How to Learn from Crisis Management Experiences

People ask how I "bounced back" so quickly after having babies. The answer isn't genetics or luck. It's the same systematic approach I use for building my business. THE PRE-EVENT PREPARATION: Just like stress-testing your business before a crisis, I prepared my body and mind. → Strength training for labor (like building cash reserves for market downturns) → Mental rehearsal of different scenarios (like scenario planning for your business) → Building a support system early (like developing key partnerships before you need them) THE DURING-EVENT MINDSET: When things get intense—whether it's childbirth or a business crisis—your systems take over. → Trust the preparation you've done → Stay present instead of catastrophizing about future complications → Work with your constraints, not against them THE POST-EVENT RECOVERY: This is where most people (and businesses) fail. They assume they can just "power through." → Honor the recovery process instead of rushing it → Celebrate small wins daily → Build back gradually, not dramatically THE BUSINESS PARALLELS ARE STRIKING! CRISIS PREPARATION:  Companies that survive downturns prepare during good times, not during disasters. SYSTEMS OVER HEROICS:  When pressure hits, your processes save you—not your ability to work 100-hour weeks. RECOVERY PLANNING:  Post-crisis rebuilding requires as much intentionality as crisis management. SUSTAINABLE GROWTH:  Marathon mindset beats sprint mentality every time. THE INSIGHT:  Resilience isn't about how much you can endure—it's about how systematically you prepare for and recover from inevitable challenges. Whether you're having babies or building businesses, the same principles apply. What systems do you need to build now that will serve you when things get difficult? *** I’m Jennifer Kamara, founder of Kamara Life Design. Enjoy this? Repost to share with your network, and follow me for actionable strategies to design businesses and lives with meaning. Want to go from good to world-class? Join our community of subscribers today: https://lnkd.in/d6TT6fX5 

I was a terrible leader for a decade, and I didn’t even know it. Until a few years ago, I used to think “Failure’s a direct result of incompetence,” and blamed my team for everything that would go south. But then, we faced one of the biggest failures at our company. In 2013, we were working with Google for their “Great Online Shopping Festival” campaign. It was one of those rare instances where we had a chance to outshine everyone and prove our worth. But just 24 hours before the launch, we faced technical issues and the site went down. We panicked, and our whole team was trying to fix the problem. But all efforts to get the site up and running went in vain. The result? We lost one of our biggest clients, missed out on a big payday, and a press release was published about our glorious failure. Initially, I wanted to blame the team as this was an avoidable error. I felt like the victim, as I had to handle the pressure of losing revenue as well. Escaping ownership of the problem this way was easy, but that day, I realized the failure wasn’t theirs but MINE. I was the brain behind the campaign - the one with the vision, always fixated on the big picture. But while chasing my goals, I neglected to provide my team with the required tools. I understood that just by pushing my team to work harder, I was setting them up to fail. I had to provide real guidance and support. So I started rebuilding our system, and the blame game got replaced by actual questions. Just by asking "how can we fix this?" instead of pointing fingers, we unearthed great ideas. I’d mocked checklists, reviews and calendar planning so far, but implementing these helped us become way more effective. Today, a crisis means we fix the PROCESS, not just find a scapegoat. The blame goes to the broken system, not the people trapped in it. Do you think leaders should take responsibility for their teams? #leader #teammanagement #workculture

