My career didn’t start in a training room. It started in a kitchen. As a management trainee in Food Production, our only “crisis drill” was the lunch rush. Tickets piling up. Equipment overheating. A chef calling timings like a conductor. I learnt early that you don’t rise to the level of your training; you fall to the level of your preparation. As a Food Production lecturer, I saw another truth. Students who knew every technique would still freeze the first time a sauce redu

One thing my years in L&D have taught me is this: In a real crisis, people don’t rely on what they memorised. They rely on the person who stays steady. I saw this in the Maldives, well after the Boxing Day Tsunami. We had all the checklists. Everyone was trained. But one early morning, a sudden surge of water swept across the island. For a fraction of a second, the resort was ankle-deep in seawater. Our Night Manager, usually calm on any shift, was suddenly frantic. Not becau

When a crisis strikes—whether at sea, in a hotel, or even in the office—people don’t just need procedures.  They need people. Not just...