Crisis Management

Its 2017, we have self-driving cars, solar powered building and even can determine your child’s gender however, no matter how advanced our technology, how much information we can learn about the world around us, there is still one thing we can never truly prevent. A crisis. Of course, we learn how to predict and prevent. But, it would be a crisis if we prevented it. Crisis’ are unpredictable and usually can cause damage either internally in an organization or externally. They can be as complex as a new virus strand or as forthcoming as a F5 tornado. A crisis is the true testament to how an organization handles themselves in tough situations. As I said before a crisis has the potential damage a company physically or even their public image. Therefore, most organizations have some form of a crisis management team to help respond to these circumstances. Whether it is an actual team or just people that know how to think outside of the boss, this group is responsible with what to do in a crisis. They should know how to communicate within the organization or what to release to the public. They are what keeps the organization afloat during these times.

Throughout the 21^st century we have seen a multitude of crisis’. Some were handled with grace, while others left organization public image in question. Having people that are equip to either write a proper statement and someone to deliver the message to the public is essential during this time. One example of a poorly handled crisis was Hurricane Katrina. In August of 2005, New Orleans was devastated after a Category 5 Hurricane hit the coast. Now known as one of the deadliest hurricanes to hit the gulf, at the time poor crisis management might have been one of the factors. New Orleans is below sea level, because of this the have mandated levees to keep the water from flooding the city if a hurricane were to hit them. Well, these levees had not been well maintained meaning, they could only support the pressure of a Category 3 hurricane. So, these levees were easily dismantled with the pressure of a category 5 hurricane. Thus, leading to the flooding. New Orleans crisis management were not prepared for a crisis. They did not predict a hurricane of that magnitude would hit their shores and were not able to fix the levees before it was too late. This is an example of how poor crisis management can create so much damage. Perhaps with stronger levees the damage in New Orleans would not have been so devastating.

On the other hand, you have a company like Johnson & Johnson, and they proved in 1982 they are more than equip to handle crisis. Before medication had tamper proof caps, 7 deaths ad been linked to potassium cyanide found in Tylenol capsules. Immediately the company recalled all bottles since the safety of consumers was their primary concern. They pursued legal investigation and introduced what we now know as tamper proof lids. Overall, this is one of the most successful crisis handled. This is because of their quick action and apparent concern for the public.

These are just two examples to show the extremes of how important crisis management is for any organization. You would think he more advanced in technology we get the less dramatic these crises will be, but it has quite the opposite effect. Before the technology era, our crisis was somewhat limited locally, or whomever was directly affected. This was just to limited avenues of communication. Today, we are globally connected at the tips of our fingers. Crisis in Birmingham, Alabama at 12pm can be in Paris, France by 12:30pm. That is how easy information can travel. Because of this it is crucial that crisis management teams are equipped with statement to reach out to the public. The worst thing in a crisis is to not communicate. This creates room for rumors that can cause more damage to public image. If an organization can make a statement that can address the situation and let the public know that everything will be “okay”, the extent of the crisis might be limited. No matter how smart we get, how much information we have, we can never predict what will occur tomorrow or even in the next 5 minutes. We are forever behind the power curve when it comes to crisis management because we are responding to past errors. We are focused on fixing what happened previously and this leaves room for crisis to happen in the future. This is the nature of a crisis. If I had to give some simple tips on handling a crisis whether it is a city or organization, it would be to:

1.     Have a response- being able to communicate with the public will let them know you are aware of the current situation and you are concerned.

2.     Cohesion- this is not the time have the CEO take a vacation to Maldives, the whole organization from the top to the bottom should be on board with addressing the crisis.

3.     3.Timely- Try to address the public as soon as possible, having urgency is important in a crisis as along as the information is accurate.

4.     Updates- with social media being as accessible as it is, updating the public on the progress of the crisis should not be a problem.

5.     Transparency- The organization should be honest with all information given, trying to sugar coat information will only cause more damage if it is discovering it is inaccurate.

At the end of the day all we can do is learn from past mistakes, so in the future those errors won’t be as devastating and on top of that do our best to consider the future. Even if a crisis comes that we were unprepared to deal with, having the proper response in a timely manner is just as effective. Every day we just must be ready for what might happen next because you never know when a crisis will happen.