A few years ago I was working a complex crisis at a Toronto venue. Multiple parties, multiple moving issues — one of those situations where everyone has a finger in the pie. One of the other parties had brought in a well-known firm. Smart people. Good reputation. But the consultant they actually sent was junior. A few years of experience, maybe.
They weren’t stupid. They were sharp. Polished. Confident. Confidence isn’t the same as pattern recognition.
When you’ve lived through enough crises, you start seeing three moves ahead. You hear a client say one thing and you immediately know what’s about to become a problem before it gets there. I’d love to tell you it’s because I’m particularly smart. It’s because I have scar tissue. You can’t buy scar tissue. You accumulate it by being wrong, by watching things go sideways, by calling it right and calling it wrong enough times that the patterns become automatic.
This consultant was smart and confident but didn’t have it yet. Things kept stalling. Moves were being made without understanding the ripple effects, and nobody on their team was catching it.
Eventually the client quietly flagged it. The firm’s managing director showed up, assessed the situation, and made a handful of strategic adjustments in about fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes. That’s all it took once the right person was in the room.
A firm that sells you the senior partner and then hands you to someone with three years of experience isn’t saving you money. They’re gambling with your crisis using someone who hasn’t lost yet.
When you’re hiring for crisis support, ask one question before you sign anything: who exactly picks up the phone when it all goes sideways at 11pm? If the answer is anyone other than the person sitting across from you right now, keep looking.