“It may be the end of the world as we know it, but we get to decide what the next world looks like.”

We finished a review for a client recently and she said our report was “practical and actionable.” We like to think we have some serious heft behind us in terms of academic training, diversity of clients and years of experience, but really practical and actionable are kind of the gold star. Then we read this superb essay from McSweeney’s “We dare you to figure out what our nonprofit does.” Priceless.

On the one hand, a ship losing power and a collapsed bridge in another country is a horrible situation, but a tragedy that you can only watch from afar in dismay. The unsettling, but familiar feeling of being able to do nothing about an awful situation. On the other hand, do you have a plan for what you would do in your own crisis scenario? No doubt, many companies are thinking about their own crisis plans today.