{"id":3297,"date":"2026-01-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kunden.weissblaumedia.de\/microconsult\/2020\/05\/05\/ps_krisenmanagement\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T14:29:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T13:29:15","slug":"ps_crisis-management","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microconsult.de\/en\/ps_krisenmanagement\/","title":{"rendered":"Managing crises through professional project management"},"content":{"rendered":"

The world is in crisis. How we overcome it depends heavily on how we deal with the factual and human aspects of this crisis.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Professional project management, taking psychological aspects into account, offers many useful approaches in a crisis. Let's examine the situation more closely and find out how we can use our project management know-how to find and navigate a path through this crisis and ultimately achieve our goal.<\/p>\n

Using a fictional example of a shipwreck and a concrete example from the company Schmid Electronics<\/a> The results of these or similar approaches can be achieved through research from Switzerland.<\/p>\n

The world, businesses, and every individual are currently asking themselves one main question: How can we best overcome the coronavirus crisis? In other words, we all have one primary goal right now \u2013 to get through the crisis as well as possible. What exactly does "getting through" mean?<\/p>\n

I don't want to infect anyone, I don't want to get sick, I want to keep my employees, I want to avoid bankruptcy, I don't want to lose money, or combinations thereof.<\/strong><\/p>\n

To overcome a crisis together, clear goals are crucial. Goals focus energies and thus enable coordinated action. However, we are dealing with an extremely complex situation: numerous influencing factors are at play, all interacting with one another. The course, duration, and outcome of the crisis are virtually unpredictable. We must assume that established goals and planned paths are not sustainable, as the environment in which we are working towards our objective can change very rapidly.<\/p>\n

This doesn't mean we shouldn't set goals or that planning the next steps isn't worthwhile. Rather, it means we are compelled to constantly and critically examine our goals and chosen paths, adapting them to new realities as needed. We are dealing with a moving target in a constantly changing landscape.<\/p>\n

The example of a shipwreck illustrates these connections: Imagine we are shipwrecked sailors in a time before electronic devices. We are stranded on a deserted, uninhabited island. All we have are the clothes on our backs and our knife on our belt. Our goal is survival. We have a few ideas about how we might achieve this goal \u2013 but nothing more. There are no certainties, only probabilities \u2013 and even those can only be assessed qualitatively. This means we must combine goal-oriented planning, action, and continuous learning to maintain our chances of survival.<\/p>\n

The Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle<\/h4>\n

For complex situations, we can very effectively apply the so-called PDCA cycle, also known as the Deming cycle. It essentially functions like a controller that flexibly adapts to environmental conditions. The acronym PDCA stands for Plan, Do, Check, Act. In a dynamic environment, the PDCA cycle generally proceeds as follows:<\/p>\n