Crisis Management
"It is possible to plan for a crisis situation." Do you agree or disagree? Why?
To a certain extent I think it is definitely possible to plan for a crisis situation. However, I do not think it is always going to be possible. Some crises are unavoidable and cannot be planned for.
Lauren,
You are correct in your conclusion that it may not be possible to be completely prepared for a crisis. The key to crisis managment is to consider what are the potentials for crisis with your business operations. Your considerations would include natural disasters from hurricanes, tornadoes, bilizzards, floods, earthquakes etc. In addition to natural disasters comes economic downfalls with national retail sales, bank failures, credit availability to meet payroll, product recall, consumer image of product etc. One more would be poor publicity about your company, business or product.
Each of the above mentioned potentials can and are dangerous if you don't have a plan to counter the impact. The competent manager considers the outcomes of each of these crisis and makes a list of the potential outcomes from each event. From these events the management team brainstorms the action items necessary to combat the influence of these crisis. It is not always possible to rectify the cirisis completely but the plan can lessen its impact and build a foundation for recovery. All the potentials need to be discussed and how the recovery would work to lessen the blow to your customers and business.
Once you have brainstormed your potential issues and solutions for the plan it should be written and read by all managers. In the absence of a main manager any other manager could pick up from the written plan. I suggest the plan be revisited monthly to entertain othe ideas and solutions.
Considerations for communications to employees for business as usual activity, public relations responses for news media and consumers will get people in the need to know on the right track to contribute to the recovery process. Each business should have relationships with police, fire departments and local hospitals.
No plan can be full proof but having a plan reduces the potential for panic. You can approach the situation with a plan and keep in mind your plan can be adjusted on the fly with the current conditions.
I hope this helps with your question Lauren!
It has been a pleasure discussing the crisis plan idea.
Dr. Carlson
ABOLUTELY AGREE. MUST CRISIS COULD BE CONTROLLED IF ONE IS PREPARED FOR.
TRUE. HOWEVER, IF YOU ALREADY DID YOUR ENVIROMENTAL H.W.,,,,,, YOU CAN EASILY HAVE A PLAN OF ACTION THAT ARE CAUSED BY NATURAL DISASTERS.....
OR YOU COULD TAKE SAFETY MEASURES TO PREVENT TECHNOLOGY CRISIS....BY BEING PREPAIRED
Being proactive is the best practice for being prepared for a crisis. Keep in mind crisis is just what it means. When in crisis no matter if you have a plan there are unforeseen issues.
I can give you two experiences I have had where I worked for a very organized and forward thinking corporation where crisis management was a matter of practice Some of our employees were completely displaced by a hurricane. We instituted a leader council that met daily to engage in the crisis for our employees and our customers. I would like to say we were ready for all the issues but that would not be true. But through collaboration and teamwork we succeeded in bringing our service back to order within a quarter.
In 2004 I was awakened to be told we had 50 federal agents in our building seizing files and computers. Again, we formed a task force to prepare for the worse. Through long days and nights we succeeded after eighteen months to be successful in proving ourselves innocent and a stellar employer for our business. This was a major crisis that we had no choice but to dig in and be successful. Through our own integrity, Creditability and professionalism from our company we survived the crisis.
The best plan is to recognize the potential of crisis. From there you need to have people who are solid leaders and are not panic stricken but can be problem solvers in conditions that may affect the key stakeholders and operations. A good crisis plan consist of what if questions. Brainstorming the what ifs and then creating organizationally accountability and responsibility for the challenges at hand. Clear communication that is two way between those that need to know should be regular and consistent. You may not come up with all the what ifs but with the mind set you have created the employees with accountability will step up to solve the problem.
It is possible to plan for a crisis in certain situations. For instance, currently schools could look ahead to a possible outbreak of the Swine Flu. Why not plan ahead by creating plans to help to avoid, plans for calling off school or sending students home, employees working from home,etc.
Many of these protocols could be used to adddress other types of hazardous situations, including weather disasters.
Furthermore, as a school you can plan ahead to be in perfect compliance with your accrediting and governmental bodies. Managment must be aware and alert of any violation or inappropriate interpretation of a standard or expectation. Communication with staff and students needs to be consistant, honest and perfectly clear. While we can never totally prevent crisis, proper planning and intervention can go a long way in the areas we CAN control.
Susan,
I appreciate your thoughts regarding alternatives in case of a crisis. Your ideas can certainly be part of the plan. Crisis is not always a time where we give up the ship for less than appropriate progress. You have identified some good alternatives to the swine flu scare if it was to show up in a corporation, school or business. It may be that some functions could be accomplished through other means.