In the face of adversity, the true test of leadership is turning crisis into opportunity. Reflecting on the tumultuous times of 2008, our organization faced a staggering 95% loss in revenue, bleeding $200k monthly. Bankruptcy loomed over us like a dark cloud, but it was in this moment of despair that we found our silver lining. Mariana and I shifted from a founder-centric approach to a team-focused turnaround, and the results were nothing short of miraculous. Here's a step-by-step approach that helped us navigate through the storm: 1. Acknowledge the crisis - Face the reality of the situation without sugar-coating it. 2. Open communication - Foster an environment where every team member can voice their concerns and suggestions. 3. Empower your team - Encourage ownership and accountability at all levels. 4. Innovate relentlessly - Use the crisis as a catalyst for new ideas and strategies. 5. Stay agile - Be ready to pivot and adapt to the changing landscape. By embracing these steps, we not only survived but thrived, emerging stronger and more resilient. It's a testament to the power of collective effort and the boundless potential that lies within a united team. If you've faced similar challenges or are currently navigating through one, I'd love to hear your story. Share your insights or strategies in the comments below. And if you found this post helpful, please give it a like or repost it to help others in their journey. #Resilience #Teamwork #Innovation

"What the F*$#@!!!!!!!!!" "Ok, he's angry. I better brace," I thought to myself. I was leading a team that supported a group of principal engineers. They encountered a tool problem that would cause them to miss a critical milestone. Their work has halted. I could feel my heart racing, my blood pressure rising, my heart sinking, and the familiar feeling of shame tingled up my throat. "Fix this, now!" He screamed with frustration. In the following days, I experienced a pilgrimage of directors and executives marching into my cubicle, thinking that screaming at me and showing me how powerful they were would fix things faster. I hit the end of the dial on stress. I felt helpless. Two months later, my team was awarded for solving and handling the problem. You probably think I stressed my team to get it done ASAP. Or that I lost sleep and weekends over it. No, I didn't. I used the advice I received from two of my mentors: 1. When you're stressed, panicked, and losing control, ask yourself one question: "What's the best thing I can do right now?" - and take action. This method snaps you out of paralysis into action. When you take action, the road to solution starts to unfold. It can be even a tiny step like asking, "What is the root cause of the problem?" I used this method when I was literally under fire. It also works well in corporate wars. 2. People need to know that you own it. My department manager at the time, Yanne Kuperman, walked calmly into my cubicle and told me: "I know you're doing your best to solve this. They need to know and feel it, too. Send them a daily progress report to demonstrate your sense of ownership." So I did. Like magic, no one approached me again about the issue. No more screams or pilgrimage. They felt I owned the solution. Once we solved the issue, I reduced the progress report to once a week and then stopped. I used this method every time we had a crisis. That helped us focus on what's important without the need to regulate other's emotions. How are you dealing with stress? Share your tips and stories so others can learn! Want to see my content without relying on the algorithm? Click Nir Megnazi + Follow + 🔔.

I made a colossal mistake. It seemed like the right decision at the moment, but it was an absolute disaster. I was completely crushed. The embarrassment and shame were overwhelming, making me believe things were beyond repair. All I wanted to do was escape and disappear. But luckily, my coach was there to lend a hand. Despite the excruciating pain, she guided me through the process of bouncing back and regaining the trust of my leadership and team. This experience taught me a valuable lesson: even the most talented and experienced leaders make big mistakes. It's all part of the game. Now enough about my disaster; let's dig into the coping strategies that my coach shared. A triad of deceptively simple game plans for a speedy recovery from any seemingly ghastly catastrophe: 1. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗛𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘁-𝘁𝗼-𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗱𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵: Mucked up? Wave the white flag. Follow it up with an apology straight from the heart and a firm recovery plan to prove you're no quitter. 2. 𝗦𝗽𝗼𝘁𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗼𝗻 𝗦𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀: Don't waste precious tears on what went wrong. Instead, bend your brain, mapping out an escape route to rise above the setback. 3. 𝗥𝗲𝗳𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻: Every mistake is a hidden lesson. Reflect on what went wrong and how the same situation can be handled differently in the future. Dwell not on the blame but on what can be learned. And a bonus strategy: 𝗣𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗣𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲: Rome wasn't built in a day, and trust can't be rebuilt overnight. Be patient with yourself and your team. Allow the process of healing and rebuilding to take its natural course. Recovering from a leadership failure is no walk in the park, but it is absolutely possible when you employ strategies like these. We can all rise above failure and cultivate a solid, thriving team by taking responsibility, focusing on solutions, and keeping the lines of communication wide open. P.S. Sold on the techniques, or have some of your own? Do share – because the road to redemption is far more fun with friends. I'm waiting to hear your quickest recovery tricks! #leadership --- - Follow me for random thoughts about leadership, motivation, accountability, CX strategy, and digital transformation (as well as anything else I wind up saying). - Click the 🔔 in my profile to get notified of my posts…

