Lessons in Crisis Management and Communication Strategy

Getting locked inside the bathroom right in the beginning of the day. With no one to help and nobody to hear. Can there be lessons from a situation like this? It’s possible and I found it through my ordeal that I faced some 4-5 months back.

A 7-minute read that takes you through my ordeal and provides you the lessons in crisis management and communication strategy.

My morning schedule is fixed to the extent of being utterly boring. Getting up at 5 am, have morning tea together with my wife at 5:30, do a half-an-hour treadmill session at 6:30, my teacher wife leaving for school at 7:10 am, me attending to office work till 8:30, take a bath at 8:40 and leave for the office at 9:20 am.

That day was a normal day like any other.

I completed a few of my office work and went for a bath. Even taking the bath was uneventful and took about 20 minutes. Having finished my bath, I gathered my used clothes and twisted the bathroom doorknob to unlock and get out.

The knob did not turn. I thought that I was turning the doorknob wrong. But no. The doorknob simply wouldn’t turn.

I had got locked inside the bathroom.

My wife had left for school long back. My phones were in the living room, and no one could help me get out of the house.

Like all normal ignorant human beings, I also tried to break the door open. When that did not work, I tried to break open the doorknob with a solid kick. Quite clearly, I was out of kicking practice and my kick landed a good 2 inches away on the edge of the wall. And I got a solid gash on my toe. Blood rushed out of the wound as if I had held it as a prisoner.

Just imagine me in a semi-dressed condition, in a damp wet bathroom, and now with the floor all bloodied up as if it was the scene of a double stabbing with the door locked tight.

I forgot everything and pressed my wound to stop the blood flow. I would rather die of suffocation but not of blood loss. Looks like the Gods above were semi-kind, and the bleeding stopped.

I tied my towel tightly. I did not want people to get me out of the bathroom in a semi-naked condition. But I need not worry about it. There were more serious problems ahead.

Maybe because I had panicked, my heart decided to play squash against my chest. It was so bad that I felt that I was going to die of a heart attack. With every passing moment, I began to add to my imagination, more possible ways of dying. I also thought about suicide. I felt disgusted with myself for such stupid thoughts. I put down the lid of the commode and sat down to relax. The air inside the bathroom had become hot and damp after my bath. Now it was almost becoming a sauna with the addition of my exhaled breath.

The only source of air was the small ventilator, most of it was covered with sliding panes and a metal grille. I needed fresh air, and the ventilator was the only source. They say that when God closes one door, he opens another or opens at least a window. God did open a window but that was way too small for me to climb out of. The small ventilator was also a good 6 inches above me. I moved as close to it as possible and began taking deep breaths.

I suddenly remembered that I had to do something to get out, I mean, people were waiting for me in the office. Some of them would be secretly happy if I did not turn up for the day and some, if I did not turn up for good. But I was determined not to give them the pleasure.

I started to list the things that I could do to get myself out of the situation. Top on the list was to get attention from someone, letting people know that I was stuck.

My phone rang in the living room and stopped after some time. So, was someone missing me already? It was a pleasant thought, but it could also be someone from the office who called to announce his or her leave for the day. But I was happy and wanted more phone calls going unanswered. It was a Sure-shot way to let people know that something was not right with him and attract attention.

I remembered that my driver might miss me and call me to find out why I did not start for the office. But I also remembered that he had a habit of sleeping in the car, on most days I only woke him up to drive me to the office. Not a great resource

The bathroom sauna was becoming unbearable, and I had to figure out a way to get the attention of people who would come and get me out. But nothing I could think of as a strategy.

The only opening in the bathroom was the ventilator. I peered out of the ventilator and saw that bang opposite was the wall of the opposite building. There was no chance of anyone to see inside the bathroom. The ventilator panes were a waste of resources. I was on the 3^rd floor, so the adjacent road and the watchman cabin of the building were far.

The squash match inside my chest started again with the heart banging in all earnest. I sat down and simply stopped thinking for a while. The heartbeat became normal.

I am not the kind who screams and shouts but now I had to do it as it was the only option to gather attention from someone. Generally, in situations like this people shout, ‘Help’ imagining everyone in this world to at least know that much English. I too did that and kept repeating it. After about 60-70 repetitions, I gave up. No response.

Either people did not understand ‘Help’ or may not even have heard me. I thought again. I realized that even if people had heard me, no one would know who to help. How silly of me!

But I had hardly anything to do or any other great idea for getting out, so I started again. This time I mentioned my flat number. I shouted, ‘Help 10C FlatC3’. I kept on doing it till I was almost dead with exhaustion. I sat down and gathered strength again.

More calls rang on my phone in our living room. Good, someone may notice something wrong, and out of curiosity at least if not anything else, would try to trace me out.

Somehow, I realized that I had to send an SOS message, but how and to whom? It was not the right circumstance, but I did get a brain wave. I suddenly remembered the pattern of the SOS message; 3 dots and 3 dashes. Not just dashes or just dots. So, was I wrong in the way I was shouting? This was getting interesting. I decided to try again following the SOS code this time.

I began shouting, ‘Help. 10C Flat C3’ once again. This time I shouted it three times in one tone and the next three in another tone. Repeated it till I felt that my brain would leak out of my ears and nose.

No response and I was about to give up. Suddenly I heard a faint voice of a man telling someone to check out 10C Flat C3. That easily beat the most melodious song I heard in my life.

Success finally! Morse was a genius and that day another soul was saved.

