When is a crisis not really a crisis? When you've got organizational panic.
Some organizations perceive that they're at their best only when they're dealing with a crisis. And you can kind of see why.
Think about some of the positive behaviours that emerge when a crisis is being handled well. Breaking down of organisational silos, solutions-driven teamwork, flattening of hierarchy with capable people confidently operating with full, delegated authority, communication that is quick, clear and BS-free, a collective focus on shared goals that drive efficient and effective resolution.
That all sounds pretty good and hallmarks of good crisis management. And teams are usually proud when a crisis is handled well, as they should be. But be vigilant if your organisational lexicon commonly includes the phrase: 'We're great in a crisis.'
Because there's a downside...
If your organisation think it's great in a crisis, it risks making EVERYTHING a crisis in pursuit of peak performance.
The law of unintended consequences: unnecessary risk.
If your organisation feels its best work only emerges in a crisis situation, there will inevitably be more panic reactions to situations than necessary. Why? Because in the pursuit of high performance, organisations can re-create crisis-level emotions unnecessarily in order to summon peak performance. Issues and problems that are completely manageable, become more emotionally escalted than they should be. If this becomes the organisational norm there can be negative impacts.
Here are three examples:
1) Burnout. Many employees can manage crisis-level stress to overcome substantial challenges, but even if humans are capable of a 'surge and rest' pattern when necessary, the 'rest' part of the pattern is critical. Constant, unnecessary panic and crises can be exhausting and the result is a depleted team who aren't ready for a real crisis when it does hit.
2) Perhaps counterintuitive, but real crises sometimes aren't recognised and therefore aren't treated appropriately. In an organisation that finds itself managing a high occurrence of crises, things still tend to 'sneak up' on them. Maintaining a 'constant state of alert' can lead to a high level of anxiety and no one is at peak performance when they're overly-anxious. Genuine risks and threats can go unrecognised and rather than preparing for the worst and being ready - teams can end up blindsided.
3) Teamwork suffers. Perpetual panic mode results in some damaging behaviours on the part of individuals. Some team members start to feel the primal instinct of 'self-preservation' kick in. They start to retreat from the team and from tasks. They are fearful of making decisions and taking accountability and some may even start to have attendance issues. Constant panic weakens teams by weakening the individuals that make up the team. The organisation destroys itself from the inside out, one team at a time. That's some scary stuff.
Prevent organisational panic by:
1) Recognising and rewarding those who do the day job brilliantly - don't just recognise the heroes of a crisis.
2) Regularly give junior team members opportunities to grow by encouraging them to step up into leadership roles - either through secondments, leading projects or deputising for senior leaders, with full delegated authority. Importantly, support the decisions they make whilst they are stepping up and coach them through any errors. Nurturing and trusting your talent pipeline in this way strengthens every link in the chain so it's stronger when you really need it to be.
3) Include a review of emotions in your standard lessons learned process. Many organisations have a review process after a significant piece of work is delivered - that being a project, a crisis response or business as usual activity. When reviewing the milestones that were delivered, ask team members to describe and record how they felt at each milestone. If there were negative emotions being experienced, ask if the emotions influenced their next steps ad decisions. Ask team members to consider how a re-framing of emotions at the milestone stages could have lead to a better result.
Don't let panic derail the potential growth in your team or your organisation. Strengthen your team and your organisation by making peak performance part of the day job, and not just a crisis response.