Productivity
Continued from page 47
It may be wiser, however, to start separating your to-do list
into the “Want To Do” and the “Must Do” tasks. Make sure that
some of the low-priority tasks on your list have some give in them,
so you can reprioritize or postpone them at a moment’s notice
in favor of handling something unexpected – instead of wearing
yourself to a frazzle by adding more tasks to an already unwieldy
schedule.
Handling the Crisis
When an unexpected event does occur, face the situation
calmly. Most people either freeze in place or let everything grind to
a halt, or they overreact in some way, making things worse. Neither
paralysis nor freaking out can help you. Instead, carefully and
deliberately assess the situation, and then do whatever you must to
fix it.
It helps to reframe the crisis as a challenge, if at all possible –
something you can turn into an advantage in some way. That may
make it easier to handle, at least in the short term. Even if you can’t
work the crisis into an advantage, you may learn something from it,
so be open to that possibility as you go into action.
And speaking of action: motion beats meditation … as long
as you have enough facts to make an informed decision. Don’t go
off halfcocked. Unless you find yourself dealing with something
obviously dangerous, like a life-threatening injury or an earth-
quake, reacting too soon may prove as disastrous as reacting too
late. And needless to say, deciding how to react on the spur of the
A full service law firm for
franchise owners.
business succession planning ◆ asset protection
estate and gift planning ◆ mergers & acquisitions
LLC and business structuring and governance
corporate financing ◆ commercial leasing
contracts ◆ employment matters
federal and state income tax planning
48
McLane.com
Steven M. Burke
(603) 628-1454
[email protected]
New Hampshire: Manchester | Concord | Portsmouth
Massachusetts: Woburn | Boston
moment can be just as difficult, especially when you have to deal
with an unfamiliar situation you haven’t planned for. In such a
case, metacognition – thinking about how you think – can supply a
solution. Even if you lack a crisis management or contingency plan
for a particular conundrum, you can train yourself to think in such
a way as to quickly decode the issue and invent one on the spot.
Business schools often teach students to use some variation of
the SLLR method in crisis situations. “SLLR” stands for the four
steps involved: Stop, Look, Listen and Respond. These strictures
gain particular importance when the lines of communication,
command and responsibility have broken down. If you have no
idea what to do when a disruption rears its ugly head, Stop. Instead
of reacting instinctively (or worse, panicking), take a moment
to cool down and think. Assess the situation, absorbing as much
information as possible. Look at the obvious factors, and Listen
to the people involved so you can learn more. After you have all
the facts in hand (or at least as many as you can effectively gather),
Respond. Move forward decisively and untangle the snarl.
It helps to reframe the crisis as
a challenge, if at all possible –
something you can turn into an
advantage in some way.
If the problem takes the form of a bottleneck or dependency,
then try to fix it or find a way around it. In the average office, most
personnel-related crises trace back to just a few people whose lack
of preparation or consideration for others – or, in some cases, sheer
orneriness – jams up the gears of progress. Some crisis creators may
respond to reason, if their obstructions are accidental or caused by
a process flaw or a missing resource. Often, you can handle them
by cheerfully lending a hand and providing what they need. Other
crisis creators are themselves the root of the problem; they may
take a positive delight in acting as what one author has called “a
dinosaur-brain” and making life difficult for their co-workers. It
doesn’t matter why they do it; you simply have to find a (legal) way
to deal with the problem.
The biggest crisis creator in your office may be your boss. I’ve
lost count of the number of times people have told me about bosses
who consider every task top priority, piling them into their subor-
dinates’ inboxes willy-nilly without pointing out which is truly the
most urgent. If you find yourself faced with such a situation, take
the bull by the horns and ask your boss, politely of course, precisely
which of the tasks needs to come first in his or her estimation.
Involving Others
By the time you respond to a crisis, you should know whether
or not you can deal with it alone. Never hesitate to seek assistance
whenever you need it; one aspect of true wisdom is knowing when to
ask for help. Pull together a team, if necessary, before implementing
your response; then split the issue into more easily handled sub-
issues, and parcel them out. Make sure everyone knows precisely
what they must do to solve their piece of the problem.