14 quotes
We have all heard the saying "the man with a plan is king." I believe a man without a plan is just a pawn to circumstance and embarking on a losing strategy.
Crisis Management: A Model For Managers (1993)
Two a.m. in a dark alley or on a mountainside is not the time to discover your unit is missing a key piece of equipment, or that you are not sure of the radio frequencies of an adjacent unit.
Crisis Management: A Model For Managers (1993)
Whether you are big or small, or face a high or low potential for crisis, a day devoted to discussing company business is never wasted.
Crisis Management: A Model For Managers (1993)
To those thirteen-hour-a-day managers who lead people and make decisions.
Crisis Management: A Model For Managers (1993)
Pressure can also make managers act out of character. Degrees of panic will cause a normally good manager to lose self-confidence and focus. Under stress, even a good plan can be abandoned.
Crisis Management: A Model For Managers (1993)
Not too many years ago a television ad depicted a service station attended selling oil filters. His pitch was, "you can pay me now or you can pay me later." The difference was an eight dollar oil filter or a new engine.
Crisis Management: A Model For Managers (1993)
Never underestimate change. What seems simple at the top is magnified at lower echelons and is extremely disruptive. It is a festering crisis that needs attention from senior management or else loyalty, efficiency, and productivity will suffer.
Crisis Management: A Model For Managers (1993)
When an individual's or group's basic survival is threatened, stress becomes tremendous, and productivity drops. Under these conditions a manager's ability to reason and maintain a proper focus on developing plans or solutions to a crisis is extremely difficult.
Crisis Management: A Model For Managers (1993)
Control your risks.
Identify important decision points.
Forecast potential crises.
The solution starts as soon as planning begins!
Crisis Management: A Model For Managers (1993)
In 1972, Americans watched in disbelief as the Nixon Presidency was virtually brought to collapse, not because of the Watergate "break-in," but by the cover-up and its entanglements. What if the Watergate Scandal had been handled differently? The illegal activities of a few bungling second-story men pale in comparison to the colossal management blunders by the White House inner circle.
Crisis Management: A Model For Managers (1993)
Poorly managed corporations, disorganized businesses, and badly led service agencies experience crisis daily and most will eventually fail. In contrast, the danger is to well organized, smooth running institutions that may not recognize a building crisis. Too often, sound organizations rely on their normal modus operandi to pull them through a crisis. It might. But at what cost? And what if it does not pull them through?
Crisis Management: A Model For Managers (1993)
There is absolutely no reason the command group can not pick the five most probable contingencies or missions that your unit could be called on to execute today. Identify those missions and then schedule a crisis planning session for each mission. The training and preparation value of doing this is tremendous.
Crisis Management: A Model For Managers (1993)
For almost all of us, recognizing a crisis can be difficult unless we have significant warning, or are prepared before-hand to deal with change. It is also important in an emergency, as it was in Dan's situation, to identify and focus on the actual crisis, not the cause. It is time to "put out the fire" not waste precious time figuring out how the fire started.
Crisis Management: A Model For Managers (1993)
Everyone has attended meetings that resemble a free-for-all: No control, no leadership, no guidance, and yet energy abounds. This is a classic waste of precious time and energy. A high stress meeting characterized by disorder and disjointed introduction of ideas is the final signal that management is not in control and has succumbed to the emotions and pressures of the moment. The end is near.
Crisis Management: A Model For Managers (1993)