Moving past crisis mode

“I just need to get through this week and then it’ll calm down a bit.”

I shared this tweet in December 2020. Work had felt relentless since the start of the pandemic and everyone around me was working flat out, whilst also dealing with everything that life threw at people during a pandemic.

There was always a sense of optimism that it would slow down at some point but it never happened. It was on 17 December 2020, less than two weeks after I sent this tweet, that the government announced secondary schools would have access to covid tests from the first week in January. Suddenly we had to find teams of people from across Camden who were available and willing to work at testing sites. We managed it but it was hard on everyone involved.

This was an extreme example of the calm next week that never comes but that culture of relentless pace seems to have stuck in so many organisations. We’re stuck in a state of permanent crisis mode.

I was leading a team of 17 people during 2020 and I did my best to protect them from as much of the pressure that was in the system but I often failed. I see it in other organisations as well. There is very often a version of “if we can just get past this hump, then things will get better.” There always seems to be another challenge that comes along, another reason we can’t slow down and reflect.

The work done in those times of crisis often isn’t the best work, it can’t be. I can think of so many examples of “why did we ever think that was a good idea?” We make excuses for ourselves but it is often the pace that prevents us from seeing clearly.

There is a classic analogy I have found myself using over and over again. The taps on the bath are on full power and water is pouring over the sides, flooding the bathroom. People are bailing out the water as fast as they can but they can’t keep up. We need to turn off the taps (or at least turn them down a bit!) but we’re too busy bailing the water and cleaning up the mess that we don’t have time.

The prolonged underfunding of services plays a huge role in creating this crisis mode we find ourselves in. There isn’t a perfect answer to escaping it but I think there is more we can do.

Sometimes it is about investing more time and energy in prevention (turning off the taps) but there also comes a time when we have to just say no. Often organisations have too many priorities and not enough capacity to deliver them. Everything continues to be urgent and important, driven by this sense of ongoing crisis. We have to stop.

Leaders, at all levels, can do more to collectively prioritise and work together to help turn down the demands and expectations across the system. This is hard to do in the short term, for many reasons (including ego.)

In the long term, it is the only way to deliver services that are proactive rather than reactive, ensure people are working at a sustainable level, and finally have some Mondays where it feels a bit calmer.

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