We can Work it out (II)

Clear­ing the Skies: Build­ing Deci­sion-Mak­ing Strate­gies for Crises at Work

The Dual-Process The­o­ry — Part III

In the first part of this guide, we explored the foun­da­tion­al steps of adap­tive deci­sion-mak­ing: rec­og­niz­ing prob­lems, main­tain­ing con­trol, con­sult­ing guide­lines, and trou­bleshoot­ing effec­tive­ly. Now, it’s time to focus on the human ele­ment of cri­sis man­age­ment. In this sec­ond part, we’ll delve into strate­gies for fos­ter­ing col­lab­o­ra­tion, ensur­ing clear com­mu­ni­ca­tion, and lever­ag­ing sup­port to resolve chal­lenges effi­cient­ly. These steps are cru­cial for nav­i­gat­ing work­place crises, where team­work and trans­paren­cy often deter­mine the dif­fer­ence between suc­cess and fail­ure. Let’s con­tin­ue refin­ing your deci­sion-mak­ing frame­work to cre­ate solu­tions that inspire con­fi­dence and dri­ve results.

5. Coor­di­nate and Com­mu­ni­cate With Oth­ers

Effec­tive col­lab­o­ra­tion and com­mu­ni­ca­tion are essen­tial to resolv­ing chal­lenges effi­cient­ly and avoid­ing mis­un­der­stand­ings. Keep these prin­ci­ples in mind:

• Col­lab­o­ra­tion is Key: Clar­i­fy roles, fos­ter trans­paren­cy, and ensure every­one is informed about the cur­rent sit­u­a­tion and their respon­si­bil­i­ties.
• Del­e­gate Clear­ly: Assign tasks explic­it­ly to ensure clar­i­ty and avoid con­fu­sion or dupli­ca­tion of effort — for instance, spec­i­fy­ing, “Alex will han­dle the client pre­sen­ta­tion, while Jor­dan focus­es on updat­ing the project time­line.
• Align Stake­hold­ers: Bring your team, senior man­age­ment, and the cus­tomer into align­ment on real­is­tic next steps and shared goals.
• Under­stand True Needs: Take time to uncov­er the customer’s under­ly­ing inter­est in a request; often, their needs can be met with a dif­fer­ent or sim­pler solu­tion.
• Encour­age Open Com­mu­ni­ca­tion: Pro­mote an envi­ron­ment where all team mem­bers, regard­less of rank or posi­tion, feel com­fort­able shar­ing their input or rais­ing con­cerns.
• Estab­lish Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Pro­to­cols: Work on your com­mu­ni­ca­tion cul­ture to avoid mis­un­der­stand­ings, fin­ger-point­ing, or aggres­sion, and ensure every­one knows how and when to share updates.
• Fos­ter a Just Cul­ture: Encour­age account­abil­i­ty with­out blame, focus­ing on solu­tions and improve­ment rather than pun­ish­ment.
• Be Strate­gic With Meet­ings: Lim­it unnec­es­sary meet­ings to save time and ensure focus remains on resolv­ing crit­i­cal issues.

Try This: Devel­op a com­mu­ni­ca­tion frame­work inspired by aviation’s Crew Resource Man­age­ment (CRM) or Team Resource Man­age­ment (TRM) prin­ci­ples [2] [4]. Reg­u­lar­ly train your team to bal­ance healthy lead­er­ship with empow­ered col­lab­o­ra­tion, ensur­ing that hier­ar­chi­cal bound­aries do not sup­press crit­i­cal infor­ma­tion. Prac­tice sce­nar­ios where team mem­bers are encour­aged to assertive­ly share their input or chal­lenge deci­sions in a con­struc­tive man­ner. Inter­nal­iz­ing these skills will strength­en your team’s abil­i­ty to han­dle crises effec­tive­ly while main­tain­ing mutu­al respect and clar­i­ty.

6. Seek Sup­port When Nec­es­sary (“Declare an Emer­gency”)

Don’t hes­i­tate to ask for help. If resources or exper­tise are lack­ing, reach out to exter­nal part­ners or esca­late to lead­er­ship for addi­tion­al sup­port.

Try This: Keep a “Cri­sis Resource List” of con­tacts, tools, and meth­ods you can turn to in emer­gen­cies.

7. Achieve a Res­o­lu­tion (“Land Safe­ly”)

Imple­ment a real­is­tic solu­tion that address­es the imme­di­ate issue while remain­ing open to flex­i­ble out­comes. In high-pres­sure sit­u­a­tions, avoid restric­tive, black-or-white think­ing that can lim­it your abil­i­ty to iden­ti­fy cre­ative alter­na­tives. Instead, focus on find­ing a “spot to land” whether that’s an emer­gency solu­tion to sta­bi­lize the sit­u­a­tion or a longer-term res­o­lu­tion. For exam­ple, con­sid­er tem­po­rary fix­es that pro­vide breath­ing room, phased imple­men­ta­tions, or entire­ly new approach­es that align with the core objec­tive with­out rigid adher­ence to ini­tial plans.

