Over the last few years there has been so much focus on the word “crisis,” that the crisis has become part of our daily life picture. Soon after we became aware of the crisis, a need for change ensued. Obviously, something had to be changed – but what and especially how?
Change is a difficult, sensitive process. And the crisis preceding it is a touchstone to any manager or executive. Organisational crises relate to something that used to work but at some point stopped working; they’re like romantic relationships, wearing out in time. That’s why organisations don’t simply “find themselves” in the middle of a crisis; rather, when they do acknowledge it, they will have long reached that critical point.
So when does a crisis take roots in an organisation? There are two situations with a strong impact, in this sense: when the organisation fails to reach its business objectives, and when its values are not the same for everyone working there. It is, however, interesting to bear in mind that the Chinese, for instance, use the term “crisis” with a double meaning: both to refer to serious danger, and to signal an opportunity.
The crisis is, after all, an opportunity to think what you can do to step into a new reality based on which you can build more and better than in the previous stage. And everything starts from the leadership. Clearly, when things stop working everyone in the organisation is affected, but those who can really decide that it’s time for a change, and act accordingly, are the people with executive power (general directors, CEOs, CFOs, etc.) – the people we call executives. As I like to say, there’s always a choice, and when executives realise they are in a deadlock, it’s still them who can reach the decision to change whatever dissatisfies them. And hence much vacillation over change.
In order not to fail, executives might take into account a few important points, such as the fact that changes don’t happen instantly; they require long-term persistence. The new behaviours and abilities to be developed on entering the change process should be supported and constantly compared against the environment – it really is necessary for us to look around and see how the others react and whether we start getting the results we want.
If executives pay attention to the team they work with, if they have transparent expectations and talk promptly about the things which fail to come about as expected, they will manage to prevent the start of a crisis. When it comes to this, female executives seem to be more open, since by nature women use their intuition and communicate more openly. Moreover, women are able to show other people what really worries and interests them, which undoubtedly helps. But when the crisis has already set in, not taking personal responsibility and postponing change can end up being extremely damaging to the whole organisation, and even lead to the collapse of the business.
Not all the executives get to realise how they should act when a crisis starts and that a need for change is implied. Managing to see things differently is a difficult task which can be carried out with external support and training. However, what I recommend all the executives is setting, from the very beginning, a clear strategy as to how to tackle the new situation. And bringing their staff at the same table in order to reach agreement and a shared approach to the future of the organisation. Nobody can tell executives what’s best to do, because only they have the actual solution. Finding it is the real touchstone…