I am in a professional school with a student body which has been effected by health and environmental disasters. In each case they have been in the category of "natural disaster" earth quakes, tornadoes, snow storms and floods. An example was the earthquake that hit central Virginia and our school. The first factors we consider is the safety, health an welfare of our students and staff. This is the focus of our plan of action.
As a result of this event, we developed a plan to handle this type of event and prevent it from becoming a crisis in the future.
Rachel,
Crisis always will have its affect on us. But a plan to reduce the catastrophe may save lives. Saving any level of lives or trauma to people is worth the time and effort.
Dr. Gary Carlson
Alex,
All of these instances are definitely issues. Data is always a concern and redundancy is an answer is another sight with data protection. Just having the for thought to know what the issues could be will allow you to make a plan. Some plans never get used but having one makes the time they do come a way to reduce the impact.
Dr. Gary Carlson
Jeannie,
Making yourself available and known to your staff and students is key to having the trust level when people need to talk with you. This accessibility for your staff to you will help in the time of crisis when it comes. The respect, trust and honesty has been earned my your ability to care and be available.
Dr. Gary Carlson
Lani ,
We are a business and existence of peoples lives. Our responsibility is to protect people at all cost. We need as a society to feel safe. When we as leaders can give this assurance for our ability to plan and prepare with a purpose will help us to endure all crisis as they come forward. Our plans are for the safety of our staff and students.
Dr. Gary Carlson
I agree completely with these statements. Having a positive working relationship with your employees and students at all times, will serve to help the whole company during an actual crisis. They will be interested in assisting the leader to make sure all goes as smoothly as possible.
Margaret,
I have used a saying that will fit exactly with your statement. It is that people don't care what you know until they know that you care.
Dr. Gary Carlson
I like this. I think employees need to see the leader as a "person" as well as a supervisor/manager.
Margaret,
Leaders often standout because of their demeanor and personality. When leading the personal side comes out with honesty, integrity, consistency and fairness.
Dr. Gary Carlson
To me, a crisis is anything that is out of the norm which has the potential of causing damage to the environment or productive function of the process.
A crisis can come from a big or small issue.
To begin addressing a crisis, I think you must first access the situation. Having a check list of things to be aware of would be helpful.
William,
Crisis come in all sizes. You are correct when we handle them to be aware of the level.
Dr. Gary Carlson
Reviewing the history of both the schools organization and the specific campus you work at, would give you a lot of information as to what crisis may be encountered. That would allow a crisis team to see how things were handled in the past and what changes could be implemented in the future.
phillip,
When planning your crisis management plan you should be aware of the entire surroundings. Your physical plant, employees, community, media presence and most of all what potential crisis could affect your organization. All crisis plans should be created and revisited on at least a quarterly basis. All of these variables change and need to be kept up to date.
Dr. Gary Carlson