Try This: Use the “Wide Angle Method.” Step back and ask your­self: “What’s the next best out­come if my ide­al solu­tion isn’t fea­si­ble?” Encour­age your team to brain­storm solu­tions beyond the obvi­ous, aim­ing for safe and prac­ti­cal options that meet key pri­or­i­ties with­out being bound by ini­tial expec­ta­tions.

8. Ana­lyze the cause (this is the equiv­a­lent to the acci­dent inves­ti­ga­tion) 

Dig deep to find out why the issue occurred. Was it a com­mu­ni­ca­tion break­down? A mis­align­ment of goals? Under­stand­ing the root cause not only helps resolve the cur­rent issue but also allows you to refine your process­es and pre­vent sim­i­lar prob­lems in the future.

Do not stop at the sur­face — note addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion, such as pat­terns which either were help­ful or chal­leng­ing. Iden­ti­fy resources, tools, or rela­tion­ships that proved ben­e­fi­cial, as these can be lever­aged in future crises.

Try This: Con­duct a “Root Cause Analy­sis” with your team after resolv­ing the cri­sis to doc­u­ment lessons learned.

Prepa­ra­tion: Set­ting Your­self Up for Suc­cess

To avoid or at least min­i­mize the poten­tial for encoun­ter­ing a cri­sis, con­sid­er these prac­ti­cal tips:

• Align on Goals: Ensure all stake­hold­ers share a clear under­stand­ing of the project’s objec­tives and pri­or­i­ties.
• Under­stand the Customer’s Inter­ests: Iden­ti­fy the customer’s true goals and desired out­comes. Some­times, their needs can be bet­ter met with an alter­na­tive solu­tion that is sim­pler or more fea­si­ble.
• Cre­ate a Deci­sion Dash­board: Sum­ma­rize key facts, stake­hold­er needs, and deliv­er­ables in a sin­gle, acces­si­ble place. Use project man­age­ment tools like Click­Up or Trel­lo to main­tain trans­paren­cy and track progress.
• Define Roles and Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Pro­to­cols: Clear­ly out­line respon­si­bil­i­ties and estab­lish guide­lines for how infor­ma­tion should flow with­in the team.
• Pre­pare a Quick Ref­er­ence List: Devel­op a con­cise guide for han­dling devi­a­tions in process­es, mod­eled after aviation’s Quick Ref­er­ence Hand­book [3].
• Build a Cri­sis Resource Bank: Col­lect tools, con­tacts, and suc­cess­ful strate­gies from past projects to serve as a resource dur­ing unex­pect­ed chal­lenges.
• Learn from Past Fail­ures: Incor­po­rate root cause analy­ses from pre­vi­ous projects to iden­ti­fy com­mon pit­falls and pre­vent recur­ring issues.
• Con­duct “Fire Drills”: Sim­u­late crises dur­ing work­shops to prac­tice emer­gency response, estab­lish rules and pro­ce­dures, and improve com­mu­ni­ca­tion cul­ture.

Final­ly, fos­ter a just cul­ture of reflec­tion and learn­ing. After each project, doc­u­ment what worked, what didn’t, and what can be improved. Prepa­ra­tion not only min­i­mizes crises, but this also ensures you han­dle them with con­fi­dence and clar­i­ty when they arise. By draw­ing from aviation’s rig­or­ous frame­works and adapt­ing them to broad­er appli­ca­tions, this approach can empow­er teams across var­i­ous fields to nav­i­gate high-stakes sce­nar­ios effec­tive­ly. Train your teams prop­er­ly to enhance their self-effi­ca­cy to deal with a cri­sis, help them to com­mu­ni­cate in an effec­tive way and define use­ful rules which aid the process of deal­ing with a cri­sis.

By embed­ding psy­cho­log­i­cal insights, such as under­stand­ing stress respons­es and cog­ni­tive bias­es, these pro­to­cols not only enhance deci­sion-mak­ing but also address the human fac­tors that often under­lie errors. Addi­tion­al­ly, the nov­el­ty of this approach lies in adapt­ing aviation’s sys­tem­at­ic rig­or to diverse indus­tries, pro­vid­ing a test­ed and reli­able frame­work for man­ag­ing high-stakes sce­nar­ios effec­tive­ly.

Ref­er­ences

The Bea­t­les. (1965). We can Work it out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qyclqo_AV2M

Sky­brary. Crew Resource Man­age­ment (CRM). Retrieved 2025.13.01. From: https://skybrary.aero/articles/crew-resource-management-crm

Sky­brary. Hand­book (QRH). Retrieved 2025.02.01. From: https://skybrary.aero/articles/quick-reference-handbook-qrh

Sky­brary. Team Resource Man­age­ment (TRM). Retrieved 2025.13.01. From: https://skybrary.aero/articles/team-resource-management-trm