"Whose Crisis Is This?" Laura Stack

With three kids eight and under, I have most Disney videos memorized. I particularly love a scene from Disney's movie "Hercules" when Hercules battles the Hydra. Every time Hercules cut off one Hydra head, three appeared in its place. He fought faster and harder, but the monster soon overpowered him. Panicked, his trainer Phil shouted, "Will you forget the head-slicing thing?" It's not working!

Do you ever feel that way at work? You delete one email, and three more appear. Within moments, torrents of emails are gushing from your screen. Or you do an outstanding job on a new project, so you're given three more, each with successively tighter deadlines. Unable to keep up, you let the emails and projects spill over into your evenings and weekends, and your personal life begins to suffer. You work faster and harder, but your work soon overpowers you. "Will you forget the head- slicing thing?" It's not working!

Throwing more time at your work isn't going to save you. Working faster and harder is a battle you will never win, because you will always have more things to do than time to do it. You could work all day, every day, and still never finish your work. Therefore, the problem isn't time shortage; it's time usage. It doesn't matter how long you work; it's how you work. Indeed, a 12-hour day can be more unproductive than a six-hour day.

One of the biggest timewasters I see in organizations is crisis management. Some "fires" are legitimate emergencies, and some jobs truly operate on a "first in, first out" basis, reacting to customer demands.

Jen, one of my newsletter subscribers, wrote, "Laura, I feel like my workday is completely out of control. I have a Palm Pilot, and a huge list of To-Do's, but some days I barely have the time to even glance at them. How can I get my head above water and get to the point where I'm not spending every day just fighting the most current fire that has come up?"

Indeed, many people like Jen are good at planning their days, creating a to-do list, and outlining your priorities. When you get to work, everything, including your plan, blows up in the first ten minutes because others need you to do "very important" things. By the end of your day, you're frustrated by your inability to accomplish anything important.

I love the saying, "If you kick the person responsible for your problems, you wouldn't sit down for a week!" There is a difference between an emergency and a crisis that occurs because of something that wasn't done. If you delay something long enough, you are contributing to a future crisis. As time moves on, they cause the next fires and crises. In other words, not doing things before they become a crisis will create the next crisis. The first time it happens, it's an emergency. The second time, you're an accomplice.

After every "fire":

1. Create a backup plan. How have you responded to recurring problems in the past? What contingency plans have you put into place to make sure it doesn't happen again? If your computer crashed and you lost all your data, I would assume that you now have a literal "backup" plan to ensure this doesn't happen again. For example, a reader told me, "The most damaging as far as impacting my work is "stamping out fires." Part of my job involves scheduling other people. When one of these people cancels, it becomes a crisis, requiring me to place many telephone calls, send emails, and endure lots of stress! This never fails to happen when I am up against a project deadline, or preparing to put on an event in the immediate future." This is the type of repeated situation that should always include a Plan "B," scheduling a back-up person in the event that Plan "A" fails. When the same thing is guaranteed to happen again, put a plan into place that will help you handle it better.

2. Be proactive. Another reader said, "My problem is that much of my time is spent on the telephone with my members who call with questions, trying to put out fires or directing them to resources." This comment begs the question, "What systems have you put in place to proactively answer the questions people are asking? How can you help them easily find the information they need (through your website, newsletter, email updates, etc.). Sometimes we are so busy putting out the fires, we never step back and evaluate what's lighting the flame. How can you keep it from happening again?

3. Look in the mirror. What part did you play in creating this fire? To reduce time spent on crisis management, spend time doing long-term, proactive, important activities, rather than always responding to the urgent. Don't facilitate crisis at work by procrastinating on tasks until they become urgent. Spending 30 minutes more per day working on items that are high in importance but low in urgency would significantly reduce the amount of time you end up responding to crisis. Ask yourself: what ideas, projects, and programs-if implemented now or in the near future-would significantly impact the profitability or productivity of your staff or your organization?

When a true crisis cannot be avoided because of changing priorities, unrealistic deadlines, or mistakes:

Take a deep breath, ask yourself what needs to be done, and handle it in an orderly fashion. Stay calm and think clearly.

How major is the crisis? Step back and look at the whole picture. You may have to accept partial delivery from your subordinates or other departments. Do you have enough to get past the critical point?

Offer incentives. Get someone you know who will put forth additional effort. Offer a reward for on-time completion. Narrow the scope of the project if you must or eliminate some non-essential things.

Ask yourself, "Whose crisis is this, anyway?" Seek alternative sources or switch suppliers or players if someone isn't delivering on promises. Can you delegate the crisis to someone else? Don't be afraid to ask for help if needed. Sometimes you have to appeal to a higher authority for guidance.