“A crisis is a productive situation – you only have to take away the flavour of catastrophe.”

Max Frisch

I’ve always loved this quote, mainly because it’s a statement of the obvious but also because it suggests the act of rewiring our mind is easy, when that’s rarely the case.

If you manage to accept the words as a gentle provocation, you can indeed reframe something we instinctively shrink from – a perceived crisis – and see it as an opportunity.

How would you describe a crisis?

Perhaps it’s a moment when something vague moves into high definition – and your mind snaps into focus.

It’s often a time when people can summon the necessary stores of energy to shape the required action, converge in alignment, and recognize a shared sense of urgency. All of which may have been missing for months.

In that sense, a crisis can be one of the most productive states an organisation ever enters.

The framing of a crisis as a catastrophe is optional.

Does Your Mind Towards Catastrophe?

If a crisis offers the opportunity for creativity and concerted action, what causes many a mind to frame crisis as catastrophe?

I’ve watched leaders sit on perfectly good opportunities because their minds leapt straight to the negative. When something changes – whether a shift in strategy, a new disruptive competitor, a re-org, a move into a bigger role – the brain often rings an internal alarm bell, steering focus to:

“What if this goes wrong?”

“What if I’m not ready?”

“What if we don’t make it?”

It’s a perfectly natural reaction – allowing our brains to scan for threats – given we’re wired for self-protection. But we could also use our brain to seek out opportunity.

That’s why change often feels like crisis, even when it’s a positive one.

The Degrees of Crisis

Not every crisis is a blaring siren. Sometimes it’s a simmering set of signals: Flat growth, rising customer complaints, a disengaged team, declining trust across departments.

The irony is that we need to feel some sense of crisis – of urgency – to act.

• Perhaps it’s a leader who realises they need to change before their organisation outgrows them.
• Or a team that has been operating at 65% alignment without noticing the toll it’s taking.
• Maybe it’s a system that broke long ago – but politics, processes or personalities prevented anyone admitting and changing it.

How much crisis or urgency we need to feel before we move to action depends on the organization, the culture and the broader environment.

But to avoid developing a taste for catastrophe, a successful first step to handling a crisis may be to digest the signals of potential crisis.

Skilled leaders know how to articulate the situation, acknowledge the threats, whilst offering the steps forward – that when taken, create opportunity.

They help their teams feel the significance of the moment, accept the fear – and channel that energy into optimism, with a twist of excitement.

Crisis – Catastrophe – Change

When you face a moment of change – possibly crisis – grounding yourself in a few simple questions may support constructive action.

You could ask yourself – and those around you: ‘’What is the crisis here? And what is creating the flavour of catastrophe?’’

If you can separate the two, and address them with emotional wisdom and rational thinking, you’ll hopefully gain insight, energy and momentum to create change.

Because when you remove the catastrophe, and focus on possibility, you create the opportunity to move yourself – and those around you – forward.  An opportunity that ordinary times don’t readily provide.