Have You Experienced The *Chicken Little* Syndrome?
Kent Jacobson, a.k.a. "Mr. Success"

Everyday in business and or our personal lives we encounter
situations that at first appear to be catastrophic. Appear. After
a little investigation we often find things are not as bad as
they first appeared. How do you handle these situations?  Do the
people involved go running around as in the Story we all know;
Chicken Little?  I refer to this crazy reaction as this as the
Chicken Little syndrome.

I have found that if you address the problem in eight (8) phases
each and every time you can counter these situations very
efficiently and effectively.

The 8 phases are:

Phase 1.  Keep the emotions in check. Emotional control gives you
the edge in these types of situations because it allows you to
think clear and make rational decisions.

Phase 2. Define the real problem. Ask the people involved what
the real problem is, you need to get this defined clearly before
any other actins are taken or you are wasting your time as well
as others.

Phase 3. Double check to verify the problem. Always double check
the facts, data measurements, original plans or whatever
triggered the issue in the first place.  This is also a critical
step because you do not want to be chasing or reacting to non
problems.  In most cases, seek out the person who discovered the
problem and review with them what the facts are. Sometimes the
problem is only communication or a misunderstanding.  If the
facts warrant, you may be able to resolve the situation at this
phase.

Phase 4. Understand the Magnitude of the problem. After you have
in fact verified there is a problem, now you must understand the
impact. What ramifications will this problem cause to support
groups, customers or family members? Will it shut down the
manufacturing process, is safety involved and so on.

Phase 5. Containment.  Try and understand if this affects a
single item or multiple items in work of that may have been
shipped outside your facility. If the problem is product related
you must go to both sides of the supply chain to determine the
effect on previously produced product or not.  Try to establish
boundaries for the problem, have you heard of something called a
*Recall*?

Phase 6.  Investigate and define root cause. Determine the most
efficient way to determine root cause, depending on the problem
this phase can take many different paths and required actions.

Phase 7. Correction.  Simple, find it fix it.  Keep in mind the
economics involved when evaluating any correction of a problem.

Phase 8. Closure.  Communicate to all affected parties is a clear
and concise manner.  More often I business, the management team
and to know the problem, what it took to fix it, and are there
additional resources or costs involved.  Beyond that, spare the
details unless you requested to provide them to someone.

One of the key threads throughout this whose process is your
ability to communicate with affected personnel.  As you can tell
this takes an organized approach, but still relies on your
leadership ability to manage the process and closure of each
phase.  One suggestion is to utilize this approach on a smaller
problem just to see how it works for you and gain some experience
to improve your skill set.  You will be successful, try it.