Preparation is Power: Navigating Crises Close to Home
Understanding the time-limited nature of a crisis as imperative to leading through challenging times. Tending to ourselves as we mind the gaps.
***This post kicks off a six-part #SelfCareSummer series that will culminate in an online workshop on Thursday, July 25th: Three Steps to Leading with Empathy and Avoiding Burnout. Each week, I will write on an aspect of self-care for purpose-driven leaders. The ultimate power move is investing in yourself to be able to lead through change. I hope you’ll join along, and I look forward to seeing you in the summer workshop.
As leaders (people with stewardship of programs or people), we have navigated many overlapping changes in recent years. If we did not already know this universal truth, we’ve likely come to understand that change is the only constant. Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher, is credited with the original insight: “There is nothing permanent except change.”
Some fail to proactively prepare for and lead through cycles of change or crisis. We can also avoid change instead favoring equilibrium or the status quo. We push off change due to rampant burnout across roles and sectors. We don’t prioritize change management to focus on important and urgent organizational tasks. Without slowing down, we won’t recognize the opportunity within a change or crisis nor the opportunity cost of not acting.
Introducing a self-care series with crisis theory might seem too academic or counterintuitive to self-care. After all, what's renewing or sustainable about a crisis? Isn’t that what has contributed to our collective overwhelm and burnout?
My editor had questions about including crisis theory in an early draft of my book. But I persisted because I believe in the practical value of understanding the nuances of crisis. I think of crisis theory and being able to find myself and those I have stewardship for as an orienteering skill critical to understanding how I will commit to care for myself so that I can care for others. Following my editor’s insightful feedback, I continued drafting, and you’ll find a more detailed review of crisis theory covered in the chapter “Skills to Build for the Journey.”
Why am I such a fan of understanding crisis theory? It is also why I enjoy working with clients on how we might adeptly navigate crises and organizational change.
A mismanaged crisis can contribute to burnout or harm. (Let’s avoid!)
Not planning for crisis leaves us unprepared for juggling the additional tasks on top of normal operations. (Not sustainable!)
In the overwhelm, we lose out on the opportunity that crisis presents. (Creating change is our why, our goal!)
Preparing for and becoming adept at managing a crisis is crucial to leading in our new reality.
Briefly, a crisis is a response that exceeds our normal coping mechanisms (or, in an organization's case, the organization’s infrastructure).
There are developmental crises that we can usually anticipate: leaving home after high school, the birth of a child, and retirement. There are situational crises that are more emergent, such as natural disasters, losing a job, or an accident. A good leader plans for both. A leader's role is understanding the arch of that change and what is required to navigate it.
Many times, at the onset of a crisis we experience the disruption or shift as incredibly overwhelming. So much so that we can’t imagine life ever returning to normal. The experience of the initial overwhelm being our new normal is so daunting. Actually, the crisis phase generally lasts six to eight weeks. This means that, most often, by eight weeks, our body has regulated itself to a sense of homeostasis. There is no returning to “normal,” and a crisis can mold or alter us in permanent ways.
This is where the opportunity lies. We can experiment with various coping mechanisms during the dysregulated period of six to eight weeks. Coping is necessary to manage the crisis state. What are healthy or healthier coping mechanisms, structures, habits, or rituals to experiment with? (Last week I wrote about cracks in the system. You might think about crisis or change cycles as forcing open cracks - or opportunities - in our personal operating system.)
This same thoughtful approach can be a part of a leader or manager navigating an organizational crisis. Organizations or teams can experience these change cycles when there is a significant reorganization, program or funding expansion, or reduction in staff or services. This same analysis can apply to launching a new strategic plan or onboarding a new executive. With a change cycle or crisis period underway, what tweaks to the processes, refinement of the communication patterns, or infrastructure reinforcements might allow the organization to evolve as it settles to its equilibrium six to eight weeks out? (Yes, another crack to see possibility for change.)
Understanding the ground beneath us and the landscape around us is a core tenant of orienting ourselves. I begin to map where I am metaphorically and literally when I feel off kilter or have noticed that a crisis state is beginning or is underway. Consider the ability to map yourself and understand the landscape around you as foundational to a real self-care plan.
You know the feeling of coming upon a well-designed public map while visiting a new place? You eagerly search for the “You Are Here” with the associated red pin or dot. Finding that dot on the map and orienting yourself to the place on the ground, you can then survey the surrounding areas both seen and unseen. This is the invitation to understand crisis theory, get a feel for the arch, and be able to orient yourself and your team to your place in it all. With this orientation, a leader can begin to make and implement a plan.
I’ll be back with part two of the #SelfCareSummer series. Until then-
Take good care,
Shannon Weber
Facilitator | Coach | Consultant
Hire me for speaking, consulting, or coaching: www.xoshannonweber.com
Things Expanding My Heart
What’s Next: Nina Lopez podcast on Spotify. This podcast is a must for anyone facing a terminal or chronic condition or those caring for someone with such a diagnosis. This episode on grief is powerful.
Ross Gay’s book Inciting Joy. My first Ross Gay read and I am smitten. His essay form of memoir and mirroring of our human connection has captivated me. Second to last chapter I was fully bawling, nose running on a plane. I’ve already lent the book to a friend — it’s just so good I had to share it.
Imagine my delight reading his book and finding Ross Gay on the On Being podcast: On the Insistence of Joy. Wow. His humility, listening to him read his work, and his devotion to joy seeking inspire me.
What’s expanding your heart these days? I’m eager for recommendations.
From the Archives
Be a part of the future archives and joining me at the culminating workshop for the #SelfCareSummer series pretty please. Reserve your spot.