What happens if an operational emergency or a major customer defection occurs on the morning of our scheduled quarterly session day? Do we cancel the session, or how do we handle it?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

We do not cancel the session. In fact, an operational emergency is the ultimate test of your leadership team's commitment to the process. If a major crisis hits on the morning of our session, we do not ignore it, but we also do not let it derail our entire day of strategic planning. Instead, we use the first thirty minutes of the day to apply a Strategic Pause. We allow the team to gather the facts, make immediate, high-priority delegation decisions, and put out any burning fires that require instant action. Once the immediate damage is contained, we bring that crisis directly into our session. We put the emergency at the very top of our IDS list for the day. Because the entire leadership team is in the room with an objective facilitator, we are in the best possible position to solve the root cause of the issue together. We analyze the situation, determine how it impacts our current Rocks and scorecard metrics, and adjust our plan for the next ninety days accordingly. Canceling the session to deal with the fire only ensures that you will keep running from one crisis to another without ever building the systems to prevent them from happening in the first place.