Tuesday, December 20, 2016

How to Lead in a Crisis

In this borderless world, crisis events escalate within minutes and threaten the most complex companies and organisations. Whether it be an exploding phone, fraud at one of the world’s largest banks, a disaster in an amusement park or an act of international terrorism - high level management preparation, through a Crisis Management Plan, is vital, particularly for CEOs, corporate boards or government administrations. 



If crisis management is to be taken seriously and installed efficiently, it must come from and be part of the people who run the business.  After all, in the end, it is those people who will have to manage the crisis when it reaches its most ferocious point.

The corporate crisis plan has to be part of company good governance and policy and those who are involved in its creation, instalment, and ongoing delivery, need to have their accountability listed in their job description.

A crisis plan must be simple and easy-to-use.  People have less time and less attention span to be confused by long-winded, long-worded, jargon written instructions.  The plan needs common language that simply and easily identifies the goals and objectives, the methods of delivery and implementation, and the ongoing evaluation and continuity.  

Accountability is essential.  Senior management personnel must be given the time and the authority to be accountable for the ownership of this plan.  Once a senior manager is given the responsibility of validating a crisis management plan, he or she should be supported and assisted in the review by a dedicated, professional outside crisis management consultancy.  This should not be a PR or emergency management consultancy but more a provider focused on delivering a strategic process.

A crisis management budget needs to be set and approved.   Some organisations may prefer to link the crisis management budget with the legal or risk management function.  Others may associate it with good corporate governance and build it into the corporate affairs and public policy area.  Some may prefer it to be associated with company secretary or corporate finance. Manufacturing companies may link their crisis management plan with their marketing and product recall function. 

The crisis management plan must be capable of application at every office, branch, site, and location.  Just as Head Office has a role to play in managing corporate and business crises, so do divisional offices, branches, plants, and major sites in managing the same responsibility on the spot.  When a crisis happens, it must be handled quickly where it happens.  If the location or site is not given the authority to act, valuable time will be lost and ultimately the control and the agenda may move to another negative party.

Every crisis plan needs to have a maintenance process.   It must be acceptable to internal auditors, outside auditors, senior management and endorsed by the Board of Directors. 

Education of team members and support groups needs to be an ongoing process.  Once the Team Leader and core team members have been familiarised with their roles and responsibilities, it is necessary to test and review these functions regularly.  Most teams are tested at least one or two times a year with either a desk-top exercise or full-scale simulation. 

Every crisis team at every location will rely enormously on resources.  Control room facilities such as whiteboards, IT connections and telephones, are all part of the resource kit.  

At RCA, our professionals are recognised experts at installing, developing, and maintaining corporate crisis management teams. We are routinely asked to provide counsel on escalating issues and crises.