Encapsulating an essential truth in his Buddha’s Little Instruction Book, Jack Kornfield observed, “The trouble is, you think you have time.” And, in the midst of crisis, when time is especially scarce, school communities demand swift, decisive, effective action from school leadership — yesterday. 

While few of us possess the powers of prophecy needed to predict exactly what sort of crises our school communities will face next, we all can correctly predict that we will face crises, and that, in those crises, we will never have as much time as we would like to be able to think and act wisely. 

When time is especially scarce, it is crucial for school leaders to do all they can to have prepared in advance for crisis so they can devote their time to effective and wise decision-making rather than a flurry of other, less important matters. 

Here are the most important preparations that can be made prior to crisis, which will be prove invaluable during these situations: 

1. Develop an effective Crisis Management Team (CMT)  – Gather a team with predictable, defined roles in the midst of a crisis. Recognize that the membership in the Crisis Management Team needs to be able to expand or contract, depending on the contours of any particular crisis. Strengthen the CMT’s readiness by working through mock-crises. 

2. Cultivate relationships – Connect with a variety of respected, trusted professionals who will be able to offer swift, sound medical, mental health, legal, financial, public relations counsel in a crisis. 

3. Assess & Collect– Within a comprehensive assessment of institutional risk, identify vulnerabilities, anticipate possible crises, and develop a collection of resources that the school could immediately access to assist faculty and staff, parents, students in a variety of crises. 

4. Critical Communication Capabilities – Because crises can and often do occur when school is not in session, or when leaders are off campus, develop the capacity to communicate, convene, and converse immediately and remotely with members of the senior leadership team (individually and collectively), with board leadership, with preferred medical and mental health professionals, with preferred legal counsel, and with administrative support. 

Rather than being pulled in many directions, school leaders need to immediately focus invaluable time and energy on meeting the most important needs of a vulnerable school community. With these things in place, when a crisis strikes, school’s leadership will be positioned to address the four key elements of successful crisis response:  

1) Making Sound Decisions 

2) Taking Effective Action 

3) Crafting Powerful Communications 

4) Providing Robust Care to the School Community