In the face of adversity

A crisis is part of life. Some errors will always happen. Atul Gawande in the Checklist Manifesto lists out two types of errors - errors of ignorance (mistakes we make because we don’t know enough), and errors of ineptitude (mistakes we made because we don’t make proper use of what we know).

Very often, in crisis hours, we see people shutting down due to the high stress, high output situations. Going through my own experiences, I have come to remember these following learnings:

1. Am I building it up?

From coffee spilling on my shirt before an interview to challenges impacting the projects sustainability, crisis manifest in diverse ways. But, whenever I enter the war room, I inevitably ask myself, how big of a deal is it really?

2. What is victory?

Neither do all crisis need an intervention nor is the annihilation of the enemy always a victory. Sun Tzu in Art of war mentions "What the ancients called a clever fighter is one who not only wins but excels in winning with ease". It is thus too important to set parameters of victory in the crisis and weigh it against the effort that should be put into it achieving it.

3. What's done is done.

Often, in the middle of a crisis, we fixate on what is already done. Unless it is diagnosed to find a resolution, discussions on who did what are pointless, and often only stress the team and makes their self-preservation instincts kick in.

4. The warriors and blessings

A crisis by is usually an all hands on deck situation, where the institutional hierarchy should be absolutely flat. Evaluation of strengths and weaknesses and having individuals take ownership of segments of the plan really helps. It has also been helpful to call upon the relationships built over time and seek the counsel of experts to reduce both primary and collateral risks.

5. This too shall pass: In the most stressful situation I am often placated by the knowledge of the crisis, the institution and I have survived in the past. It has often come down to keeping a calm mind, devising a solid plan and executing it with the team.

Postmortem: Identify the breakpoints, fix them and brace for a different crisis in the future. This is just to keep it interesting.

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Please share your inputs and thoughts.