But I could not be happy. I realized that even if anyone came to the main door, he would not be able to open the door as it was locked from inside; a duplicate key was of no help. Also, from inside the bathroom, it was difficult to make myself heard by anyone at the main door as it was far off from the bathroom.

I had to quickly think again. I got the attention that I wanted and now I had to get people outside to do what I wanted. That was almost like getting things done by my team members who I have never seen. But what did I want other than getting out? I wanted my wife, driver, and my office to know that I was locked inside the bathroom.

How, was the question.

Right now, I could only shout, and I started to shout again.

This time the response was quicker. It was a lady this time who asked in English about who I was and what was wrong. She was apparently from the 4^th level of the opposite building. That’s what I wanted. Very slowly but clearly, I introduced myself and my situation. If nothing helped, my introduction could be tracked by the building manager.

I told her that someone should inform my driver who could inform my wife and my office about me. I politely asked the lady if she understood and if she wanted to know anything else.

The lady was intelligent, practical, and smart. She completely overruled me. She said that her priority was to get everyone in my building to know about my situation so that someone could get me out. Very logical, I thought. She made me sound as if all I wanted was attention and sympathy for my situation. However, she also understood everything that I told her. At least now I got attention from other people and that was a large part of the objective.

There wasn’t anything else to do now. I waited. I was sweating like a pig by now. Without having anything to do, I took a shower again. My toe began to bleed again in all earnest and attending to that kept me busy for some time.

Soon enough the doorbell was ringing followed by loud knocks. I did not know who was at the door. I could make out that someone was trying to use a key to open the door. It meant that my wife was now aware of his situation. I screamed loud enough to be heard at the door that the door was locked from inside and he was inside the bathroom with its door locked.

By now, I had become a pro in shouting. I shouted that the main door was locked from inside and the door had to be broken. Very faintly I heard someone saying that breaking the door would also bring down the adjoining wall and hence not a great idea. The voices died away.

Some more wait again.

After about half an hour, I again heard noises. But this time the noises were both at the door and from the locked grill in the verandah that overlooked the road. I could make out many voices and familiar ones from my office staff, my driver, and my housemaid.

I waited. It was exactly like my work situation, telling my staff to do something and praying to God that they understood and did the work. Thankfully, people here are intelligent.

I also got inside my used clothes again knowing that I would be getting out and I did not want to present a spectacle of myself in an advanced state of undress.

After some time, I heard loud noises of people breaking the lock of the verandah grill and many people walking inside the house. I learned later that some people had climbed down from the roof of the building down to the verandah using a rope ladder and broke the lock. How’s that for the security of the flat?

Those who got in opened the main door and more people walked in. My office staff was practical enough to arrive with locksmiths. I could have instantly given them a promotion. The locksmiths immediately got down to work on the bathroom lock. Either the bathroom door lock was a tough nut, or the locksmiths were trainees, the lock remained locked.

Finally, it took about 3 strokes of a chisel and hammer, and the lock was broken.

I was out finally with people outside cheering me as if I just won a marathon.

Much later, I reflected on the entire ordeal, and I thought that my situation inside the locked bathroom was like many of our business situations. Stuck from all sides and no one to notice, forget about getting help. My situation presented me with a wonderful set of lessons on crisis management and communication strategy. Before I forget, I carefully journaled it in. Let me share with you all these lessons.

1. Halt your Fight for a While and Relax: Give your brain time to analyze the situation objectively. When you panic, your brain focuses on immediate solutions without thinking about the methods that lead to mistakes. If I had panicked and screamed and shouted, I would have exhausted myself and my escape would have become even more difficult.
2. Understand The Extent of Your Crisis: I carefully reviewed my situation.  I was locked in a 3rd-floor flat’s bathroom that was away from the main road, with the only ventilator opening to the wall of the adjacent building, the main door locked from inside thereby no hope of anyone entering the flat with a duplicate key, my driver not likely to get alerted until after 2 hours and my phone was unreachable. I understood that almost all ways of getting out were blocked.
3. Reassess your resources: I understood that I had only myself as a resource who would have to connect with the resources outside to escape. The other resource was the ventilator which offered the only means for getting air to breathe and communicate with the world outside.
4. Set Your Communication Objective: I understood that getting out was my main objective. But I also realized that to achieve that goal, I had to call for help effectively.
5. Clear communication, most critical if your audience is unknown: I repeatedly and instinctively shouted ‘Help’. But soon realized that even if someone heard me, nobody would be able to help me as no one would be able to trace where I was shouting from or who I was. Later, I changed it and shouted, ‘Help Flat A3’ letting people know that someone wanted help in Flat A3
6. Communication Consistency, the key to getting results: I felt exhausted but had repeated the same cry for help not losing hope. Often, we lose hope when our communication does not yield results.
7. Stick to the communication; bring variations in the way you communicate I realized that my monotonous cry for help may be getting lost in the noises outside. I followed the Morse code pattern for SOS and changed the tone by which I shouted for help and that worked.
8. Communicate, and then paraphrase: When I was finally heard and an unknown lady began to communicate with me, I told her properly what I wanted to be done and checked if she had understood. A crucial step in situations when there is a chance of delay due to confusion or lack of understanding.
9. Tenacity is the second biggest virtue in communication after consistency: Your fight is not over till your problem is resolved. Sometimes, just hanging on is the biggest fight that you can offer. I stayed alert and kept communicating with the people outside to help him till people helped him get out. 

Do you have a story to tell that left you with life lessons? Send it to me. I shall create a podcast and involve you in that. How’s That?