Crisis Prep Basics: Practices and Habits to Cultivate

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Crisis Prep Basics: Practices and Habits to Cultivate

My first job was as an editorial assistant in the computer science department at DC Heath, a textbook publisher. I was the most mundane of nepo babies as my dad was an HR executive at DC Heath’s parent company, Raytheon. It was 1989 and I think I just filled out an application, had a fifteen minute meeting with their HR director and I was in. As a recent graduate of Smith College with a degree in history who had spent time writing research papers such as “Craftsmanship, Artistry and the Emerging Middle Class in England, 1851-1899: the Origins of the Victoria and Albert Museum” I was fit for… not much in the real world.

I was really not good at this job. It was both mind-numbingly dull and persistently mystifying. I often felt like a screwup. My boss was a 27 year old former textbook salesman used to spending his time on the road at three martini lunches. To this day, he has on his LinkedIn page under “activities” at his alma mater: “Drifting on a boat, drinking beer, chasing girls, attending some sort of classes required for a degree, homework? Standard college stuff.” No judgment - sounds like fun! - but he was not an ideal mentor for a 22 year old baby feminist intellectual. And I am quite sure I was not his dream assistant. In retrospect, I feel pretty bad for the guy.

(Forgive the digression although it is a good reminder that when we’re hiring bright young things right out of college, they know nothing. Be kind.)

So pretty much the only positive lessons I remember from working this job were my interactions with the patient, maternal office manager. Once, when I apologized for interrupting her at a task, she said, quite kindly and with acceptance, that the interruptions were the work. 

For school administrators, the interruptions are the work.

And with heads of school and directors of communications, interruptions in the form of emerging crises are the work as well. They’re a feature and not a bug.

We all understand the traditional definition of a “crisis” - the act of God, the major tragedy - but now we have myriad potential emerging crises in our day to day. And there’s lots of practical things you can do to prepare for the emerging crisis event but maybe the fundamental thing is just accepting that fact and not fighting against it. 

So the question is not how do we avoid crises - the question becomes how do we accept that crises are part of the work and feel confident that we can handle them successfully, rather than feel crushed, panicked or demoralized when one happens again? And how do you do this without being in the “braced for impact” position all the time?

One of the aspects that I think particularly impacted heads and comms directors this fall around the Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel and subsequent Israeli bombing and ground invasion into Gaza is that schools responded and were unprepared for how strong the emotional response was from their constituents. So what was seen from the school’s point of view as a gesture of care and concern was rejected as misguided or inadequate. Ouch. This is certainly a failure to connect.

In 2024, failures to connect can easily become full-on crises. And a “crisis” in school terms, is an event that causes reputational damage and possible financial damage if it rises to the level of a lawsuit.

Unfortunately, in 2024, failures to connect are everywhere and are unavoidable. Very commonly, failures to connect happen between our students all the time.

Teenagers let loose on social media is a field day of potential problems over which you have a little to no control. There’s the impulsive comment that is quickly deleted