I am amazed to watch people who love a crisis. Oh, I don’t mean those that love critical situations and the immediate effect decisions have. I’m talking about fire fighters, ready to whisk into action, stomping out the figurative flames, with a can of petrol and a book of matches behind their backs. I refer to these folks as “Catastrophists,” or people who manufacture a crisis as a strategy to implement their recommendations. There are also crisis junkies that aren’t able to prioritize and scope issues. The former you will recognize because they point out problems and directing others to solve them. The later are the unfortunate people that can’t say no to more work and everything is perceived as of equal urgency. Both types are productivity vampires and need to be managed carefully.
Just the other day I had one fellow call me up and explain how poor the product quality was from one of our business units and wanted my team to tell him exactly what was wrong. He showed me some graphs that showed numbers were increasing, but without sufficient detail for me to understand what it meant. I told him that I would look into the issues and we would talk at a future date. I asked my team to help me understand what the situation was with this business unit. My staff explained that there were some recognized problems and that we were working closely with the development group to systemically identify quality issues and resolve them. There was a rigorous schedule and they had hired more resources to make the needed changes. When I met with the person whom originally called me they were continuously more upset as I explained the existing action plan. He went as far as to say he wanted to get me enough information so that he could escalate the issue to the highest levels of the company. Right there I understood that he was flaming the fires and not trying to solve a problem. He wanted make it a crisis so that he could prove his worth.
Its interesting to observe people out of breath and on the verge of panic because they “just know” that there’s a problem but either can’t define it, can’t explain how big the problem is, or make wild assumptions about issue source and scope. For years I’ve wondered why people allow themselves to have this mind set. Sometimes, they are bullies trying to get their way and in some cases they feel much more important when they’re in the midst of a “critical” issue. They also use the opportunity to get people with fancy titles to pay attention. Unfortunately, that doesn’t work for long. Soon, Catastrophists get the reputation for wasting people’s time.
The other type of crisis junkie is that good natured person you run into that will stop to explain the importance of the projects they’re working on but don’t have time to chat or give details. These folks are usually well intended but take on so much work that they can’t complete actions. An “Activity Tornado” usually takes on all the work because they are pleasers, by nature and don’t want to disappoint so they can’t say no. Activity Tornados are in permanent crises because of the workload that they agreed to. I coach a very nice young person that has this problem. She’ll work nights and weekends to meet other people’s needs and sacrifice her own home life. She justifies this because she’s single and that other people have a family. Well, this is a sure fire way to ensure that she never has a life away from work! People with this problem often can’t find the time for any social event outside of work but always agree to work on more projects. In the end, they have a difficult time focusing their work and deliverables often require more than one review.
The two different crisis junkies come from very different motivations. The Catastrophist lives to catch people’s faults and make them visible. They believe that their value is to identify problems and direct people to solve them. Activity Tornados are addicted not to the crisis itself but to pleasing others. Unfortunately, both Crisis Junkies have the same affect on people around them. They create a culture of urgency that distracts their colleagues from focusing on the value added goals that have been carefully defined in their business. If you let a Catastrophist define disaster you will divert your staff to solve unfocused tactical issues that will likely be unrelated to your goals, leaving your other deliverables undone. Activity Tornado’s will do the same but because they have fallen behind on their projects and will desperately need help. This lack of focus and never ending urgency will burn your staff out. Either way, you have to find a way to identify the situation and make certain that you keep focusing on what you are measured on. If a Crisis Junkie brings real issues, make sure that you scope them very carefully and renegotiate commitments that will be affected.
This subject seems to have struck a nerve. I’ve had several emails on this entry. One leader from a local Silicon Valley company commented in email:
“If I had a nickel for every time I saw someone utilize the “manufacture a crisis as a strategy to implement their recommendations”…
For the last week or so I have been trying to get rid of a couple of kidney stones. Without getting into too much detail, lets just say kidney stones are about the worst thing I have ever experienced. I have been reluctant to take PTO because I work with a few people that manufacture crisis situations and I have no way of knowing what they will do while I am out…”
I do have some concerns about this person’s priorities, but the fear is clearly real. I would offer that nothing at work matters as much as your health. Let the emergencies happen. Its unfortunate.
The culture of many organizations gives crisis junkies activities significance and importance! If all levels of the organization behave that way things will never change. Executive management needs to understand this is a problem and be willing to spend resources to fix it. Keep in mind that a few laws of organization change.
1. People don’t resist change: they resist being changed
2. Thing are the way they are simply because they got that way
3. Unless things change, they are likely to remain the same
4. Change would be easy if it weren’t for all the people
Great article!!
Reading this certainly struck a nerve w/ me. I can’t even begin to count the number of times I’ve experienced each of these personality types.
I want to know when you’re going to write on the flip side of the “Activity Tornado” – people who spend the vast majority of their time deflecting work instead of actually DOING work. These people drive me flat out batty!! They’re willing to spend twice as long trying to NOT do something than it would take to just push it out.
Keep the blog posts comin’
Your comments hit the bulls eye. I can identify activity tornadoes from the minute they open their mouth in a meeting or when I walk into their office. It is amazing how fast they pigeon hole all problems as systemic issues! To add to the fire, they also magnify the problem to prove how their expertise is much needed to keep working on this complex problem. I try to breath deeply after meeting these people, their hyperactivity actually helps me balance work and life better since I consider myself as a “simple” worker aiming to solve small pieces of the large puzzle!
Keep typing Devin, this is comic relief!
Here’s a fantastic blog entry on the same subject: “Adrenaline Junkies“
Excellent posting!
I consider the second type of person the busy manager syndrome. Always running around and never progressing. People who are always in a crisis dont have the time to step back and reflect on what went right and what went wrong and then learn and grow. The best strategy to combat this is the financial strategy of “Pay Your Self First”. If you first do the actions you feel critical to success and then what ever is left over use to do other actions you will be much more successful. This lets you focus on core vs context.
As for the first type – they suck
In reality though, even with those I would refer to the Advice of:
Indra Nooyi: Chairman and CEO, Pepsico
My father was an absolutely wonderful human being. From him I learned to always assume positive intent. Whatever anybody says or does, assume positive intent. You will be amazed at how your whole approach to a person or problem becomes very different. When you assume negative intent, you’re angry. If you take away that anger and assume positive intent, you will be amazed. Your emotional quotient goes up because you are no longer almost random in your response. You don’t get defensive. You don’t scream. You are trying to understand and listen because at your basic core you are saying, “Maybe they are saying something to me that I’m not hearing.” So “assume positive intent” has been a huge piece of advice for me.
In business, sometimes in the heat of the moment, people say things. You can either misconstrue what they’re saying and assume they are trying to put you down, or you can say, “Wait a minute. Let me really get behind what they are saying to understand whether they’re reacting because they’re hurt, upset, confused, or they don’t understand what it is I’ve asked them to do.” If you react from a negative perspective – because you didn’t like the way they reacted – then it just becomes two negatives fighting each other. But when you assume positive intent, I think often what happens is the other person says, “Hey, wait a minute, maybe I’m wrong in reacting the way I do because this person is really making an effort.”