Comprehensive Notes on Crisis Management

Critical Incident vs. Crisis

  • Critical Incident:
    • An event (or series of events) that seriously threatens the welfare of personnel.
    • Potentially resulting in death, life-threatening injury, or illness.
    • Does NOT have wider implications for the organization as a whole.
    • Can be managed by regular management structures, with additional support from headquarters if required.
  • Crisis:
    • An event that significantly disrupts normal operations.
    • Has caused, or is likely to cause, severe distress or have severe consequences for individual staff or organizations.
    • Requires out of ordinary measures to restore order and normality.
    • Demanding immediate action from senior management.

Why Crisis Management?

  • Reduce Impact
  • Reduce External
  • Operational Continuity

Crisis Management Structure

  • CMT: Crisis Management Team
    • Strategic Decision Making
    • Overall Management of Crisis Response
  • IMT: Incident Management Team
    • Operational Decision Making
    • Day to Day Management of Crisis Response
  • FCMT: Field Crisis Management Team
    • Provide Contextual Knowledge for all Decision Making
    • Day to Day Implementation of Crisis Response
  • HQ: Headquarters
  • Country Office
  • Field Office

Crisis Definition

  • The word crisis comes from two Chinese words: Danger and Opportunity.
  • Crisis: is any event that is expected to lead to an unstable and dangerous situation affecting an individual, group, or whole organization.

Crisis Management Definition

  • Crisis Management: is the process by which an organization deals with a major event that threatens to harm the organization, its stakeholders, or the general public.

Crisis Management Cycle

  • Prevention
  • Preparation
  • Identification
  • Response
  • Recovery
  • Learning

Identification (First Stage)

  • First Stage of crisis management is IDENTIFYING the crisis’ nature.
  • Crisis can be clustered into:
    • Natural crisis: occur due to natural disasters.
    • Organizational Misdeed crisis: occur when management takes actions that harm stakeholders without suitable precautions.
    • Deception crisis: occur due to lack of transparency from the management about certain information.
    • Workplace violence crisis: occur when member commit violence to other members.
    • Skewed values crisis: occur when short-term gain is favored and values are neglected.
    • Rumors crisis: occur when false information about an organization and its product hurt the organization’s reputation.

Preparation (Second Stage)

  • Second Stage is PREPARING for the crisis.
  • Crisis preparation is done by:
    • Vulnerability Assessment: determine current and potential areas of operational and communications weakness.
    • Crisis Planning: are two types
      • Operational: What we do, who does it, and when it is done.
      • Communications: what do we say, who says it, how do we get the messages out.

Prevention (Third Stage)

  • Third stage is PREVENTING the crisis from happening.
  • Crisis Prevention is occurred by:
    • Anticipate and Have a plan.
    • Respond immediately.
    • Do not over talk.
    • Always tell the truth.
    • Accept responsibility.

Response (Fourth Stage)

  • Fourth stage is RESPONDING to the crisis.
  • Effective crisis response includes:
    • Set of planning scenarios.
    • Set of response modules.
    • Preset activation protocols.
    • Clear communication channels.

Recovery (Fifth Stage)

  • Fifth stage is RECOVERING from the crisis.
  • Organizations must be able to carry on with their business in the middle of the crisis.
  • while simultaneously planning for how they will recover from the damage the crisis caused.
  • Crisis handlers must engage in the recovery plan while perusing the goal.

5 Rules for Crisis Management

  1. Being Unprepared Is No Excuse.
  2. Know The Threats & Get Ready For Them.
  3. You’ve Got 48 Hours.
  4. Divide And Conquer.
  5. Get Outside Help.

What is Crisis?

  • Events that produce significant stress
  • Traumatic change in an individual’s life that affect cognition and emotional levels.
  • Turning point for better or worse
  • State of instability

The Toll of Crisis

  • Decision Making: concentration is reduced, creativity is limited and processing information becomes difficult. Risk to miss opportunities and the message of hope to keep the team focused.
  • Becoming rigid and trying to control the crisis response on your own increases personal stress levels.
  • Irritability, impatience with others affects the work environment and professional relationships and can narrow a leader’s perspective.
  • Sleep disturbances and deprivation lead to being less cooperative and less aware of your responses to others.
  • Display of emotions such as anger and irritability where trust is reduced.

Cope & Lead Through It

  • For better reception of input, step back, pause, focus and re-assess the situation. To increase awareness of potential signs of stress, take a break every hour.
  • Practice self-care through movement, exercise, indoor/ outdoor activities, healthy nutrition and communication with others.
  • Sleep Hygiene: quality of sleep matters!
  • Implement break times to support team members who may be in need.
  • Share and/or delegate responsibilities: Learn to rely on others so you’ll have time and mind-space to look ahead strategically.
  • Recognize positive things during challenging times. Acknowledge and celebrate successes (big and small).

What is Crisis Management?

