On his Harvard Business Review blog, Ron Ashkenas highlights some of the lessons leaders can learn from a crisis.
Ashkenas says there are three factors which are always present in the human response to crisis situations: urgency, empathy and innovation.
Urgency is the realisation that there are clear goals and even clearer consequences if those goals aren't achieved quickly.
Empathy is the sense of connection we feel when we see a crisis and the awareness that one day we could be in the same situation and would then want the help of others.
Innovation is present in responses to a crisis that are out of the ordinary and that circumvent red tape and over-complex decision-making.
Ashkenas explains: "Whenever these three factors are present, individuals and organisations tend to raise their game."
He also says that one of the lessons to be learnt from crises is that these three human response factors are very powerful and can get things done quickly and effectively.
But "the challenge is to take advantage of them without waiting for a crisis," advises Ashkenas. "To do this, managers can design work that has some of the same characteristics as a crisis — but without the crisis."
However, he also points out that the second lesson is that managers and leaders need to find a way of sustaining the three factors in order to expand and scale improvements.
He warns: "It's easy for people to go back to 'normal' when a challenge is over and an initial result achieved. The hard work for managers is to build on short-term successes after people have achieved them."
Using Crisis Response Factors in the Absence of a Crisis
Ron Ashkenas, Harvard Business Review, 12/02/10
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