identity of that person every day?
3. What is your proof that you are moving forward?

Vision, Identity, Proof - What I refer to as the VIP Process of Resilience can be applied to almost any situation you'd like to improve in your life.

Feeling resilient is like driving and getting nothing but green traffic lights. Each traffic light represents a different area of your life that might cause you worry or stress. When the light is green, things are going well, you feel like you are in control and moving forward towards the place you aspire to be in life. When the light is yellow, you feel a little unsure. Should you speed up and keep going or should you play it safe and slow down? When the light is red you have to stop. This is when you start to feel stuck, anxious and left behind. Sometimes it even feels like the light is never going to change to green again.

4 Areas that Cause the Greatest Amount of Stress in Life:

1. Physical Wellbeing - We've learned that we need to invest in physical exercise. The question is, what kind of exercise will you enjoy and will it lead to the outcomes you expect?
2. Mental Wellbeing - We've learned that we need to train our brains to look for things to be grateful for. Investing in friends and family will lead to your greatest feelings of health, happiness and belonging.
3. Personal Wellbeing - We've learned that the world of work is changing and no one wants to feel stuck and left behind. A Growth Mindset will be your key to future success.
4. Financial Wellbeing - We've learned that like exercise, if you don't invest in yourself daily, there will be no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. We all need to improve our financial literacy.

Applying the VIP Process to Create Your Resilience Playbook

Getting Aligned - The first step for creating your Resilience Playbook is creating a crystal clear vision of the future you aspire to create and then finding a way to align your vision with your employer's vision. If you can't find a way to align the two, you will always be looking for what you think are better opportunities because you won't be able to see how your daily struggles are part of the development process which is leading you to where you want to be. When vision's aren't aligned, every day feels like a constant struggle. Every day feels like you are running a yellow light and that daily anxiety leads to employee disengagement.

Investing in Process - Every business that has ever scaled successfully knows that growth comes from developing effective systems and processes. You need to invest in the future identity you aspire to create and the easiest way to do that is by developing processes that can be easily duplicated. In both your personal and professional life, process is huge. When it feels like you are just going throught the motions, you are following a successful process, but left unchecked, that process can march you right off a cliff. So you owe it to yourself to pay attention by asking better questions and demanding better answers to continuously refine your process.

Measure - "Show me the money". For each area of life that causes you stress, you need to create your vision for a better future, assume the identity of the person you aspire to be and measure the proof that you are moving forward every day.

This is the VIP Process Outline for each section of your Resilience Playbook. Just like in business, if the proof (results) are not what you expect them to be, you need to be agile enough to make changes. If left unchecked, one day you will find yourself going nowhere fast in a sea of red lights. This is where stress, uncertainty and depression start to creep into your life.

Responding to Crisis (big and small) - Having a Resilience Playbook is big picture thinking. It's like having a 1000 piece puzzle and being able to see the cover of the puzzle box. Without the bigger picture, trying to make sense out of all of those tiny little puzzle pieces can feel overwhelming.

A Resilience Playbook gives context to your daily struggles. Some struggles are expected and you can plan for them, strategically react to them, and improve your confidence and competence along the way.

Other struggles are more unexpected and suddenly appear as a crisis. When a swimmer is drowning, they need a life guard, not a swim coach. It's important to recognize the difference and seek the professional help you need during a crisis to stabilize the problem. Asking for help is a sign of strength, not weakness.

Once the immediate crisis has been labeled, identified, and stabilized, only then can you start the healing process of moving forward. From career setbacks to major family tragedies, having a Resilience Playbook is what will keep you on track and moving forward.

One Day at a Time - How do you get to the Ironman Finish Line? One year, one month, one week, one day, one step at a time. Every vision in life worth achieving works the same way. Over the past 15 years, I have been realizing my visions and refining my Resilience Playbook process one day at a time.

I know that it is not a matter of "if" but "when" the next crisis will rear it's ugly head.

Your Resilience Playbook has the potential become your greatest calming influence during your next crisis, but you need to understand that it will always be a work in progress and it is just a tool. I have lots of tools at home but I don't use them all every day. I own a router that I have used maybe twice in 15 years. I understand how it works but I am neither confident nor competent using it.

A Resilience Playbook is one of those tools that works best if used every day. As you achieve more success in your life, your belief system will constantly change and you will refine your Resilience Playbook accordingly. When problems arise and you find yourself navigating the rough seas of your own perfect storm, your confidence and competence to not just survive, but thrive, will come from the results you can see and measure as the result of following your Resilience Playbook.

Keep it Simple - Your Resilience Playbook can be a simple journal or spreadsheet that keeps what is important (your vision) top of mind every day. You should have a process mapped out of what your investments are going to be every day and at the end of each month, you should review your proof to see if you are moving forward, feeling stuck or falling behind.

Be the Leader You Wish You Had - "Your kids are watching you. They will grow up to be just like you, so be the person you want them to be." - Anonymous

Whether you are a parent or not, leadership starts at home with the things you do when you think no one else is watching.