St. Martin's Press

It’s like what Ronald Reagan said about the economy when running against Jimmy Carter—when your neighbor’s out of work, it is a recession; when you’re out of work, it is a depression.

It’s like what Ronald Reagan said about the economy when running against Jimmy Carter—when your neighbor’s out of work, it is a recession; when you’re out of work, it is a depression.

Similarly, when your neighbor faces a crisis, it is someone else’s scandal; when you face a crisis, it is a disaster that you must master.

In whatever for the crisis appears, the most accurate way for you to know whether it is, in fact, a crisis is to apply one very simple test: Is there something that is putting you or your organization’s trust at risk with those very audiences—be they shareholders, consumers, your spouse, or your superior—whose trust you must maintain to be able to survive and thrive?