Never let a good crisis go to waste

A crisis will happen, big or small, sooner or later.

If it hasn't happened for you yet, I hope it keeps that way.

A leader's response during a crisis sets the tone for the team and organization.

This week, while I was virtually presenting to hundreds of professionals, I encountered a technology glitch.

The screen sharing automatically stopped a few times.

As someone who is obsessed with "customer experience", this was a "Crisis."

The good news is that there was a contingency plan beforehand.

The IT support took over the screen share, while the moderator and I exchanged a few playful comments.

I quit my presentation application, and I resumed the screen sharing.

Afterwards, the producing team did a debrief and agreed on what needs to be done in the future for dry runs.

I got into the root cause mode as I always had done as a technologist.

I have to identify the root cause so that it won't happen again.

For people who love problem-solving, you know that once you root out the cause of an issue, the solution isn't that far away.

Here is what I learned. I'm sharing it so that you know how to handle this if you happen to encounter a similar issue.

I will have to share the technologies explicitly so that you know under exactly what condition it happens; my intention isn't to call out any technology. As a technologist, I knew that no software is free from defects.

Technology Stack:

MacOS, Zoom App, PowerPoint App, Mentimeter

Exact Scenario:

1. There is Mentimeter embedded in PowerPoint

2. Screen share the PowerPoint App Window in Zoom

3. Stop screen sharing on the slides that contain a Mentimeter page (if stopped sharing in any other slides without Mentimeter, it's fine)

4. When re-sharing, there are multiple PowerPoint windows to choose from, but only one has the file name. In my case, it's the last one.

5. If the correct window wasn't chosen during sharing, the screen share will be interrupted automatically with a message "the shared window has closed".

Please take a look at the screen capture below. There are 3 PowerPoint windows available to choose from, but only the last one is the valid "main" window to continue screen sharing.

My guess is that the additional windows are the integrations between PowerPoint and Mentimeter. I will open a Zoom support ticket to start the inquiry.

Don't let a good crisis go to waste.

Learn something from it.

How a leader handles a crisis will impact the morale of a team.

What do you think the root cause is?

What's your learning from some crises?

How did it impact you when and how a leader handled a crisis?