Crisis Management
When it comes to Crisis Management, most people think of natural disasters. However, power outages, technical and human error far outweigh natural disasters in terms of crises and the effects on organizations.
I am currently working on a debrief for a small workplace fire in an air-conditioning unit. It resulted in the office being uninhabitable for two days. Although this was not a major crisis, all the same problems cropped up – access to Plans, Communication and Incident Management.
If you are considering Business Continuity and Crisis Management for your organization think about the following:
- Are your plans user-friendly and accessible?
- How will you contact all staff and report on their responses? (Hint: Emergency Notification System)
- Incident Management – who is in charge when an incident occurs? There should be different people overseeing different roles.
Case Study
The below video is an ongoing Crisis Management Case Study. It is an example of a local council, which has made a mistake costing the residents in excess of $6m. They have never taken ownership of the problem, and continue to deny there is a problem as the costs keep rising.
Here is a news article on the issue of chlorine damaging hot water cylinders.
Feedback from BCP Builder Community on LinkedIn:
Denying the problem exists is like the ostrich with its head in the sand. Only when we acknowledge issues can we reasonably find solutions. A Royal Bank of Canada case for wrong payroll postings due to a botched IT change resulted in penalty compensations. MH370 air disaster is a classic case.
Best practice in Crisis Management is first to acknowledge the issue, keep communication with the stakeholders open and resolve the problem quickly.
If you want to increase your Organizational Resilience, start with preparing a Business Continuity Plan and check out BCP Builder’s Business Continuity Planning Templates.
