When the first hijacked airplane slammed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center at 8:46 AM on September 11, 2001, Robert Scott, president and chief operating officer of Morgan Stanley-Dean Witter, was at 3 World Trade Center addressing 400 members of the National Association of Business Economists. Scott evacuated the building just in time to watch a second aircraft slam into the South Tower, which he knew housed his company offices and several thousand employees. By 9:30, Scott and his senior executives had convened at a backup site that became their command center. The decisions made by him and his team that day would make Morgan Stanley a case study in successful crisis management, and would enhance Scott’s reputation as a leader. What is the difference between a Morgan Stanley and less successful companies? Why do some organizations come out of crisis with enhanced reputations while others may not even survive as a business? While the reasons are many and varied, it frequently comes down to three main areas:
These failures are so common that they suggest three keys to successful crisis management: 1. Recognize that you are your own worst problem. Too often in preparing for crisis, one tends to ignore the “human factor”. Understanding human nature and how people react to crisis is one of the fundamental keys to crisis management.
2. Good information is essential to good decision-making. The second phase that people experience when confronted with a crisis is deliberation – the need to seek corroboration about what has occurred or is occurring and to consider courses of action. There are, however, problems inherent in this process:
3. Act Decisively. Overcoming denial and moving through deliberation leads to action. In most cases, the quicker you are seen to act and to provide information on the crisis and your actions, the more likely you are to mitigate the effects of the crisis. Effective action depends on a number of elements:
Surviving a crisis requires that you quickly recognize and accept that a crisis is occurring, gather sufficient information to make decisions regarding the crisis, and move quickly to implement those decisions. Incorporating these three keys into your preparations for crisis may not guarantee success, but they will certainly go a long way to preventing failures.
, CEM is a consultant specializing in preparing managers to lead better in crisis by understanding the human factors often overlooked in crisis planning. A popular speaker & lecturer, he is the author of the best-selling "Emergency Management: Concepts and Strategies for Effective Programs." For more info, visit luciencanton.com, or email info@luciencanton.com.
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