What NOT To Do in the Midst of a Crisis

Posted on August 26, 2008

In the midst of a crisis, what you DON’T do is sometimes as important as what you do. This applies to business, technology, people - anything. So, the patient is on the table, chest open and bleeding. Here’s my list of mid-crisis don’ts:

Don’t assign blame. It just doesn’t matter at the moment and only adds fuel to the fire.
Don’t reflect on what you’d have done differently given another chance. This is just a distraction to the problem at hand.
Don’t start the post-mortem early. This is especially important if you’re the general and not directly in the fight.
If you’re the boss, be hands-on but in a hands-off kind of way. Providing just the right amount of support to the troops, while not micro-managing, is a difficult but important balance.

What are some things you think shouldn’t be done during a crisis?

These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.