A crisis can be something small and individually personal like forgetting your lunch when you leave the house in the morning. It can be intense and targeted like a tornado touching down. And a crisis can be life-or-death on a massive scale such as the risk of open war between nations. Whatever the scope or stakes, large or small, all crises are at their root the same animal. A suddenly urgent scenario requiring immediate action because inaction will result in guaranteed negative consequences.
Every crisis arises from something, there is a cause which generates the sudden and urgent situation. We haven’t been getting enough sleep the past several days leaving us groggy in the mornings and susceptible to forgetting things. Extreme temperatures and humidity collide giving rise to violently intense weather. Long seated animosities between rival nations can be sparked out of control by a catalytic event.
No matter the source or scale of a crisis they have to be dealt with, it is at the very core of their definition. They do not give us a choice we have to deal with them. We have to make other arrangements for our lunch. We have to seek protective shelter from the tornado. We have to find a way to manage the stress of potential war or worse try to survive…