Crisis management at Hypemasters

Our studio has been founded in 2019 and our team is spread across Europe and Asia. Since the foundation, we’ve had COVID (2020) and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine (2022) to live through. Every crisis had its challenges, but, also, similarities. As a result, we have worked out our principles, do’s and dont’s, for crisis management behavior that I am willing to share.

Our team levels up after every crisis!

Do:

• Recognise the crisis asap. No point in hiding or waiting. As soon as it’s obvious, get everyone in a room and say that “this is it — we are experiencing an extraordinary situation”. It helps people realise that leadership is not blind to difficulties that everyone is about to experience.
• Speak calmly. The simple act of remaining calm and using a deep voice can relax people and reduce anxiety.
• Be kind. Crises are extraordinary events. It’s important to recognise that people need warmth and kindness during these events in order to persist.
• Stay open. This may be the most valuable thing a leader can do. Getting on a 1x1 call and listening to a person allows them to open up, address their fears and get on that cool-calm-collected train like nothing else.
• Focus on consequences. Crises produce a lot of noise. Get your tunnel vision goggles on and concentrate only on what matters to you and your colleagues. Filtering through the noise helps to preserve the energy so needed for good decisions during tough times. Listening to all the noise is draining and won’t help anyone.
• Share facts. Ask the team to be mindful of what they are sharing with others. We don’t want to waste our energy on discussing unverified sources. Fact check before sharing.
• Focus groups. Crises cannot be resolved or overcome by one leader. Creating focus groups helps to spread the burden and get more opinions on the decision-making table.
• Stay united. Get the team working together and agree on decisions. Avoid making decisions without farming for dissent. Unilateral decisions can lead to public arguments and can worsen the chaos.
• Keep everyone updated. Even if there are no decisions, it’s important to give updates. It gives reassurance that the company actually cares about what’s happening.
• Business as usual. As much as possible and as quickly as possible. Work is a safe haven, a place where we can be creative and meaningful. Work helps to preserve sanity.

Do not:

• Constantly chat about the issue. It never helps or solves any problems.
• Rush into decisions. During crises, everything changes fast. Acting too quickly might lead to counterproductive outcomes.
• Talk politics. Political debates are counterproductive to doing business or solving problems. Avoid judging and discussing the political side of crises. It can only lead to negative effects and internal divisions (people are bound to have different opinions). Concentrate on people and help them.

Lastly, I want to thank our masters of Hype — during these tough times, every person has shown amazing character, teamwork, and resilience. As a result, we have continued to achieve our goals and I am grateful for that.