One question can save your crisis management efforts
Don’t be surprised if in a few years’ (or a few months’) time some current White House, CIA and Pentagon staffers write how-to treatises on crisis management. According to news reports, the planning for the assault on Osama bin Laden’s compound included contingencies for possible engagement with Pakistani police and military units. These contingencies included two additional Black Hawk helicopters stationed just across the border in Afghanistan, ready to engage in a firefight in case the commandos in the two lead assault helicopters came under attack in the compound.
President Obama insisted upon these two additional helicopters “about 10 days before the raid,” according to the New York Times.
That speaks volumes to the thoroughness of the assault’s crisis planning. Up until the last moment, the U.S. strategists kept asking the crucial question in crisis planning: What else can go wrong? Initially it was thought that the U.S. could talk its way out of a confrontation with Pakistani forces in case they responded to the military action on their own turf. Somebody—the president, apparently—then asked, “Well, what if that doesn’t work?”
This quote, from a PR News Online article, shows that, however much we may love to malign its abilities, on some subjects the government’s crisis management still excells.
The question, “what if that doesn’t work?,” is at the very core of crisis planning, and smart business thinking in general. Every plan needs a backup, or even better several, so you can change paths depending on which direction the situation moves in.
What this does is incorporate flexibility into your plans, and it’s this ability to change when something isn’t working as planned that will allow your company to make mistakes without taking damage as a result.
The BCM Blogging Team
https://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/