“Your lack of planning isn’t my emergency” – What to Say to People Who Don’t Plan

Last week, a viewer posted this question on my YouTube channel:

“So I’m in a situation right now where I’ve already made it clear that they need to put orders in 2 days in advance. And that they need to manage their stock accordingly so that they don’t end up in a ” I’m out of thing and need it now!” situation. However, we work with animals and I can’t exactly say ” Tough, you have to wait 2 days.” because it is usually an animal welfare issue if they don’t have the thing. Is there a professional way to tell them ” Ok I’ll do it this time, but you need to plan better in the future” aka Your lack of planning isn’t my emergency.”

This was my response:

“Thanks so much for stopping by! I’m sorry to hear you’re in that situation. The condensed version of a coaching session is: Unfortunately, not everyone has the skills to manage their inventory. Also, some people view bailouts as normal procedure and don’t think to correct their situation. You’re on the right track with your response, but I recommend a couple of tweaks, “I see you’re in a bind. Fortunately, I’m able to get the order in this time, but this isn’t always the case. Please check your inventory weekly to make sure you have at least several days’ worth of food in stock.” (or whatever the supply is) PLUS (depending on how many organizations you serve), consider sending out a weekly reminder to check their inventory, something like: “Please check your inventory for x, y, z. If you do not have at least one week’s worth, please place your order today. Allow three business days for delivery.” Hope this gives you some ideas. And good luck!!”

In a coaching session, we’d spend much more time deconstructing the scenarios:

Is there a pattern to the:

person calling?

organization calling?

type of product that’s always last minute?

the time of year or month or week these emergencies happen?

Based on any patterns you’re able to establish, you can brainstorm ways to help prevent the occurrences.

But if there isn’t a pattern, you can instead focus on how to handle these “emergencies”. For example, my recommendation to the viewer of what to say does two things:

1 Lets them know in a diplomatic way that you’re coming to their rescue.

2 Informs them what the normal turn-around time is.

In your situation, what can you say that will accomplish these two pieces?

Another step you can take is to issue your form of a pre-emptive strike. Or, if you prefer a less aggressive perspective, think of this as coaching others up with their inventory management skills. That was the purpose of the “plus” portion of my recommendation. In this viewer’s case, they could perhaps start off with an end-of-month reminder. Or if there are organizations that can’t manage their inventory even with this nudge (or maybe they’re short-staffed and inventory counts fall through the cracks), perhaps move to the weekly sendout I suggested.

Think about your situation:

Patterns

Responses

Prevention

Will you be able to completely stop people from trying to make their emergency yours? No. But as you implement these steps, you will prevent this from happening as often and nip this in the bud quickly when it does happen.

For recommendations on how to negotiate time with others so you can lessen the number of times people try to make their emergency yours, browse The Inefficiency Assassin: Time Management Tactics for Working Smarter, Not Longer.