The nature of a crisis is that it comes as a surprise at first glance. The person concerned is caught off guard. If there had been adequate preparation , the crisis would not have occurred. Skeptics now argue that it is not possible to prevent a development that occurs without preparation. With effective crisis prevention, however, the number of situations that lead to unpleasant surprises tends towards zero. In addition, the ability to deal with exceptional situations is strengthened. With every crisis, experience increases and people internalize how to deal with similar situations in the future.
Identify and analyze risks
First of all, it should be noted that there can of course always be situations in which you are caught off guard. Therefore, even competent crisis prevention does not protect you from all eventualities. But if what you have learned is implemented, generalizable crisis management strategies can be developed. And so competent crisis prevention consists primarily in thinking through possible crises in advance and taking the edge off them in advance. Counter-strategies can be developed much better in the relaxed atmosphere of a preliminary analysis than in the stress of a crisis that is just occurring.
Playing through a crisis scenario does not mean that thoughts revolve around the same old catastrophic fantasies. Crisis prevention should be overseas chinese in uk data distributed across several employees in a company . As a team, you can not only look for potential crisis spots more creatively, but you can also work together to develop more reliable options for action. The greatest enemy of sound crisis prevention is often a collective denial of reality. In a company where it is considered good form to only allow positive statements because negative ones would conjure up evil, crisis prevention ultimately has to be carried out in a very small group or with the help of an external coach.
Risk management as a model
Anyone interested can take a look at capital companies as a guide. Section 91 paragraph 2 of the Stock Corporation Act states that “suitable measures must be taken to set up a monitoring system so that developments that endanger the continued existence of the company can be identified at an early stage.” Each board member and managing director is personally liable for damages if they fail to meet this obligation and the company suffers damage as a result.
From a technical point of view, promising crisis prevention transforming decision-making processes follows the logic of competent risk management . In a first step, possible crises must be
localized and identified. They must then be assessed according to the probability of occurrence and
the possible consequences must be classified. Now it is time to define the worst case scenario, i.e. the
greatest possible damage that a crisis can cause to the company. Then the remaining options for
action must be listed, which can still give the company management a certain amount of leeway. A
clear distinction must be made between preventive measures to reduce risk and emergency planning,
which should be applied in the event of a crisis.
Overcoming repression mechanisms
Those who deal with potential crises in advance are better atbdirectory able to deal with them when they occur. This knowledge is not new. Nevertheless, in practice it is rather rare for people to deal with crises in advance. This applies to private individuals as well as to entrepreneurs and board members. According to experts, the most common reason given is “lack of time to deal with it”.
And so the approach to successful crisis prevention is being pushed further and further into the future. The deeper reason is probably that it is scary to admit to possible crises because it is assumed that one would be overwhelmed in such a situation. This often follows those affected into their dreams and from this point on at the latest they should think about getting external help in the form of coaching.
