Leadership in Action: After the Storm: Leading in the Wake of a Crisis

WORKING PLANS

The final piece of the postcrisis puzzle for leaders is attending to the organization's operational needs. In many cases a significant cleanup effort is required—recovery, repair and rebuilding, and reorganizing. Human resource issues also need to be addressed; personnel voids may need to be filled by promoting current employees or hiring replacement workers.

Operational concerns after a crisis inevitably involve the financial repercussions, such as the costs of cleaning up, salvaging, rebuilding, managing public relations, and working overtime. Sometimes the potential for litigation poses the most far-reaching implications for an organization's finances—a follow-up lawsuit can place the organization in a crisis situation far worse ...