The ARL approach to solving a crisis

The current global financial crisis is impacting almost every country and organization, with painful effects that include bankruptcy filing, employee lay-offs, and cost cutting. Many organizations are now restructuring, seeking loans to finance inventory, entering merger negotiations, closing facilities and increasing share in a diminishing market.

To survive and prosper organizations have to address the challenges now. And as they do, they are struck by paradoxical forces that must be faced – managing and solving a crisis quickly and deliberatively. The results however, must come from a calm, reflective process. The emotional stress accompanying a crisis often inhibits reflection, creativity and sound judgment.

LIM’s Solving a Crisis Workshop provides organizations with a focused, swift and powerful process for resolving a crisis. It allows key individuals to slow down, reflect, think, feel, and together, create a solution that endures in a relatively short period of time. Key aspects of the workshop include objective assessment of cause and effect, capturing lessons learned, input from key stakeholders, evaluation of options, selection of the best strategy and a detailed action plan.

Depending upon the crisis and on the make-up of the team involved, LIM’s Solving a Crisis Workshop requires from 1 to 2 days. During the workshop, a LIM Coach will help participants resolve the crisis while learning principles, tools and techniques for solving other crises in the future. Our Action Reflection Learning™ approach allows people to learn a problem-solving approach while resolving the crisis at hand with deliberate speed.

 What are the workshop outcomes?

By the end of the workshop, the team or task force will have:

1. Designed a solution for resolving the crisis, and established an action plan with clear next steps, assignments of responsibilities, and a time line.

2. Demonstrated understanding and use of the Power Planning Process, a creative problem-solving tool that has been proven effective in a crisis.

3. Discovered more efficient ways of utilizing time that enhances innovation and ensures full engagement of all key stakeholders.

4. Established an effective communication plan for all stakeholders involved in managing the crisis.

 How is a Solving a Crisis Workshop designed?

 All Solving a Crisis Workshops contain these basic design elements:

• A summary of causes, effects, key assumptions, lessons and possible options gathered through a pre-workshop, where possible, survey or interview of key stakeholders.

• Each workshop is co-designed by the client and LIM to ensure a healthy mixture of knowledge, expertise and objectivity that will result in a solution based upon facts, innovative thinking and solid ownership.

• Participants work in either intact teams or as a task force of the best individuals available depending upon the nature of the crisis.

• LIM Coaches introduce the Power Planning Process and other practical tools and techniques that will help participants solve the crisis.

• Participants learn how to listen and respond to differing viewpoints while adopting an attitude that solutions can be the inspiration for innovation.

• Participants establish clear next steps — who will do what by when.

• Participants evaluate the process and results of the workshop so that they can apply the principles, tools and techniques to other work situations.

Who will benefit?

• The organization or unit affected.

• Members of a work team or task force facing the crisis.

• Both internal and external customers.