Evaluation of mistakes made should never be demoralizing. One of the challenges I have been wrestling with recently is when a mistake happens. Does it mean the sky is falling and everything we are doing needs to change or are we just dealing with growing pains? When you are trying to examine and learn from your mistakes. There’s a real urge both by you and your team to try and point out everything that went wrong or second guess the path you are currently on that led to some of the challenges or mistakes. What’s been a helpful filter for me is to run my takeaways through this lens. 1. Does it take into account the perspective I was in? Why did I make that decision in that moment? What information was I operating on?- Monday morning quarterbacking is just not a realistic way to look at learning from a mistake. 2. Was there something I could have done differently that was obvious and didn’t take additional effort? - takeaways like I should have spent more time on x have a cost and aren’t always practical. 3. Was there something I could have known in that moment that would be realistic for me to know and operate on the next time I am in a similar challenge? - Principles are everywhere and transcend circumstance 4. Was this mistake built into the strategy I was pursuing? Every strength has a weakness and changing your strategy because of a mistake might be a dumb long term strategy. There are some mistakes that just aren’t worth the time and energy we give them. Many are and never should be swept under the rug of overall performance but the learnings from them shouldn’t derail our vision either.

I made a big mistake designing a training program this week and I want to help you avoid doing the same thing. Here is the situation: I was working with a long-time client, building new content for their manager training program. We are in the early stages of development, and I spent a good deal of time this week writing out all of the copy and engagements for the courses. All the work put us back on schedule...I thought. The problem was that a lot of the content was wrong. Why was it wrong? This is where the mistake comes in. We had agreed on an initial outline for the courses. But that outline really only covered the basic ideas, it importantly didn't spell out the outcomes or behaviors the client wanted. I had worked with them for a while, so I thought I knew what they wanted. I didn't follow our standard and proven process to make sure we get alignment with all of the stakeholders at each stage of the development process. Instead, I tried to skip ahead. Skipping your process while designing training will never save you time. Step 1: Identify and agree on the impact you are trying to have. Step 2: Identify and agree on the behaviors you are trying to change. Step 3: Identify and agree on the knowledge you need in the course. Step 4: Now you can build out the content and make it engaging. Luckily, we were able to quickly identify the gaps and adjust the content to have the right focus. But it is always better to not make those mistakes in the first place. What reminders do you use to stick to your development process? #InstructionalDesign #EmployeeTraining #FailWhale #Mistakes

One of my former counselors, Carolyn, spent time in an addiction trauma unit early in her career... She learned that when a situation is chaotic, it is important to slow down, slow way down. There is so much wisdom in that. I still remember Carolyn sharing that the unit tended to feed off frenzy. When one patient was having a problem or incident, it would often cause others anxiety, and within a few minutes, the entire unit would be in chaos. She told me that in moments like that, it is so critical to not feed off the energy around you and to slow down to at least half speed, or else life-altering mistakes can happen. She shared that one night, they were short-staffed, and a patient was having a severe episode while a new patient was going through intake. They wanted Carolyn to rush the intake process to assist, but something in her told her to slow down, and she redid the intake process twice. She found a knife hidden in the new patient's luggage — something she missed on the first spot check. Her advice is essential for all of us. In workplaces, we tend to think of all crises as urgent and important. If our boss is upset because a client or an executive is annoyed, the whole team can be in a frenzy. As a team leader or member, it is important to be responsive but also keep your cool and check everything twice. Mistakes are more likely to happen when the situation is volatile or stressful. Being able to stay calm in a crisis is such an important skill. #leadership #leaders #workplace

