Take a breath. Think. React.

There’s a problem. Someone is really pissed. Or something is going to be when he finds out what happened. What to do?

Of course the first reaction is… react. And quickly. Contain the situation. Get it under control. But is that the best choice? I had a mini-crisis today. The emails hit the fan. But I said stop. I walked away. I thought about the ramifications of each choice we had. I consulted with a brilliant friend/collegue of mine. (thanks Megan) And I crafted, carefully and thoughtfully, a response that would benefit each of the interested parties. A response, that I hoped would not only solve the immediate problem, but possibly even improve the relationships between those interested parties.

Now here’s the part that was hard for me. I gained consensus. You heard it here first, folks. I did. I gained consensus. The people on my team did not initially agree that my solution was the right one. But we talked it through. I listened. They listened. And by the end, we agreed. So now I took action.

And guess what? It worked.

I hope I learned from this experience. Unfortunately, I harken back to the scorpion story.