What’s a good crisis?   Any crisis I have faced has involved frustration, anger, sometimes tears and certainly disappointment.  Sometimes factors creating the crisis are within our control and sometimes they are not.  It doesn’t sound like there is much good in it at all. 

A crisis is defined as “a time of intense difficulty or danger”.

Difficulty = not good

Danger = not good

However, in business we can view these words differently if we change our mindset and negative connotations associated with the words. 

Difficulty = challenge presented by changing circumstances

Danger = opportunity that comes with risk assessment

How we choose to define a crisis greatly impacts our response to it. 

A crisis where we are faced with a set of challenging circumstances doesn’t always seem like the natural place to start in coming up with creative ideas and solutions to new problems.  We often think about these idea generating activities as free flowing, not time bound and buzzing with creativity and positivity.  This “mood” is created by our mindset.  It is how we perceive the activity.  So, when faced with difficulty or danger in a business context, if we can take control of our mindset, how we interpret the situation and how we respond, we can perhaps view a crisis as an opportunity to adapt to a challenge.  We can see it as a way to respond, enable, change and innovate. 

Never wasting a good crisis stems from the mindset that from challenge and difficulty, change emerges.  Change provides a platform for new ideas, new ways of working and perhaps a more thoughtful and strategic response to a set of circumstances. 

Responding well to a crisis builds your resilience muscle, and it provides you with skills to adapt to change.   These are skills that you take into future challenges and difficulties.  You are then equipped to think about problems and issues differently when they come about. 

By consciously choosing to respond positively you will enhance your ability to maintain your focus and sharpen it through challenging times. 

It’s always about how we respond.

In the midst of managing through a crisis, think about your mindset.  How are you viewing the issues?  Are you blocking yourself from seeing the opportunities because you perceive difficulty as only negative?  Or are you looking at various angles and approaches that will increase the opportunities that this crisis can bring?

Never waste a good crisis.