Why Do Things Have to Get So Bad Before We Take Action?

Given Former President Trump’s frequent encouragement of violence, the events of January 6, while extremely shocking, were unfortunately not surprising to many. This does not diminish their seriousness in any way. Yes, investigations are already underway as to how and why the various law enforcement agencies were not better prepared and didn’t do their jobs. But once again, the powers that were supposed to protect us appear to have failed.

Nonetheless, as one of the principal founders of the modern field of crisis management, I believe there is another issue that deserves equal attention. Time and again, why does the worst have to happen before it finally causes people to wake up and take action with regard to a crisis that has been steadily brewing? Unfortunately, as we’ve seen, sometimes even this is not enough for far too many to act.

No less disturbing is the fact that we’ve seen repeatedly that vast numbers of people and organizations will do everything they can to avoid thinking and preparing for crises. Indeed, the more disastrous they are, the more people avoid doing anything about them. Only after they’ve occurred and become so horrific, do they finally receive the attention that’s been long overdue—if then. In short, massive denial is the biggest obstacle that stops crisis planning and prevention “dead in their tracks”—pun intended!

The ever-present danger, of course, is that if it takes the most horrific acts to finally get the serious attention of those who knew—and certainly should have known better—then the all-too-real fear is that things will have become so bad that we can’t recover from them.

Instead of putting energy into crisis planning and prevention, many stakeholders, including politicians, have put it into endless amounts and forms of denial. The conspiracy theories and lies about how Trump falsely lost the election, for example, were attempts to deny reality that ultimately proved deadly. But even such serious acts of domestic terrorism aren't always enough to break through the great wall of denial.

Given this, can we learn the real lessons so that we are better prepared for the next worst, worst crises? Fortunately, there is an all-too-small class of organizations from which we all need to learn. While not perfect, they practice proactive crisis management.

First of all, they prepare for a broad range and different types of crises. They realize that no major crisis is ever a single, isolated, and well-contained crisis. Rather, like the coronavirus, it quickly becomes a whole system of related and unrelated crises. Thinking the unthinkable is key to crisis planning.

Second, unlike the doctors in Wuhan who first discovered the coronavirus, but in fear of losing their jobs, and worse, were warned not to pass bad news onto Beijing, effective crisis managers deliberately reward—not kill—the messengers of bad news. For long before they happen, all crises send out a repeated trail of early warning signals announcing their imminent occurrence. If the signals are read and acted upon in a timely fashion, then many crises can thereby be prevented, the best possible form of crisis management.

Third, and most important of all, effective crisis managers nip denial in the bud. They do their best to root out dangerous rationalizations.

Because they prevent as many crises as possible, those organizations that practice proactive crisis management experience far fewer crises, recover faster from those that still occur, have fewer lawsuits, and suffer fewer injuries. As a result, they’re significantly more profitable. In short, proactive crisis management is not only the right, ethical thing to do, but it’s supremely good for business.

If any good comes out of the terrible tragedies we've endured over the past year, it’s my ardent hope that we will learn the lessons they have to teach, and give proactive crisis management the serious attention it demands.

If not, what are the next worst-worst crises that are not only brewing, but are threatening to wreak complete havoc?