#MiPDV – Planning For The Unexpected

Not too long ago I was having a conversation with some new acquaintances. As we got to know each other a bit, they mentioned that they were about to move to the southern coast of the US. One of them was finishing a big project and the new project they had lined up required them to move. 

They believe that the new city will feel more like home because it’s more like where they each grew up than where they live today. 

Then one of the people mentioned how they would be calmer in the new city. When I asked why, they mentioned the weather. 

Interesting … tell me more! 

Their reasoning: where we live, we occasionally have severe storms, many of which include a threat of possible tornadoes (a “tornado watch”). They find the uncertainty of a possible tornado to be very unsettling. Given their discomfort with storms, I didn’t mention the possibility of earthquakes in the region! 

Interestingly, where they are moving has less threat of severe thunderstorms but is often in the threat zone of hurricanes. When I asked about that threat, their response was, “With a hurricane you have days of advance notice, so we can make plans to protect our home and leave the area if we need to.” 

In other words, they didn’t like the prospect of the unexpected. 

Their perspective is very different than mine, because while I pay attention to the weather, the threat of severe weather is not something I spend much time worrying about until the threats become real (a “warning” instead of a “watch”). 

This conversation reminded me of how we can become complacent. I grew up in an area where we often had summer storms predicted, and nearly every one came with a tornado watch, meaning that if the storm developed, it could also have the potential to spawn tornadoes. The weather service used such vague language that the tornado watches became something we usually ignored. 

And there were many storm watches each summer – sometimes two or three in a week – that didn’t produce a drop of rain that we began to ignore them. 

In our complacency, we didn’t plan for the unexpected. We had no plan for what to do if one of these storms generated a tornado. 

And I know we weren’t the only ones who became complacent. All of our neighbors confessed to being the same as us. If something happened, we all assumed that we would be OK and that our homeowner’s insurance would take care of us. 

But the unexpected is called “unexpected” for a reason. Like a bolt of lightning, something can come out of seemingly nowhere to disrupt our lives. 

A storm. A tornado. A fire. An illness. Or any of a myriad of other possibilities that we don’t think about or plan for. 

We often become complacent in our professional lives, too, because we’ve navigated so many changes in our careers that we just “let it happen.” 

Think about it – do you have a plan for how you or your team would react to surprises such as: 

• Job cuts?
• A key team member leaving?
• Your company having unanticipated difficulties?
• A significant leadership change at a major client?
•  

In an article for C-Suite Network Advisors , author Jennifer H. Ledet, CSP, SPHR says that as a leader, “you have a responsibility to ensure that your business operations could continue if some unforeseen event” occurs.

While the article focuses on unexpected personnel changes and how to prepare for them, the same principle applies to any business change that can disrupt your team: you need to think ahead to be ready for the unexpected. 

In basic terms, planning starts by recognizing the risks you should prepare for, then developing a mitigation plan. That doesn’t mean obsessing over all possibilities of what could happen, it means taking some time to prepare so that the “unexpected” isn’t so unexpected. 

What potential events could put you or your team at risk? What are you doing to prepare to mitigate these risks? 

And if you haven’t thought about unexpected events, why not?

I’d like to hear your thoughts! 

That’s mi punto de vista #MiPDV.