After bandying the word about in professional conversation, another group I talk with had a blinding flash of the obvious; we didn't check to make sure we had a common definition of "crisis". Sure enough, we didn't. Of course, since I opened my mouth...

I've looked up several dictionary definitions, and that's all well and good, but without refering to dictionaries, thesauri, etc. what are the defining characteristics of 'crisis' to you? What distinguishes crisis from routine or unexpected but not crisis? As I've said, I've heard several thoughts, but I'd like to hear from a different group of folks who are smarter than me.

Thanks!