Crisis Management 101: Part 1

With all that's happening right now, we definitely have to review our crisis management skills. But first, a trip down memory lane.

Images from The Daily Dot

Since everybody is talking about the Coronavirus, I guess we'll introduce this blog post with that. Coronavirus, A.K.A COVID19 (which honestly sounds like a spy name), has been making quite a name for itself. It started last year in December in China but it did not really get publicity until this year when it started spreading outside of China. The Chinese government tried to suppress workers specifically the doctors from talking about it because they thought it might panic among the citizens or even worse rebellion against the Chinese government which is kind of bad for communism. Unfortunately, the news broke out when Dr. Li Wenliang decided to warn the world anyway through social media after he himself had contracted the virus. Soon most news organizations and concerned scientists were already making investigations concerning the virus but the thing was the Chinese government was not ready to receive any help and so they kind of blocked everybody from any important information. Unfortunately for the world, the Chinese New Year was just at that time and millions of people would be going to China. How wonderful!! Also, because nobody really knew how serious the virus was, most people just prepared as they would for a normal type of flu, wearing face masks and all. But the New Year Festival was just the perfect type of breeding environment for such a contagious disease. By the time the celebration was almost over, the number of cases had grown exponentially in China. We all knew something was wrong when the Chinese decided to lock down one of the biggest cities in Central China, Wuhan. By then, some of the people who came from other countries for The New Year Festival had already returned to their home countries and were already spreading the virus. That was when the rest of the world actually got to see what the virus was like. And since, it has been spreading. From there, I think we all know where we are, some countries have it bad, some countries are containing it, some countries don't have it, it has been declared a global pandemic and all that. But I don't talk about the details or the numbers. What I want to focus on is the system that is put into effect whenever something like this happens: Crisis Management.

Well then, what is crisis management? Crisis management, according to Wikipedia, is the process by which an organization deals with a disruptive and unexpected event that threatens to harm the organization or its stakeholders. One thing I noticed is that crisis management is often associated with businesses and organizations. In fact, the only place I saw where crisis management where was applied outside the business setting was in the origin given in Wikipedia where it said that the study of crisis management began with large-scale industrial and environmental disasters.

This made me think, "does this create a sort of mindset where people think crisis management should be conducted on an organizational level or can only be applied to only one industry or sector?" With all that's happening now, I'm beginning to think that crisis management is not only for companies, but it's also for people. It's evident in the way we react to saddening or shocking events, how we comport ourselves in the midst of panic and how we find inner peace in the midst of the storm. Crisis management is not just a business strategy, it's a human response.

When the coronavirus pandemic started, we saw different world leaders react to the situation, some more prepared than others. What I also noticed was different reactions from individual citizens leading to some interesting behaviors.

Some started panicking and hoarding tons of items into their homes, disregarding the fact that other people would need those same items as much as they did. Sanitizers became black market goods where the price was controlled by whoever was lucky enough to have some to sell, paper towels and toilet paper became prizes of tugs-of-war between shoppers. Some responded with their shrewd business sense, selling hoarded items or supposed cures at exorbitant prices. Some did not really understand what was going but really could not care less as they went on partying their breaks away at the risk of the elderly in their community or acting insensitively not realizing that others could be in worse conditions. Some decided to start fear-mongering and spreading rumors of "cures" for the virus: bleach, garlic, cocaine, expensive prayer oils. It seemed like all-natural common sense had been flushed down the drain. People became pawns easily swayed by the ongoing news, some usually exaggerated, ready to buy into the apocalyptic predictions and mindsets they only saw on screens, ready to do anything to "survive". All this while world leaders took drastic decisions to protect their citizens from exposure to the virus from foreign individuals.

Crisis management seemed to be one-sided. Don't get me wrong, some people show compassion in times of need which is wonderful but most people don't know how to react. Basically they don't have a crisis management strategy. Now, this is not where I tell you to go to the nearest store and buy 5 months' worth of food, No. I've come to realize that most people don't have plans for situations like these, they rely on the government to do what's best for them, and when that seems to not be working, we all start panicking like sheep. We need to build or have a support system, a crisis management strategy, whatever you want to call it. We can't act like this all the time, you know. Every new disease or disaster is the next big thing. In my short lifetime, I've seen a few crises myself: Lassa fever, Ebola, Zika and now Covid19. The response is usually almost the same with a few improvements each time. Now, I'm not talking about the Nigerian government alone (In fact, I think they are doing quite a good job, they seem to have a thing for disease control or something, either way, Good job to them) but generally world governments. Something happens, we observe or are in shock mode for some days, news organizations start reporting fatalities, people start panicking, leaders start taking preventive measures, for some reason, more people start panicking, then we are told not to panic, then social media rumors start coming up with the most out-of-this-world ideas on the issue. And it spreads like wildfire, often from people who usually have no background in scientific data, evidence or even disease control experience. Then after a while, the religious bodies arise telling their members to pray and organizing fasts (which is actually a good thing) followed by all the prayerful trending hashtags and then a cure is found and we are all saved till the next one when we start all over again.

Now, I don't claim to be an expert on government advancement in disease control mechanisms but after these things happen, do people go back to the drawing board? do they replenish stocks? observe weak points in the last strategies like access to hospitals, expenses and that sort of thing? try to understand how events like these affect the different sectors and create breakers or plan Bs for the next time something like this happens? I hardly ever hear something like that reported in the news. It's back to business as usual. But these things happen every time like the Spanish flu, the Black Plague, famine, droughts, and pest infestations every 5 to 10 years. And yet, they still manage to wreak as much havoc and cause as much fear as their previous cousins. Who is to blame for all this, the government? "It's definitely the government, they never get anything right. They had one job." or maybe it's the people? "their expectations are too high, do they think government officials are God ni, every time, government this, government that, they should come and be President and let us see if they will do better. This mindset of who to blame is exactly the problem. We are always eager to find the evil villains behind our misfortunes and pin the blame on them. It's good to know the cause of a problem (now that's the root cause, not just surface symptoms but that one is a story for another day) but the problem is, we look for the evil not because we want to stop it but because we want to be able to push the blame away from ourselves. If it's them, then it's not me. I'm the victim. I should be saved. In fact, some times finding the cause of problems can be an attribute of laziness or irresponsibility. Just because, we did not want to volunteer to fix the problem, we look for the person who caused it and blame them so now they have to fix it and we don't have to do anything. But what happens if we just identify the person and pin the blame but no action is taken. The issue dies down with both sides going scot-free from taking responsibility or actually fixing the problem until another thing happens again and then the cycle continues.

One thing I like to say is that people who are in power now were once ordinary citizens, most of them were not born into their gubernatorial or senatorial seats, they were put there. And so these actions which we call the government's actions are actually a result of the average moral values and social priorities of those who we put there. In essence, garbage in, garbage out. So we are the same, the senators are just people, they are not Gods, but the people are not of lesser human status either. The values our youth cultivate now are what they will take into office and make decisions based on. So if they have no regard for transport, then we should prepare to walk on foot, if they do not regard youth empowerment or employment, then we all had better learn a trade. And that reflects on the country's general well-being in the economy, security, and image. In the same regard, if they have no personal crisis management system, they won't be able to project any progressive thoughts, policies or actions in a national emergency.

Now, before we all cut off my head for making you read an entire essay's worth of words, I'm going to stop here. This topic is a long one and we don't to be here for hours. Next time, we'll move to a much lighter side of crisis management. Finding individual support systems that help us stay sane in times like these.

Thanks for reading everyone. Remember to leave your comments or thoughts. Stay safe and have a lovely day.