Preparing for a crisis
The two important questions you should ask yourself:
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How likely are we to run into deep trouble?
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How well prepared are we to deal with it?
Two steps to assess how well prepared you are:
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Crisis susceptibility audit
. Tells you how vulnerable you are. It is designed to expose the crises that may occur.
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Crisis capability audit
. Tells you how well prepared you are to deal with a crisis when it happens. It should answer three main questions:
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can we detect a crisis in its early stages?
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how well will we manage the crisis if it occurs?
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will we benefit from the crisis when it's over?
Preparing to manage a crisis
One of the first steps is to establish a crisis team:
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A senior manager who has real authority to act when the time comes and who commands resources.
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A strategist who will try to predict where the crises will occur and draw up plans to deal with them.
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An old timer who knows the organisation inside out, who has wide experience in the company, who has excellent contacts and who has a good technical background.
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A communication expert who knows how the media work, what the public will want to know and knows how the outside world is likely to react to the crisis.
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You need a room that can quickly be converted into a command post and which contains appropriate gear: phones, two-way radio, computer terminals, TV and radio sets, whiteboard, contact books, diagrams of installations, organisation charts and other information.
During the crisis, the control centre is used for fact gathering, situation evaluation, options assessment, action planning, instruction dissemination and monitoring progress.