The Art of the Contingency Plan

Something wonderful happened last night. Our ministry team designed a contingency plan in case of staff illness or internet outage for our virtual meeting. Because the meeting had key vital elements that certain people had to deliver, it occurred to me that we’d be lost if those people somehow couldn’t connect to the meeting.

Sure enough, a storm came through, and our key speaker had no power to connect to the internet. But our contingency plan went seamlessly into effect! We used a substitute teacher who had the speaker’s notes. We also posted his notes for another element that I could quickly cover in the meeting. The participants would never know what exactly they missed. The contingency plan worked.

What is a contingency plan? It’s a proactive strategy to help solve for any problems if you are in a high risk situation. It’s a form of crisis management.

Then today, I thought about how important a contingency plan is for teaching in the fall if I happen to become sick. I’ll tell my students in advance this plan, and I’ll know how to move forward for the semester.

What else? What could you put into place to help in a crisis situation like illness or even something more obvious like natural disasters? A contingency plan basically offers a way to continue normalcy with as little disruption as possible.

Contingency plans help me when I feel uncertain. Even putting just a few things in place can ease our minds and allow for smoother transitions to Plan B when Plan A no longer works.

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