Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

In a recent article concerning the growing mega-city and how people are scrambling to try to tame what is spontaneously happening within them, it made me think about what happens when things are unexpectedly more successful than we think and catches us by surprise.

From a management view of things, it brings the thought to me about what happens when businesses or marketing campaigns go beyond what is expected. A lot of business owners and managers are caught off guard by sudden, unexpected growth in their businesses.

Usually what happens is that once this happens, management then tries to tame the beast that has been let loose; by that time it is too late.

An odd thing that a lot of us do is to think that something that we release to the public will always be a nice, controlled offering that flows nicely and calmly down the river bed. As in real-life weather; this isn't always going to be how it happens. Sometimes we get an unexpected storm of success beyond what we expected and are caught off guard as to how to handle it.

Once a situation or event is let loose within a company, it is impossible to contain it. To try to stop it will result in all sorts of problems that will make it worse than just letting it go until its conclusion. The recent Starbucks fiasco was such a case in point. They cancelled their offer for some free product because it went beyond what they originally intended, and now not only have hurt their image, but are embroiled in a huge lawsuit because they cancelled and tried to stop what had happened.

What should we do when this type of situation arises? I think we need to help guide it, rather than control it. In some cases, as in Starbucks, they probably should have just let the thing go and eat their mistake.

The major problem many businesses experience in these areas is that they don't prepare for unexpected success or something spreading far beyond what is expected. We need to learn to assume that something may really take off and as a result have a contingency plan in place in case it does; a plan that will guide the situation rather than control it. Attempting to control something, once its let loose, always will make things worse than before.

Have you ever had something happen like this that went beyond all expectations? What did you do in that circumstance?