Decisions the Office Needs to Make

1. What goals or priority activities should be delayed or dropped as a result of the crisis?
2. What, if any, issues or activities now deserve much greater office attention?
3. What changes should the office make in staffing to accommodate these changes in the environment? (e.g. shift LA or Caseworker assignments to ensure the workload is equitably balanced; hire a new staff person; hire a part-time or short-term person to deal with an emerging need.)
4. How will this crisis affect our external communications practices over the next several months? (i.e., press activities and message, constituent mail tone, public events in the district)
5. How will this national crisis affect the boss’ schedule over the next few months? (What events will she and won’t she now participate in?)
6. How will the office communicate these changes in priority and/or responsibilities and activities to our staff?

How the Crisis Might Influence Future Office Plans

1. If this crisis endures for many months, how will it affect my Member and our district/state?
2. How will my Member’s committee agendas be affected in the future?
3. How should all of these changes affect our future plans (and our future planning process)?
4. Are there new relationships with experts or groups in the district/state that we should develop as a result of this new environment?
5. How should my office most effectively use the recess? How should we best utilize the Member? What should staff focus on in Washington and the district/state?
6. What can my staff do to enhance coordination with federal agencies to improve services to constituents?

The 6 Most Common Mistakes Organizations Make in Managing Crises

1. Management and staff spend too much time attacking the problems and too little time understanding the problem and developing a plan for solving it.
2. Because of a lack of focus and an abundance of anxiety, organizations tend to try to do too much, spread their resources too thin, and pay the price of accomplishing too little and making avoidable but costly mistakes.
3. Organizations facing an expected crisis (such as a workload surge) assume that they can deal with the additional work and problems through their normal organizational structure or channels which are not designed to handle the greater work demands and the shorter timeframes. Consequently, the added burdens and pressure tend to overwhelm the present structures and further escalate the problem.
4. Managers frequently allow themselves to get pulled into doing line work during crisis periods and neglect their management duties, which creates other unanticipated but avoidable problems.
5. Decision-making – which is so critical during stressful circumstances – all too often breaks down under pressure. In an effort to avoid critical mistakes, top managers tend to centralize decision-making, which frequently leads to organizational gridlock. In addition, decision authority is not clearly delegated, leading to confusion, frustration, in-fighting and costly delays.
6. Organizations fail to train individual staff on how to handle their new duties or train newly formed teams on how to operate effectively as a team. Consequently, staff work hard but under-perform.