While sitting in a meeting a few weeks back a fun word came up: Crisitunity.

I really took to the word and thought about many of the things I've dealt with that started out as a crisis, but evolved into an opportunity to make things better. After all, isn't necessity the mother of all inventions? 

For example, this blog came out of a crisis. Now I didn't use the blog to solve the crisis, but it did give me a chance to reflect on the crisis itself and I thought why not share what I learned in a productive way. 

Another (probably better) example is a department within the School that recently faced a lot of turnover and people injured and not in the office. It seemed that with all the vacancies there would be no light at the end of the tunnel. Instead, it allowed the department to think thoughtfully about how to restructure to best serve the population of the School and its clients. The crisis proved to be the right breeding ground for a realm of expansive opportunity, which I think will positively affect the School. All it took was the perfect storm to realize the potential. 

Finally, myself and another staff member were on maternity leave at the same time about a year and a half ago. It seemed like a major crisis coming, but it allowed us to bring in a temp that has actually stayed with the School doing various other projects for the past year and half. We would never have discovered her talents if she wasn't thrown into this situation of helping to cover two maternity leaves. Of course, I think of her now, since she will be back again when I am out in May and June this year with baby number two!

So what kind of "crisitunity" have you faced in your job or even personally? What happened and what was the result? Leave a message in the comments below.