- A just cause.
- A right intention.
- A reasonable chance of success.
- If successful, a better situation than would prevail in the
absence of action. - Force used (or threatened) should be proportional to the
objective sought (or the evil repressed). - The intention should be to spare non-combatants or at least
have a reasonable prospect of doing so.
CRISIS MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES
In The Conventions of Crisis, Coral Bell (1971) wrote:
Looking back over the history of the postwar crisis as a whole, one is
struck by a sense of how often the decision-makers seem to have
been ‘playing it off the cuff’, acting on the promptings of intuition or
temperament rather than plan or logic.This highlights the biggest pitfall crisis managers can walk into
in industry and commerce as well as in international affairs. All
too easily they feel that instant and decisive action is required.
Under acute pressure they do not look before they leap and they
fall into the elephant trap.
Crisis management starts with avoiding action, keeping your
finger on the pulse so that as soon as the pace hots up – at the
first signs of the beginning of a crisis slide – you can take pre-
emptive action. At this stage you have time to think, to consider
contingency plans and to put them into effect.
If, however, in spite of all your efforts, you are faced with a
crisis, the following is a checklist of the 10 steps you should take:
- Sit back as coolly as you can and assess the situation. You
may have to go through the analytical and thinking process
five times as fast as usual, but do it. You need to establish:
■ What exactly is happening.
■ Why it is happening.
■ What is likely to happen unless something is done about
it.162 How to be an Even Better Manager