A most adept crisis manager.

• Author: Augustine, Norman R.
• Position: Theatrical character Claudius as model for crisis management - Brief Article

Claudius, of 'Hamlet' fame, offers a seven-step crisis management plan that prudent executives can apply today.

CLAUDIUS, the villain in Hamlet, is one of the Bard's most adept crisis managers -- with one big exception. Claudius himself triggers the chain-reaction of crises in the play by having poisoned his brother. As he admits, this act has "the primal eldest curse upon it." Actually, it's worse than Cain's sin since Claudius is guilty of both fratricide and regicide. Moreover, he marries his victim's widow, Queen Gertrude, thus making his throne as illegitimate as his marriage. This is truly a dreadful example of succession planning.

While not exonerating Claudius' sins (which he does not exonerate, either), today's executives can learn from his seven steps in crisis management after his stepson (and nephew) Hamlet unintentionally killed Polonius.

1. Show concern for those most affected. Claudius, upon hearing of Hamlet's deed, consoles his wife (and Hamlet's mother), Gertrude, sighing "O heavy deed!" He later empathizes with Polonius' family.

2. Objectively evaluate the situation. Claudius immediately grasps the big picture that Hamlet was really trying to kill him, the King, when Claudius comments to Gertrude, "It had been so with us, had we been there." He braces himself by acknowledging that the crisis will demand "all our majesty and skill" to handle.

3. Take prompt and dramatic action. Claudius acts decisively by first explaining to Gertrude that Hamlet's "liberty is full of threats to all--to you yourself, to us, to every one" and then planning to dispatch Hamlet to England -- on one way passage, and fast. "The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch but we will ship him hence." This is the 16th Century equivalent of a field office assignment, post haste.

4. Heed the public reaction. Having addressed his main constituency, Claudius next thinks about public relations. Having an instinctive grasp of how the public will react is even more important in our world of instant global communications than in Claudius' Denmark. So while he considers Hamlet quite dangerous, "yet must not we put the strong law on" him since "he's loved of the distracted multitude."

5. Seek outside consultation. "Come, Gertrude," Claudius says. "We'll call up our wisest friends and let them know both what we mean to do and what's untimely done." They can give advice and help plug damaging rumors. Those "wisest friends" today would make a crisis management "red...