This crisis, like all crises, will go through stages. A quick survey of the internet, shows that others have conceptualized a crisis in six stages, three stages, as well as other permutations.

However you conceptualize the crisis, it is important as leaders to make sure we have conveyed our mental model of the crisis to our team. Also, it is helpful to think though the indicators of the transition between stages, as well as what we are going to do differently as our families, our teams, and our companies are in each stage.

I think that this crisis is going to have four stages. Since I am a consultant, of course I envision the stages of the crisis as a quad chart, rather than a process. For me, it is easy to conceptualize them as the Sprint, Marathon, Recovery, and New Normal stages. The crisis can move from one stage to another and then back. For instance, when the crisis first hit we were in the sprint stage. We now have settled into the marathon stage. But if a second wave of the virus hits hard, we could go back to the sprint stage. If you have a national or global company your organization could be in all four stages simultaneously.

The four stages:

• Sprint — in a crisis, especially when the new environment or event happens, there is always a sprint with lots of energy, long hours, gathering of teams, development of strategies, creation of communications plans, and tough decision making. In Georgia, we went through the sprint stage from mid-March to late April.

• Marathon — as the crisis continues, things settle into a new and different pace. Stamina, patience, and agility are all needed to keep your team or company moving forward as the situation develops. I feel that our situation here in Georgia is currently in the Marathon stage.

• Recovery — as the crisis ebbs (both the disease and the economic impact) society and economic activity will begin to resume.

• New Normal — societal interaction, as well as business to consumer and business to business behaviors will be permanently changed. There are opportunities here for the company that anticipates the New Normal and postures to take advantage of the new environment, especially during the recovery. Also organizations must take the lessons learned from this crisis and ensure they are prepared for the next crisis.

On Thursday, I’ll talk more about how you might use the Stages of the Crisis along with a military tool known as the Bump Plan to your business situation.