Leadership should always keep in mind that a crisis can cause panic if there isn't a plan in place. With today's media coverage of such issues as the swine flu a plan would keep people from going into panic mode. The direction needs to be actions which are dealing with the crisis in a sensible and professional manner. I have worked now in a very highly regulated and controlled environment but know that when cirucumstances arise that may be in the face of regulations or compliance that through appropriate communication and negotiation some of these regulatory criteria can be shelved for a period of time until order is restored.
Enclosed you will find a memo for directions and communication to employees conveying caring, concern and leadership.
Dr. Carlson,
Thank you for your response. How do I find the enclosed memo? Sounds useful!
I had added it as an attachment. (Here is the memo we used for Swine Flu crisis management.
Dear Colleagues,
In response to the rising number of cases of swine flu in the U.S., the White House has declared a public health emergency. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”) clarified that a “public health emergency should not be cause for alarm or panic but rather heightened awareness.”
Our main priority is keeping students, faculty and staff safe and healthy. We are closely monitoring this situation and taking appropriate steps. As we do with any contagious illness, we will consult with the appropriate local public health authorities for guidance on protecting our employees’ health.
What Can You Do?
Prevention: The best defenses against this virus are frequent hand-washing and staying away from sick people. You can help by promoting good hygiene in the workplace. Resources for personal hygiene and information about swine flu may be found on the Employee Portal > Employee Resources > Swine Flu Links.
Encourage Sick People to Stay Home: This is no different than our usual policy, instruct your staff to urge employees who exhibit flu-like symptoms to stay home and send employees who show signs of flu-like symptoms home promptly to avoid spreading the illness to others. If an individual who may be ill refuses to go home, contact me immediately. Do not send anyone to a medical testing facility without consulting with Human Resources.
Preparedness Planning: Now is a good time to review the emergency closing and notification policy and procedure (see policy ER 17.0 on the Employee Portal>Ethics and Compliance) with your staff and remind supervisors to make sure they have their direct reports’ current contact information.
Reporting: You should report immediately to me any confirmed case of swine flu. You must do this in a confidential manner. Do not, under any circumstances, disclose this information to anyone other than those who have an absolute and identifiable need to know. Failing to follow this recommendation not only could result in an overreaction among employees, but this could violate a variety of privacy laws.
It is absolutely possible to plan for a crisis. The focus should be on prevention and recovery. Like the World Trade Center businesses. 95% of them learned and had off site data storage. As a result the financial impact from the attack was not what the Islamic extremists (bastards) had hoped for.
It is possible to plan for a crisis in some terms. I don't think the actual programs one would use to resolve a crisis can be firmed up until a crisis happens. But it is possible to identify teams that can react or topics that could happen requiring a reaction. I think it should be a continuum starting with proper research of a situation or crisis. Next moving on to setting objectives that identify the issues at hand followed by developing programs that help resolve the objectives. Last there should be an evaluation of the process. After that it should start right over with the research and continue with through the process again.
Yes, you can plan for a crisis. Develop a team and use the ROPE method. Research, set Objectives, develop Plans and Evaluate.
William
You are correct with system critical operation and information. This example you have given was truley a crisis but crisis comes in many shapes and sizes. Terroist is a known factor but the odds of it happening versus other types of crisis may not be as possible. Such crisis and economy, weather, employers, product recalls etc. A good plan is one that considers the protection of system critical infomationa and operations.
Bret,
Good crisis management requires oursleves to be proactive rather than reactive. Situations that may arise can be planned for in writing and practiced with mock rehersals. The actual crisis may not completly resemble the crisis previously planned but you will have a head start with some on the ingredients you have put into writing. During the crisis there should be an on going circle of advisors to make decisions and evaluate the situation and progress. These types of meetings must consistent and seqential until the crisis mode has been diminished.
Bret,
Planning for a crisis is the challenge for several of your best leaders. It is imperative you put around the table your best thinkers to act out in their minds the potential crisis risk that could and may occur. From here you can create your ROPE theory.
It is possible to plan for some crisis situations if you perform an audit and forecast them ahead of time. This will allow you time to create a plan for working through the crisis. However it is impossible to predict every crisis which may impact your business.
Suzanne,
When making your proactive plan what types of crisis would you prepare for? With you plan what would be some of your actions for relief and resolutions?
I do agree that you can "plan" for a crisis situation. One can prepare for the worst, and have some ideas to help ease the crisis at hand. Even though you may not fully know exactly what is to come, having the knowledge to understand crisis situations could result in a better outcome, and in some cases, crisis can easily be avoided.
