I had no sooner written one of our two featured blog posts, 'Practicing Restraint of Pen, Tongue and Send Button,' when the University of South Carolina’s president, Retired Army Lt Gen Casten – a former Westpoint commandant! – was publicly outed for having plagiarized a key part of his 2021 commencement speech.

General Casten’s lack of restraint was so evident that the blog entitled “Premeditated Stupidity” practically wrote itself.

Both of these blog posts emphasize how preventable most crises are, because many develop from the thoughtless, careless, often ego-driven behavior of people lacking the common sense and/or sense of ethics needed to stay out of trouble.

The kind of thinking that results in lack of vulnerability assessment, planning and training designed to mitigate and even prevent crises. The kind of thinking that leads to organizational spokespersons being self-appointed.

The kind of thinking which concludes “crisis preparedness is an expense” versus “crisis preparedness is an investment with a very high return.”

We call that “stinkin’ thinkin’.”

Jonathan Bernstein
Founder & Chairman, Bernstein Crisis Management Inc.
jonathan@bernsteincrisismanagement.com / www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com