Lessons for Crisis
10. Under-promise, over-deliver.
No one expects a dying man to save the world. Every day, every week, work toward tangible and measurable improvements. It’s important to remember that if you are at this stage, you’ve lost the trust of all of your stakeholders. You will have to earn back the trust by doing what you say you are going to do. No one will get excited about overly optimistic projections. You will impress them by staying alive and improving every week. Create a reasonable turnaround plan and stick to it.
Task: Review your projections and plan. Try to put them into three categories: worst case, realistic, and stretch goals. Make this clear to everyone. You can hope for the best, but you have to manage to reality and be prepared for the worst. It’s okay to be in trouble; just don’t try to hide it or deny it to your stakeholders. Honest, hard work, creative work, cooperation, and sometimes luck are the only ways out of this trouble.