This week I posted about leaders who fail during a crisis because I have seen that happen during the course of my career. In reality, leadership isn’t tested in calm waters — it’s forged in crisis. Too many leaders panic during a crisis. Even more disappear during it. And far too few prepare before one ever hits. Here’s the uncomfortable truth: If you wait for the storm to start leading, it’s already too late. ✅ BEFORE the crisis Build real trust, not just policies. Create a communication plan that doesn’t rely on “winging it.” Run what-if scenarios like your reputation depends on it — because it does. Empower your team to act without you. Crisis slows down command-and-control leaders. Decentralize now. Have a plan and use it. ✅ DURING the crisis Over-communicate. Even if you don’t have all the answers, say what you do know and what you’re doing about it. A void in communication will be filled with something by someone. Don't take that chance. Communicate in many methods and forums. People need to hear the same message more than once and in more than one way. Be visible, calm, and human. The team doesn’t need a hero — they need a leader who shows up. Focus on clarity over certainty. You can’t promise outcomes, but you can be honest about the path. ✅ AFTER the crisis Don’t just move on — debrief hard. What failed? What worked? Who stepped up? A solid After Action Review is a blueprint to make your crisis plan even better. Give recognition where it’s due. Silence after sacrifice kills morale. Institutionalize the learnings. The next crisis is already in the pipeline. Will you be ready? Leadership isn’t about having a plan for every crisis. It’s about building a culture that doesn’t crumble when the plan falls apart. ❓ So, leaders — the question isn’t “What do we do when a crisis hits?” The REAL question is: What are you doing RIGHT NOW to make sure your team survives the next one?

🌏 I think three things made last weekend's Taiwan Strait Crisis Simulation an impactful educational experience for students at George Mason University and Marine Corps Command and Staff College: 🎲 game design, 🤼 player interaction, and ✍ the debrief. 🎲 The communication miscues, loss of common situational awareness, and delayed decision making inherent from organizational silos amplify in times of crisis. By restricting the use of electronic devices, restricting access to player rooms, organizing player rooms between offices and countries across different levels in the building, and allowing only the open [and unsecure] hallway for diplomatic cross-coordination, the game designers replicated the features [not bugs] of bureaucracy, information security, and uncertainty. I learned that speed of execution is dependent on a clearly defined strategy and commander's intent, which combined can overcome the barriers of communication. When the organization, like the nation-state, elects a poor strategy against a focused adversary, no amount of will and resources can regain the initiative. 🤼 Player motivation really drove the game, although player knowledge really limited the formulation of strategy and creative statecraft options, and player cultural bias created mirror-imaging of an American-led military power projection approach to crisis management. It's one thing to have military icons on a map to assess a situation and determine short-term options to manage escalation. And even these are limited as they do not accurately convey the dynamics of the space domain, information environment [including cyberspace], and the electromagnetic environment. I think if we had a different common operating picture mapping out the supply chain dynamics and the disruptions and sources of physical, information, financial, and human capital flows, it might have driven players to explore options that leveraged the instruments of national power in new ways. A key reason why my thesis at Command and Staff College is focused on defining the Supply Chain Environment. ✍ Finally, I am so glad that we devoted a solid one and a half hours to player debriefing, focusing on what we learned and not on "who won." Plenty of intellectual discussion about understanding integrated deterrence, statecraft, civil-military relations, geopolitics, and comparing outcomes to other simulations and expert opinions. The debrief is the most important part of these kind of active learning tools and educational #wargaming, not the game itself. 🙏 Many thanks to the experts and volunteers that devoted a lot of time to preparing the crisis simulation, moderating it, and debriefing with us. This was a great opportunity to start forging the relationships and strategic thinking before disruption happens.