crises assume a life of their own

[roseriver1012]

"Another lesson is that crises assume a life of their own. They are a great time to learn and a bad time to plan. It is when times are good and stable that you need to examine the things that are of the greatest risk to your organization in the long term. As a leader, you must be able to provide the energy and motivation among your employees to ask these difficult questions, because difficult times will come."


a) What does the sentence "crises assume a life of their own" mean? b) What does "they" refer to? Crises?

c) What are "these difficult questions"? Are they asked by employees?

 

[Roman55]

I am not a teacher.

This sounds like a management training manual.

a) 'To assume a life of its own', 'to take on a life of its own', or other similar forms usually mean that the thing being spoken about has gone beyond the control of whoever created it.

b) Yes, 'they' does refer to the crises.

c) 'These difficult questions' refers to examining 'the things that are of the greatest risk...' mentioned in the third sentence. The leader is supposed to motivate the employees (when all is going well) so that they will ask these questions.

 

[MikeNewYork]

I am bothered by "They are a great time to learn". "They" refers to "crises" but "crises" is not a time. "Crises" can be stimuli.

I would write: Crises are great stimuli for learning, not for planning.

 

[Roman55]

I am not a teacher.

I think it should be taken to mean, 'They (times of crisis) are a great time to...'. They are periods of time propitious for learning and not for planning.

 

[MikeNewYork]

Yes, but that is not what it says.

 

[Barb_D]

I have no problem with it the way it's written.
It's completely obvious what the intended meaning is. During the time a crisis is taking place is a time when...

 

[MikeNewYork]

I don't disagree, but I would not write it that way. Would you edit that sentence were it presented to you?