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Managing Crises Before They Happen

Written by: Andy Marken

Article Overview: Book Review -- Managing Crises Before They Happen: What Every Executive Needs to Know About Crisis Management – by Ian I. Mitroff, AMACOM, January 2000, 172 pages

Managing Crises Before They Happen

In the blink of an eye a good day can go bad. Business as usual can be turned completely upside down. Whether it’s a stupid mistake, an executive’s slip of the tongue or a tragic accident outside of anyone’s control crisis will happen. You may not be able to plan for a crisis but that doesn’t mean you can’t be prepared for dealing with the crisis.

Mitroff’s point that almost every crises is preceded by a telltale set of early warning signals is probably true. Unfortunately though he does little to reinforce or support the statement. The book points out that half of the major industrial accidents of the past century occurred in the last 20 years. That’s an interesting factoid but what are we to do about it? Accept the inevitable?

He does provide a number of checklists that need to be considered and outlines some good rules for dealing with crises but he leaves a number of questions unanswered such as what to do to avoid or minimize the crises.

The author is correct in his statement that most of the disasters are made worse because the system fails. That means that crisis management isn’t simply a public relations issue, it’s an organizational issue that has to involve everyone in the organization. If senior management takes ownership of the crisis management issue, it is much easier for you to get others to buy into the planning and preparation stages.

Having read and reviewed both Cohn’s The PR Crisis Bible and Caponigro’s The Crisis Counselor we do have to say that we are starting to get a little paranoid. But Mitroff does give some additional and beneficial advice to anyone in the field. And that hopefully you can effectively communicate the advice to your management.

Design and implement an early warning mechanism at every level of the organization. Put a set of checks and balances and reporting procedures in place that helps the company understand and identify an impending crisis. No crisis management program or binder will ever predict or prevent a crisis but the more prepared the company is the more effectively they can manage their way through the crisis.

If you are prepared and can anticipate potential problems you are in a much better position to deal with them. Crises are inevitable. The challenges are going to test the decision-making ability of all of us. The key is to have a good crisis identification and crisis management program in place. The better your checks and balances the more effectively you control the situation rather than having the situation control you.

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