  • Organization and mobilization of resources to:
    1. Overcome difficulties introduced by unexpected threats
    2. May reduce the information-processing
    3. Important when considering possible solutions

Crisis Management Elements

  • Honesty
  • Truthfulness
  • Proactive
  • Empathy
  • Health
  • Authority
  • Establish Rapport

Crisis Management Components

  • Crisis Center – facility/setting established for emergencies.
  • Crisis Intervention – seek improvement or to mitigate the situation. Prevents more serious consequences.
  • Crisis Intervention Service – services typically provided by government or social service agencies during emergencies/disasters and personal crises (hot-lines, drop-in services, on-site intervention).
  • Crisis Team – group of professionals trained to help individuals cope during and after an emergency.

Information Processing During a Crisis

  • During a crisis, people’s ability to process information may be compromised.
  • Consider the following strategies:
    1. Overcome over-simplified or missed information by applying simple and clear communication.
    2. Overcome resistance to change by utilizing credible sources.
    3. Messaging may be reinforced with information or resources provided by other sources or organizations, but credibility and accessibility should should be confirmed before sharing.
    4. In the absence of information or communication, credible speculation may be applied but it should be simple and consistent.

Crisis Management Steps

  1. Develop a pre-crisis process: Planning & preparation (identify resources, trainings, establish partnerships, apply needs assessment)
    • Gather information about what happened
    • Separate facts from rumors
    • Provide clear and timely communication
    • Coordinate with other groups
    • Monitor intensity of the event
    • Listen to partners and team members
    • Incorporate feedback
    • Explain rationale/justify recommendations
  2. Results and Evaluation
    • Debrief the situation from start to finish
    • Promote actition within your organization
    • Assess performance
    • Document lessons learned
    • Plan activities to improve the crisis plan

Post-Crisis Resilience

  • Experiencing crisis can result in positive outcomes.
  • Survivors often gain:
    • A new understanding of risks and ways to manage crisis in the future.
    • A sense of strength and empowerment
    • New skills to manage challenging times
    • Opportunities for personal, group and community growth

Small Group Discussion

  • Apply the Steps of Crisis Management:
    1. Telephone A Case or Contact tells you they are having suicidal thoughts. What will you do to support this person?
    2. In-person A co-worker is very irritable and tells you they are having problems at home and their stress level is at its highest point. What will you do to support this person?
    3. Remote You are on a Zoom call and your colleague turns their camera off, states they are under a lot of pressure, and stops talking for a significant amount of time. What will you do to support this person?

Developing A Plan

  • Pre-crisis stage:
    1. Document your emergency contacts.
    2. Identify emergency resources available in your setting (shelter, water, food, etc.)
  • Plan your crisis management steps:
    • Who is the designated leader?
    • Who will perform specific support roles?
    • Who will assist those who need help?
    • What is the first, second, third action will you take, etc.
    • How will events that occurred be debriefed with a supervisor or colleague?

Crisis Management Assistance

  • Crisis Management Team Overview
  • Nick Powis - Head of Operations EMEA
  • Advice Support - Response

Crisis Definition

  • A ‘crisis’ may be defined as an abnormal situation which is beyond the scope of normal business operations and which threatens the immediate safety of core operations or reputation of the institution.

How can YOU prepare for a crisis?

  • Consider the types of crises that could affect your organisation
  • Designate a Crisis Management Team (CMT)
  • Prepare a crisis escalation plan & protocols
  • Orientation & training of the CMT
  • Test the plan

CMT Responsibilities

  • Members of the CMT play a crucial role:
    • Single point of contact – clear escalation channels
    • Minimise impact: Verify + Contain the incident
    • Coordinate ALL communications channels
    • Notify other support functions & surge / support partners
    • Analyse & Approve:
      • Strategy
      • Priorities
      • Contingencies
    • Reserved Decisions (for approval above CMT)
    • Support the IMT (if there is one….)
    • Legal and regulatory Compliance
    • Incident/CMT closure protocol
    • Post-incident review & support

Factors to Consider for CMT Composition

  • Size
  • Composition
  • Availability
  • Authority
  • Resilience
  • Objectivity

CMT Roles

  • Core members:
    • Chairman
    • Coordinator(s)
    • Log-keeper
    • HR
    • Legal
    • Finance
    • PR Agency
    • IT Support
    • 3rd party Security Specialist
    • Diplomatic/Police/Military Liaison
  • Surge members:

Points to Consider: Crisis Strategy

  • What is the crisis? VERIFY…!!
  • Is there a more fundamental problem?….what is actually at stake?
  • What is the worst case?
  • What are the stakeholder audiences likely to make of it?
  • What are the likely time scales?
  • Which stakeholders/partners should support the CMT?
  • What is the legal/compliance position? (but avoid paralysis)
  • Can the spotlight be transferred safely?
  • Can the crisis be contained?

Handling the Media

  1. No Comment is not an option
  2. If you don’t talk to the media they will find someone who will
  3. Set the right tone at the outset
  4. Key messages are a life belt
  5. Target Messages effectively
  6. Keep a log of messages sent
  7. Deadlines are real and you must stick to them
  8. Ensure that the spokespeople are trained
  9. Understand the perspective of media/consumers
  10. You will be found out if you lie and later you pay for it