Not All Crises Are Bad

03/22/2006

Happiness is a daily decision.
Andrew Matthews

In her article, “Enjoying the Good Lice: Managing Crises” — which can now be viewed in it’s entirety on our web site www.ChildCareExchange.com — in Exchange’s best selling book, Art of Leadership: Managing Early Childhood Organizations, Pauline Davey Zeece points out that crises are not always bad for an organization . . .

“Through effective crisis management, one can come to the understanding that all crises are potential opportunities for learning. As such, directors learn to assign and/or accept responsibility for error without condemning themselves or others and without giving up. They learn to put each crisis on a continuum and to ask themselves: "What is the importance and the consequence of this action today, tomorrow, next month, next year?"

”And, finally, directors can learn to evaluate the full spectrum of crisis effects. When crisis damages beyond repair, it brings a special kind of challenge to an administrator. When crisis discourages, it is, at best, cumbersome. When crisis devastates people or programs, it is destructive.

”But when crisis fosters close inspection of philosophy, policy, or practice, it is useful. When crisis requires collective ownership of a mutual problem and mandates collaborative solution, it is powerful. When crisis butts heads with apathy and paves the way for meaningful and effective change, it is worth the effort it engenders.

”Crises can be crippling if they are not taken seriously. But competent administrators learn to monitor the pulse of a program so as to best understand the magnitude of a crisis and its fall out.

”Effective managers then are able to use crisis to learn and to make their programs better and stronger and less vulnerable the next time around.”

Contributed by Exchange, The Early Childhood Leaders' Magazine Since 1978

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