Resist the Urge to Throw Resources at a Crisis

… to throw resources at a crisis.

Have you ever been in the middle of responding to a crisis (urgent, critical issue) and asked the question – “What do you need?” In many cases, there isn’t much an external party or even leader can do to help in that moment. But there’s typically a tendency (or even strong desire) to do something. Often, that desire results in a recommendation or decision to throw more resources (people) at the problem.

Resist the urge to throw resources at a problem if it is not caused by a resource constraint!

But wait, more people will make the crisis resolution go faster, right?

Wrong!

Here’s what adding more resources during a crisis does – it distracts the team working on the issue. It takes away precious time responding to requests on how to help and/or suggestions on how to fix things. The time needed to communicate with and bring the new people up to speed actually increases the time the team takes to resolve the issue.

To resolve an issue, you first have to understand what the underlying cause of the problem is. Even if only one person is working on a resolution (rarely!), that does not necessarily indicate the problem can be fixed by having more people involved. It could very well be (and frequently is in my experience) a knowledge gap. You haven’t identified the source of the problem and research is required to discover or identify the source so we can apply the right solution. More resources in this case can only be helpful if they are knowledgeable in that area (e.g. soliciting advice or assistance from a network of peers).

The problem could also be caused by a process failure or inefficiency. Again, in this case, more resources doesn’t help. You typically need someone well versed in the intricacies of the process to be able to assist effectively.

The problem might also have been caused by something technical e.g. a malfunctioning server or application that stopped working. Having more people available to help doesn’t change how quickly that server or application can be fixed (since in many cases, they don’t understand how it works to begin with).

So in general, when are more resources appropriate in a crisis?

• Problems caused by resource constraints (not having enough people to begin with)
• Problems that can be addressed with unskilled labor (i.e. something anyone can do without advance/formal training)

I am reminded of the book “The Mythical Man-Month” that I read in college. While the application was originally for software engineering projects, it is just as applicable to how we solve technical problems today. One of the principles (Brook’s Law) that has stayed with me is the following – while it takes one woman nine months to make one baby, “nine women can’t make a baby in one month”.

I hope this helps someone the next time they are dealing with a crisis and someone asks what they can do to help. #ResistTheUrge

PS: Cover image was generated by Microsoft Co-Pilot. It took a few prompts but it did a pretty good job capturing the essence of what I wanted. Can you spot the extra hand?

I also published this article on LinkedIn.