Best Possible Outcome

CHAPTER 15BATTLE PREPARATION

In tackling any crisis, preparation is needed to ensure the command team can remain focused. Here I discuss how to manage time, people and your command post.

Preliminary planning for the meeting will enable participants to focus on the problem at hand and avoid being distracted by minutiae.

TIME MANAGEMENT

Problems are often far more complex than they initially appear. Often people sit down for a crisis meeting with the intention of solving the problem. This approach is naive since a single meeting will rarely solve a serious problem. Initial meetings help set a course, and each subsequent meeting takes you a step closer to understanding what a solution might look like.

One simple rule for crisis meetings is: hold frequent short meetings rather than fewer longer meetings. Do not run a crisis meeting for longer than an hour. Not only is the sense of urgency lost, but you take people away from the work they should be doing. When given more time, people tend to talk in circles, which is rarely productive.

Use a simple time management tool. Before the meeting, assess its required duration — 30 minutes to an hour — depending on:

• the complexity of the problem
• whether it is an initial or subsequent crisis meeting (subsequent meetings are generally shorter)
• the team's familiarity with the process
• the team's familiarity with the problem
• other constraints on your team's time.

The time then should be broken into key stages, which I explain in the next ...