There are many white papers, books, or other articles written about crisis management. However, what about crisis leadership?
I believe there are three keys to successful leadership during a crisis: communicate, communicate, communicate.
Last week, I was in the middle of a real-world example.
On January 2, a major computer software system was implemented where I work. It will completely change the way we manage our patient files, how we place and follow-up on orders, and how we bill our customers. It has been nearly three years from the decision to explore our options in the marketplace to last week’s “go-live”. As we were warned by nearly everyone that heard about our project, the first few days were very challenging, in spite of very detailed planning. This situation could look to many like a real crisis coming into sight.
There was an extraordinary amount of preparation going in; many technical staff, service staff leadership, and trainers gave up their normal schedules with evenings, weekends, and parts of the holiday spent in support of the final phase of implementation. I am very proud of how the impacted departments and employees responded.
After go-live, the project team met twice a day for a couple days and then once a day the rest of the week. The department leadership teams in my area also met twice a day; inviting our training manager and one of the technical experts to join us after day one. This helped us better understand what was happening, report it with examples, and share solutions. By day four, as issues were identified and many resolved, we were down to meeting once a day. Our training staff and key members of the project team also spent the first days on the floor in the impacted departments; watching, listening, speaking with the staff, troubleshooting, and responding.
What looked like an ominous nightmare coming on the horizon turned into something much less daunting. It is because we engaged in crisis leadership.
Even when some things did not go as expected, there was no blame in any of these meetings. The focus was always on what we were dealing with and how to move forward.
It wasn’t about fixing the past; it was about creating the new future and how we wanted that to be.
Practical Steps
We communicated frequently to the staff. Before go live, we prepared them for what could be a bumpy few days. We developed a daily newsletter which they would find on their desks first thing in the morning with the latest news: problems identified, resolutions implemented, along with Aha! moments and tips on using the new system to do their work. By day six and the end of the week, most people were feeling pretty good, seeing the possibilities that our new system brings to the company.
I believe it is the very purposeful extra effort we put into communicating that got everyone through the week. It was certainly high stress and high anxiety. Keeping all affected parties informed that problems were being shared in a forward-looking manner, that solutions were being quickly developed, and knowing what was being implemented and when helped everyone see that we were all united toward the eventual successful outcome. The daily communication to the staff ensured that everyone was getting the same message at the same time, and they weren’t overwhelmed with multiple emails throughout the day as discoveries were made or solutions found.
Have you ever been involved in a major system implementation or other crisis situation? What did you learn from your experience that you can share with us?
