Crisis Management Plan

Article by: Sara Pantaleo

Crisis management plans are all about minimising the damage, calming nerves and restoring operations as quickly as possible with minimal interruption. The very future of your business could depend on a crisis management plan.

You need an effective and tailored plan to your organisation’s needs to manage a crisis. This article provides the key elements of such plans.

Risk analysis  

The first step in preparing for any crisis is assessing what could go wrong. Work with members from leadership, your team and other key stakeholders to start listing all possible threats or vulnerabilities that might impact the organisation’s business function and strategic plans.

Once you’ve pinpointed these potential threats, start looking at how to respond effectively to each one to be prepared and find success should they occur!

Triggers for activation     

When people first respond to crises, they often do so with confusion and inaction. Your plan must identify what will trigger the activation of a crisis response plan to ensure as much clarity as possible during a trying time.

Action plans

A solid action plan ensures that your team can follow a plan when an emergency strikes to provide the best possible outcome—having a plan avoids reacting to emotion and stress, which is common in crisis. Your crisis response team will be on standby and ready to take action anytime. They have detailed plans for each person who might need help during a crisis event, which can be activated automatically by the protocols that define them! This means you’ll handle things better—and with more success–because of how prepared they are. Being prepared is your best protection against disasters.

Need help creating a crisis management plan? We coach and mentor business leaders to guide them toward the best plan for their organisation.

Article by: Sara Pantaleo

When a crisis occurs, it’s essential to have an idea of the different elements you’ll face. You need an open mind and be receptive so you can quickly respond with action when required, most during times of surprise and threat!

Managing crises is essential to ensuring that organisations, their stakeholders and the general public are not harmed. A successful response to a suddenly developing situation will help avoid or lessen any negative impacts on these groups that could result from being handled poorly.

Crisis can take many different forms-from natural disasters like floods, a network data breach or even a public relations type crisis due to an ignorant social media post.

A plan to best deal with emergency elements is the key to minimising crisis event severity.

The key elements that make up a crisis are:

Threat to the business    

The first step in preventing damage from occurring to an organisation begins with finding where those risks lie regarding possible future threats. Anticipating threats will help reduce the impact of any threats that may arise. A threat is a critical element of a crisis so dire that it will require swift action to see your business come out the other side in a positive light rather than a negative one.

Element of surprise

Despite the best preparation and crisis management planning, it will still take you by surprise when an emergency occurs. Often we think something can’t possibly affect our business until it does. The element of surprise makes responding tricky territory without a plan and often results in a poor public image due to how an incident was handled. A solid crisis management plan ensures a better outcome and often improved loyalty to your brand due to the proactive handling of the situation.

Short decision time

The short decision time that comes with an emergency often causes organisations to slip up when making decisions under such pressure. A crisis management plan ensures you know when to trigger a response and what response is needed. It will ensure no mistakes are made due to responding on the go.

As a business coach and mentor, we can help you create a crisis management plan and prepare your business to be prepared.

Article by: Sara Pantaleo

A crisis management plan is essential for any business, especially dealing with the public. This documents how your company will react to various situations and should be well thought-out to help avoid further damage or loss. An effective, well-crafted crisis plan is the best way to restore operations after a crisis. This may seem like common sense, but it’s essential for any business today, where anything can happen at anytime! A properly designed plan will allow you and your staff members who are knowledgeable about the situation to handle things as quickly and smoothly as possible.

Having a crisis management plan is essential because, without one, stressed people may make poor decisions and unintentionally extend or worsen the situation.

The main steps to create a plan are:

Risk assessment & business impact analysis

You can never be too prepared for anything. Ensure you and your team have identified all possible threats or vulnerabilities that might impact the organisation’s business function and strategic plans.

Think of the worst-case scenario that you think could happen in your organisation. Having this in a more specific sense will guide what steps must be taken next!

Response planning

To ensure that your response plan is activated during a crisis, you must identify what will trigger this activation. To be prepared for any emergency, it’s essential to document how your team will act in various scenarios. This includes assigning responsibility for each task and determining who is responsible. You will also want to plan how you communicate during a crisis to avoid any hiccups in the heat of the moment. To avoid a chaotic situation, crisis teams need to establish systems and backup methods of communication. This includes collecting contact information for all team members and anyone they might need to call upon, including outside consultants or subject matter experts, in case something goes wrong during an emergency.

Review

To stay on top of your plan, you need a structured review process that ensures regular follow-ups and check-ins. Keeping a crisis management plan up to date is essential to running your business. As the environment changes and new risks arise, you’ll need to update this document to reflect any recent developments in risk assessment and how best to prepare for them should something happen.

A business coach can help you with preparing and documenting a Crisis Management Plan. Ask us how.