ABSTRACT
An unmanaged crisis is a horror. It strikes, apparently without warning, and there is no knowing the outcome. All you are sure of is that you are in the middle of a crisis and it is scaring you to death. Unmanaged crises, regardless of their individual circumstances, follow a pattern. First we must recognize a crisis’s onset, which is not as difficult as it may seem. Usually there is a definite precrisis period: we know something is wrong, but just what is not clear. This period is marked by three distinct stages. The first stage is simple nonperformance: someone or some group is not getting the job done. It is when the problems are recognized that the second stage begins; this is usually a prolonged period of denial. When they do not go away, and the errors begin to mount, the company slips toward the third and final stage of the precrisis period.
