When a crisis starts, our hind brain tells us to dig in, fall back, and cut our losses. This is wrong.
Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky called this behavior loss aversion. 1 In large organizations facing a high profile setback, the first impulse is to direct staff to close ranks, terminate new programs, and cut off lines of communication. These actions can limits the number paths available for executive leadership to get to the other side of the crisis. Too often, the conventional wisdom turns fears into self-fulfilling prophesy, transforming temporary setbacks into permanent losses.
Prospect Partners believes that leadership can emerge from a crisis with its reputation intact and value preserved. Successful crisis response requires an immediate assessment of the real scope of impact and underlying operational causes of the crisis. Success also requires both discipline and creativity that reveal previously unseen strength and create new value. Prospect Partners works in close collaboration with in-house communications, legal, and operations leaders to ensure that decisions made today will not limit options in the future.
