A crisis is only a crisis when we call it a crisis. Say the word 'crisis' ten more times and it'll probably lose all meaning.
I have worked in many different industries, from warehouses to film sets, fast food to phone sales, door to door garbage bag sales to delivering blue prints. I have been working since the age of 13 and I thought I had it all figured out after 25 years (in 2005). I had started from the bottom cleaning bathrooms and sweeping floors to leading teams and further developing both my career and leadership skills.
In 1998, I began working full time as a live sound engineer (that's the official title, not the designation) which led to work in the corporate world as a freelance AV specialist operating a part time business under my own name. One morning, at an event, I thought we had a major crisis when I had discovered that a critical piece of equipment had failed just moments before the event was to begin. As a professional, I felt like somehow I had failed to prevent such a crisis. I approached the meeting planner and informed her that we had a crisis.
The meeting planner, Lucy, held my arm lightly as if to stabilize me, looked me straight in the eye and asked what the problem was. I explained the problem and she told me that it wasn't a huge crisis and we'd figure it out. She calmly asked what our options were and I told her. She immediately chose the most sensible option and made it happen - the gear was quickly replaced no matter what the cost.
That one situation forced me to think ahead more and by doing so, any crisis would be nothing more than 'Plan B' or, if that failed, 'Plan C'. So, by planning better, such a crisis would be more like a hiccup.
The day I took up the challenge to change workplace attitudes
I was hired as an instructor in 2001 because of my expertise and desire to teach others how to do some of the things I learned so they could develop their careers. I finally found work that suited my career direction and that required my special knowledge. It was smooth sailing at most events after than and I began to enjoy the pre-planning and challenges of troubleshooting on the fly. At every potential crisis after that, I would ask myself: "How would Lucy react?" and I had changed my attitude toward that aspect of my work.
Then came the fateful day in 2005. I found myself in a fit of frustration when I was signing out equipment to instruct a cinematography class and discovered that a few pieces were not functioning and were put back in the equipment room with no repair orders attached. I had been upstairs and downstairs between the lecture room and equipment room a few times only to discover another piece of equipment was broken with every trip.
The fourth time I went to the equipment room, I walked in very frustrated and upset as I approached the equipment room manager, James. James said something that day I will never forget. He said: "Quit freakin' me out!!" I felt bad that I had forgotten to listen to Lucy's voice in order to prevent such behavior and I felt like I had failed to control my emotions when it wasn't such a huge crisis. I thought I had been the perfect co-worker up until then. James was not at fault and I had no business venting on him (I didn't yell, but I was a ball of negative energy).
I wrote out the statement: "Quit freakin' me out!!" on a piece of paper as a reminder of that day and it has become a sort of scarecrow for me. I have it posted on my bulletin board and I am using it as my book cover (above). I have always had a very good track record of being a calm person and voice of reason at work, being able to display grace under pressure, but those two incidents are proof that anybody can get emotionally charged up and let things affect them (I am very passionate at what I do, but that's no excuse for irrational behavior).
To maintain a cool head in any crisis situation (not just work), I began writing a book about revitalizing livelihoods in 2006 and it is almost complete. I wanted to clarify my point of writing it, so it took a little longer than I thought. There are two other things I do as a reminder to stay cool and those are: 1) Ask myself how Lucy would react and 2) look at the statement James made, daily.
NOTE: A higher resolution version of the above picture is available for free to those who wish to post it onto their computer desktop as a reminder. Just email me at: buck@buckmoore.net
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