What Doesn’t Kill You Will Likely Try Again
Surviving a crisis should not be interpreted as confirmation that you will always survive. Your business and life are not lottery tickets with outcomes to be left to chance. By Damon D'Amore
After The Storm
It is common and part of human nature when experiencing a calm period after surviving a crisis to gain false confidence that somehow you ‘won’ - thinking that you beat the crisis and things are now alright.
However, this is foolish thinking.
Folks like to say, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”
In my experience the Pragmatic Optimist version of that perspective is:
“What doesn’t kill you will likely try again.”
When fortunate enough to experience times of calm or perceived ‘normalcy,’ this is when you should be regrouping and planning for the next shoe to drop.
Leaders should be doing an unbiased critical assessment of the crisis experienced, the decisions and reactions/consequences of their leadership during the crisis, and their stakeholders’ reactions and expectations to those decisions.
A well-researched and detailed scenario planning project should include unbiased third-party experts in crisis mitigation, management and communications.
Adapt or Perish
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself." — George Bernard Shaw
Out of the many lessons I have learned, observed and shared over the past three decades, professionally the most significant is this:
While workers of all levels have been forced to adapt to new paradigms in how business is conducted, by far the most profound effects have been on the survival, success and well-being of C-Suite executives and senior leaders.
The skills necessary to reach and lead at top of category organizations have evolved and, in some cases, completely changed as have the expectations of their most important stakeholders.
Yet, as badly as most want to find a new point of equilibrium, a new sea level, a reprieve to reflect and reset before the next crisis they will face, a singular reality remains, indifferent to the wants and desires of powerful leaders:
The next crisis is coming.
It will NOT arrive on your timetable of secure and heightened preparedness.
One of my favorite veteran clothing brands has a tee shirt with the slogan:
“Wars don’t wait until you’re ready.”
As I write this today, the aftershocks of what began as the COVID pandemic more than five years ago continue in a wide array of challenges and areas; some new, some still reverberating, some in and some out of our control - some predictable, some unpredictable.
All share one common trait:
The warning to be ready for unknown and unexpected threats both to individuals and to business.
Proactive protagonists in their business and personal stories will heed this warning, make tradeoffs and acquire the skills and resources necessary for their coming challenging journey.
The rest of their peer group, the “reluctant heroes” in their stories, will continue to hope for the best, even while knowing hope is not a plan.
They will treat the future of their careers, the lives of their employees, customers and stakeholders like some cosmic lottery ticket, assuming after the last major crisis there must be someone in authority on a broader societal level that will have a plan to ensure their security.
For all that wishful thinking, the proactive protagonists accept and embrace that no one is coming to save them as they lean into the ambiguity and discomfort of their crisis.
Hope Is Not a Plan
Now is the time when leaders should be learning, seeking trusted counsel, updating and upgrading their tools, resources and communication strategies.
Those leaders who do not recognize the need to change their mindset, worldview and business practices are doomed to failure.
They may have been a lottery ticket surviving the past crisis but no matter how lucky they are, no one wins the lottery twice in a row.