I’m not an expert on this, but my experience yesterday has given me some insight into how to handle bad situations. One of my clients has something unexpected happen that required restoring certain records from backups. This wasn’t a big deal technically, but it was a big deal to them. I knew that their negative reaction to the situation could easily spill over to me. I put into practice what I have learned over the years and not surprisingly the situation was resolved within a few hours. So what did I do? Here are the rules I’ve adopted over time to help me deal with this kind of problem.
- Don’t Panic. Douglas Adams is a brilliant writer, and this reference to Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is actually useful. It is 99.99% guaranteed that the world will not end because of something you do or do not do right now.
- Always have a backup plan. When things go wrong, switch to the backup plan. Having a predetermined set of actions to take when something bad happens helps keep you calm. You don’t have to decide what to do in the moment because you’ve already made all the decisions ahead of time.
- Breathe. Preferably slow, deep breaths. Fast breathing will only make you more anxious, so go with the slow kind. The clearer your head the better decisions you can make about what needs to happen.
- Remove all distractions. This may be difficult since the person who has the problem is going to want constant updates on your progress. Gently inform them up front what your plan is, what the results will be, and generally how long you expect it to take. Once you’ve agreed on what needs to be done, go do it. Don’t stop until either the problem is fixed or you need a bathroom break.
- Learn from what happened. This is arguably the most critical part of the whole process. Figure out what went wrong then implement a fix for the problem so it never happens again. Explain exactly what happened to the client/interested party and what you intend to do to prevent it from happening again. It doesn’t hurt to give them some additional visibility into the process that failed so they can see what goes on with it moving forward. I think this lets them feel more in control of the situation, which helps put them at ease.
Does this always work? Maybe, it certainly has so far. Hopefully you’ve found this helpful, let me know in the comments.