Russell Bell: Continuity plan to cope with hiccups

When you are a consultant you provide advice, predominantly in spoken and written form. So when you are restricted in your ability to operate in either of those capacities, completing work and delivering to clients becomes a challenge. When I was at Deloitte, the star of my team, who was halfway through a major internal process audit, injured his hand rock climbing. It threw our entire team into a spin because he couldn't type or hold a pen.
This week, I've had a similar experience due to inexplicably contracting laryngitis at a time when client meetings and workshops meant that I was called on to do a lot of talking.
It got me to thinking about when you are in business and core resources are unavailable or withdrawn for any reason. It's important to have a plan B and at the very least to have thought about a plan of action should you be caught short. I've mentioned business continuity planning in the context of disasters and major interruptions before, but they also should cover the identification of core processes, resources and deliverables and how you would deal with the situation of short term interruptions.
So, with my voice sounding like a cross between Barry White and Mickey Mouse, I needed to determine how I would cope in this situation. Unlike a business continuity plan, which should be well thought of and clearly documented, I had no plan for the "vocal interruption" - I should have. The resulting events show why we all should consider what are the essential elements of our business and have a plan.
I was fortunate that I already had a highly skilled and knowledgeable co-presenter for a Wednesday afternoon workshop, who stepped up admirably. However, without her I would have been stuck.
Because of having this help, I approached the challenge of sounding like a well-dressed yodeller with a bit of comfort that if the worst happened I wouldn't have to resort to creative dance to get my point across.
I still had to present some technical concepts to the workshop and the only solution was medicine.
But I was in too much of a rush to find the right product for my needs.
Had I considered it ahead of time, as with a documented business continuity plan, I might have known of a product for restoring my voice.
Unfortunately I chose to take some cold tablets, because a flash of "inspiration" led me to believe that I had a cold starting.
In not having planned for this scenario, I did dice with misfortune, so to avoid a similar experience in your business write and test a business continuity plan.