Don’t we all just love a crisis, the excitement, the buzz, the sense of urgency? The rule book gets thrown away and the team is working at its best. Then there is the chance to actually be a real hero! To be the one that grasps the issue and drives through a resolution. A chance to be the one that they all talk about; “Did you see the way he sorted out that crisis”? There is a chance that you could even become one of the names that people talk about when they tell war stories of great triumphs and heroic actions at the corporate gatherings. It’s a pity that corporate life doesn’t have the same approach as the military. Then there would be a chance to be “Mentioned in Corporate Dispatches” or awarded a “Corporate Gong” that our mothers could proudly display on the mantelpiece!
Crisis in business can be a bit like those huge helpings of Sticky Toffee Puddings covered with lashings of chocolate sauce and four scoops of ice cream. A very small portion every now and again is really nice, it’s actually great even though we know it isn’t really good for us! But a huge portion, and having to eat it all very quickly becomes too much. Then, if that is the only item on the dessert menu it is too much and boring. If we find we have to eat one every hour, we have totally clogged up the system both mentally and physically!
Sticky toffee pudding? What sort of an analogy is that to illustrate the effect of poor execution of work within ineffective core business processes? I agree, it is a dreadful analogy but I’m going to stay with it anyway! The real problem is rarely that extreme; huge helpings every hour? Just unrealistic! But if we could say that just a few of the key people who are supposed to be setting an example are eating one, maybe two, a week that is better. But then have you noticed that they are also quietly having the odd “Chocolate Fudge Cake” as well? And yes, you have noticed, it is covered in cream! If the influencers have the odd portion of chocolate or a sugar rush then it must be good!
It is sadly all too often true that handling crises and issues can become the dominant work within an organisation. What’s more, the issues take priority over the daily tasks that operate the core processes and handling crises can very quickly establish itself as the “normal way of working”. You know how it gets! You go home after work to a “How was your day dear”? Oh it was fine thanks. “Oh good, and what did you do”? You reply “Oh you know, the usual same old stuff; crisis, problems & issues.”
Organisations can then get comfortable with this way of working and it just becomes the norm. At times the business can even perform reasonably well from a financial point of view. So if the way we currently work generates the financial results “it must be good”, and trying to change would surely be dangerous! The organisation over time becomes good at managing crises and issues and it becomes just part of everyday life. From time to time the odd new starter asks “Now we have solved this problem, shouldn’t we do some root cause and corrective action to make sure that it doesn’t happen again”? We know they are right; it is just that they don’t understand how busy we are! We need to get some more staff and then maybe we can look at this “Continuous Improvement” stuff.
Busy Fools? Certainly not! How dare you! We are just really busy dealing with a continual stream of important issues and problems!
