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The recent events in Japan have horrified nations all over the World. A very high-power earthquake and tsunami have shattered parts of the country. Now comes the time of recovery. While the country works on putting itself together, academics and business experts watch in awe how the Japanese culture handles crisis management strategies.

Find out more at Garr Reynolds „Presentation Zen” blog that inspires us to create better, visual and well designed presentations HERE.

Coming back to the ground theory, Crisis Management is: „the process by which an organization deals with a major event that threatens to harm the organization, its stakeholders, or the general public.” (Wikipedia)

There are 3 stages in any type of crisis:

1. The diagnosis – evaluation of the scale of the problem and possible implications
2. Choosing a relevant Turnaround Strategy.
3. Implementation of the change process and its monitoring.

Now let’s take a look at how the Japanese citizens responded to the recent events:

1. Full awareness of the scale of the problem

2. Flawless communication with the public and foreign media

3. Organising rescue missions and „cleanup crews”

However, the most intriguing has been the behaviour of survivors of the „Japanese natural crisis”. They were calm, did not raise any panic, followed the instructions and „went with” what was expected of them. This creates a role model for the rest of the World, where such crisis management might not have taken such a direction. The reaction depends largely on a type of culture, size of the problem and its implications on the public and environment.

Crisis management in business.

The model is usually:

1. Panic

2. Shout (does not have to be physical, i.e. – emotional lay offs)

3. Shout at the employees you think are responsible

4. Apologise as you find out it was not their fault (in the positive scenario)

5. Organise a tactical/strategic meeting to prevent „such future occurances”

6. Pray it does not happen again.

7. Repeat the model from point 1 as a new crisis arises

As employees we tend to run scared from management and as managers we tend to blame others for screwing up, hence all the shouting.

What can we learn from the Japanese culture?

That sometimes quiet, calm approach to a crisis is much more effective in coming up with a „Turnaround Strategy”, yet as Western Culture has inflicted in our minds: „If I don’t do anything about it, the situation will be much worse”. Not necessarily, you just have to clear your mind and stop shouting.

Sometimes looking around and acknowledging that our „10% drop in shares or sales figures” is not the end of the world, a 9-point Richter earthquake is.

Have a calm week and if there is a crisis take it easy.

Krzysztof „Chris” Dargiewicz

USEFUL VOCABULARY:

1.  to shatter – zniszczyć

2.  to recover– wyzdrowieć

3.  to put itself together – naprawić coś

4.  academics – naukowcy, wykładowcy akademiccy, teoretycy

5.  to watch in awe – patrzeć z zachwytem

6.  to handle a crisis – poradzić sobie w sytuacji kryzysowej

7.  to evaluate– ocenić; przeanalizować

8.  implications – skutki; rezultaty

9.  implementation – implementacja

10. to face something/somebody – stawić czoła komuś/czemuś

11. to raise panic – wszcząć panikę

12. to go with something – zgadzać się z czymś; akceptować coś

13. occurance – wypadek; zdarzenie

14. to arise -pojawiać się; wznosić

15. to inflict – narzucać

Tagi: crisis, crisis management, kryzys, zarządzanie kryzysowe, zarządzanie w kryzysie

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