Whatrichardsaid

The first time I heard the phrase, “… we must prepare our organizations for unexpected unknown events,” my mind exploded.

How can it be that we are talking about controlling unexpected and unknown events? Without knowing the what, the how or the when … the equation did not feel accurate, to me it made no sense.

I was attending a talk on crisis management at New York University. I was studying project management for construction, and logically in a sector as special and complicated as construction, you depend on so many variables and so many external agents that that statement made some sense.

But the teacher continued his talk and my disbelief continued to grow, not only did we have to prepare ourselves for these unexpected and unknown events, but we also had to prepare ourselves to anticipate them by creating an action plan and proposing to train our human teams with exercises and simulations in these possible crises,unexpected and unknown.

 He did not stop stating that this type of forecast was the future, that in a few years the world would be the victim of many crises and changing events that would exponentially affect our lives, and companies had to protect themselves and prepare to be able to survive all kinds of scares. Booom, my mind exploded.

Once the talk was over, I stayed talking to the teacher, like an incredulous student, I asked him questions and discussed each and every one of the proposals and ideas that he answered. He was so sure of his predictions and concepts that I asked him where I could learn more about the world of crisis management. He recommended that I study with him at the same university in New York.

Globalization, making our companies and corporations more interconnected, larger and by extension more exposed, or the new technologies that have accelerated services and information by opening wide access to their Information, are some of the many variables that we must keep in mind to protect our interests.

Don’t you remember the crisis created by a post on Instagram by the H&M brand advertising hoodies for children with a photo of a black boy with a sweater that said “coolest monkey in the jungle”.

This type of crisis would never have happened when the information was filtered in a more detailed way, processes where in place when making an announcement in the press or magazines or television, but now social networks and the users, ask for more content and more assiduous than before, we want new information everyday, creating pressure on companies and marketing departments that end up making mistakes that otherwise would not have happened.

This can be foreseen, installing procedures so it doesn’t happen, action plans and defense plans for our companies can also be prepared specially when our reputation is on the line, learning how to face the problem and even learn how to apologize, or how to investigate and handle those who attack us. A crisis is not always a mistake, there is malice or bad intention most of the time.

The current covid19 pandemic has been an example of the many unexpected unknown events that can affect us directly or indirectly, both professionally and personally. It is not the typical example, nor the only type of crisis that we study in this discipline , but COVID, as a global crisis, diversifies into many other crises that affect everyone in one way or another.

15 years after that class in new york , and now as teacher, I am still a staunch defender of crisis management and although slowly, the world is realizing its interest and need to be included in all companies as an untouchable part of their departments culture and corporate fundamentals.

“The crisis ready organisation” is gradually becoming a concept that companies are applying in their processes, and instilling their culture in each and every one of their employees.