Today, my husband was hit with an emergency that set his whole schedule back. It made for a room full of irritated bees until we could move past the negative emotions. Considering that I’m also our company I.T. specialist (elected by circumstances), I’ve been down this road too many times to count. It struck a chord that the steps that I normally take also fit just about any crisis situation (except for the apocalyptic – then there’s no afterwards). Since a crisis falls into that nebulous time frame when black holes take on a whole new reality, I thought that I’d write the following to put things into perspective:
(insert drum roll here)
We’ve all been there. You’re working on your computer or some other mechanical beast, when all of the sudden everything freezes, a weird screen appears, or something equally drastic has freaked you out. It’s time to panic and that usually means that the brain shuts down. Your fight or flight instinct has kicked in, and it’s definitely not telling you to fight. What do you do? Who do you call? It’s times like this when Superman really would be a blessing, except that he’s never had to use anything mechanical. (Why would he? He’s a superhero.)
Well, since a superhero isn’t the answer, then your next best bet is to:
- Try to remember the steps that led you to your current non-functional status. Write them down so that you can review when your head is clearer.
- Look at your surrounding environment, and see if it’s playing into the crisis. (Did you have a power failure? Did someone kick out the plug, or touch the wrong button? and so on…)
- Step away from the situation until you’ve calmed down. Tell anyone nearby to stay away from your dead (fill in the blank here). To anyone standing nearby: Don’t try to help unless you know what you’re doing – you might make it worse.
- Remove all blunt objects that will tempt you to pummel the dead into activity. It’s not a soda machine. And don’t ask for a “drink” because that won’t help the situation (though it might help you forget which will only come back and bite you later).
- Call an expert, and explain what happened to see if they have an easy solution or can at least send help. (You don’t want to try to solve this on your own, as the drinking or slamming of things will start to look good here. See step 4.)
- Research the crisis to see if you’ve come across a similar situation and can use that solution.
- Outline all of your potential solutions, and follow them in order of simplicity. Eliminate each one that doesn’t work (noting that it didn’t work) and move to the next best scenario. Eventually the answer will show itself. This will take some time and patience.
- If everything fails, then you have a choice: find a replacement, or change altogether. Both will cost you something, but one will pay off in the near (or far) future.
- Remember what happened and don’t repeat those actions.
- Add a battery backup unit (BBU), if you already haven’t. It’s the same thing as insurance. You may not need it now, but it will save you in the future.
Since we’re entering the summer months and the world is getting hotter, things like power outages will become normal occurrences. Running around with your head cut off is not the best of looks under any circumstance. Considering how much we like to judge a book by its cover, you wouldn’t win without a head. So, take a deep breath, follow the steps, and move on to the next task. Important: Don’t dwell on the crisis too long, or you’ll become that grumpy person that everyone avoids.
See, notice how this also fits into personal situations? Most crisis fall into specific patterns that can usually be resolved by the same step-by-step process. The solution may not seem acceptable at the time, but given time away from the crisis, things start to look better. Time does heal – unless it something electronic, which means that it’ll only have limited time available before it has to be replaced.
…And in case you’re a politician reading this, stay away from anything electronic. You’ll only get yourself in trouble!
