Business Lessons From Infertility

As we approach the end of RESOLVE’s 25^th National Infertility Awareness Week, I found myself reminiscing about the lessons I learned as a result of my own journey which ended 13 years ago with the conscious decision by my husband and I to remain a family of two.

According to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, the disease of infertility affects one in eight Americans of child bearing age. 

Regardless of whether you are 22 and just found out that you have premature ovarian syndrome, so your eggs are essentially 65 years old, or you are 35 and have been unable to carry a child to term over the last 5 years or more because of recurrent miscarriages or other medical issues, infertility takes a toll on you emotionally, mentally, physically, financially, and professionally. 

Quite frankly, it takes over your life.

I won’t bore you with the details of our 7-year journey through multiple miscarriages, other than to say that without the support of our family, friends, the RESOLVE organization, work-place supervisors, and a really great mental health professional that specializes in treating patients suffering with infertility, life would be quite different.

So, what does that journey through Hell have to do with business, you ask? Here’s the short list:

Educate yourself on the resources and options available.

Every business leader knows the value of identifying the resources and options available for any given situation. Some require more effort than others to see, and some jump right out at you and scream: PICK ME! In the end, using tools such as a SWOT analysis and market research can be very helpful in making decisions and developing strategies for moving forward.

As for our journey through infertility, without the use all of those resources and the consideration of all the options available at the time, my husband and I probably would not be celebrating our 20^th wedding anniversary next month.

Plan B and Plan C are just as good as Plan A – Really.

The biggest mistake in business is not having a Plan B or a Plan C. Just ask anyone whose business or project failed simply because they were mired in GroupThink, and refused to consider other options. Moreover, many times Plan B or Plan C provide better results than originally projected, and you can find yourself in a much better position than you could have ever dreamed.

Our decision to make Plan C our new Plan A and remain a family of two has not been without its bumps in the road, but we are happy with our choice, and where life has taken us since. Without a doubt, it was the right choice for us. When you make the decision, just be sure it is the right one for you, and fits your circumstances; not anyone else’s.

I am stronger and more capable than I ever imagined.

Clinical research has found that the stress of infertility is just as debilitating as other disease diagnoses. Like a business in crisis, specific infertility journey challenges such as undergoing tests and treatments, miscarriages, or more bad news in terms of options, can identify unidentified strengths and provide many unexpected opportunities to thrive in other ways.

For me, I learned that I can handle much more than I imagined. I also learned that I can multi-task like nobody’s business, and I found an outlet for all my infertility-related stress: volunteering for RESOLVE. 

Volunteering provided me with an opportunity to control at least one aspect of my life, when I could control nothing else. I also met and developed life-long friendships with others who truly understood what I was going through.

Crises provide the opportunity to identify new strengths and take advantage of changing markets or industry conditions.

As an infertility survivor, I can now truthfully say that I am thankful for the journey we took, and the lessons we learned along the way. As a business owner, I am thankful that I can apply what I learned from that experience, and build a better business.

Note: If you, or someone you know, are facing infertility, check out the resources from these nonprofit organizations:

American Fertility Association

American Society for Reproductive Medicine

RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association

Before founding her own consulting firm, Dawn Gannon served as a respected project management and administrative operations professional in the military, higher education, and healthcare fields for 25 years. As a Lean/Six Sigma Green Belt, Dawn’s commitment and personal mission to improve the lives of others through service to the community focuses on providing administrative and volunteer management, consumer education, public outreach, event planning, relationship-building efforts, and strategic planning. She is the author of the Management in Motion blog, and has written a number of articles for RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association on the topic of childfree living.

How Do You Plan for the Unimaginable?

I am an unapologetic bibliophile. 

I simply love to read books. Although I’ve had a Kindle for several years and it is rarely out of reach, especially when I travel, I love the feel of my fingers running along a row of books; especially older, leather-bound books. There is something about the smell of leather and ink, and the exploration of a story that is soothing to me.

But what if there were no more books? It’s unimaginable, right? Even in today’s technologically advanced society, the idea of never picking up a printed book again is unfathomable.

In business, as in life, crisis management begins with identifying the unimaginable, the imaginable, the probable, and then planning how to mitigate the damage IF they happen.

Being caught off guard by the unimaginable is manageable if you routinely engage in, and actively fund, crisis management planning.

However, being unprepared to deal with a crisis of any type or size can be catastrophic and is, unfortunately, often fatal. 

In their book, Managing Crises Before They Happen, Mitroff & Anagnos point out that unlike in previous centuries, today crises are an unfortunate fact of life. Some are minor and affect only your own business, but in a global economy even small events can cause ripple effects that become tidal waves all over the globe.

At the risk of sounding like a management professor by quoting Mitroff & Anagnos, crises fall into one of seven categories:

• Economic
• Informational
• Physical
• Human Resource
• Reputational
• Psychotic Acts
• Natural Disasters

Regardless of the type of crisis your business faces, having a well-defined crisis management plan is essential to its survival. Good crisis management plans include:

• Identifying the type of risks that are possible, probable, and unimaginable (see bulleted list above)
• Determining the ramifications of the possible, probable, and unimaginable
• Identifying mechanisms for recognizing, preparing for, responding to and learning from crises
• Planning for the allocation of the company’s PR, HR, IT, culture, organizational systems and other resources before, during and after a crisis
• Open, frequent communications with all stakeholders so that everyone knows what their responsibilities are during a crisis.

In short, the unexpected will happen, and sometimes even the unimaginable happens. The key to surviving the unimaginable is careful, thoughtful crisis management planning.

So now I’m curious to hear what others think about crisis management.

Please take a moment to share what works for you, what doesn’t, and the best or worst advice you have ever received on the topic. 

Oh, and if you have a favorite book, I'd be happy to read it. 

Thanks for sharing!

Before founding her own consulting firm, Dawn Gannon served as a respected management professional in the military, higher education, and healthcare fields for 25 years. As a Lean/Six Sigma Green Belt, Dawn’s commitment and personal mission to improve the lives of others through service to the community focuses on providing administrative and volunteer management, consumer education, public outreach, event planning, relationship-building efforts, and strategic planning. She is the author of the Management in Motion blog, and has written a number of articles for RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association on the topic of childfree living.