CRISIS IN OR OUT OF CONTROL

How often have we heard the expression “this is completely out of control”?

A crisis of any magnitude can hit an organisation where it hurts without a moment’s notice and it doesn’t take long to lose control.  The only protection is a well-rehearsed crisis management plan.

In a matter of minutes, a serious incident or emergency can run out of control and seriously disrupt a business with catastrophic effect.  In some cases, it takes years to recover.

The right response actions can minimise serious damage and can quickly put an organisation in control of its destiny.  Management needs to consider the organisation strategically and ask what is the worst thing that could possibly happen.  Fire, financial problems, lawsuits, cyber crisis, product defect, sexual harassment, act of violence, terrorism, security breach, technology collapse, executive misconduct or environmental issues to name a few.  With the most likely threats in mind, management can prepare strategies to avoid or manage a potential problem and control the agenda.

Reading between the lines in today’s media reports of crises, it is easy to see which organisations have anticipated the problem and have a planning process in place to deal with it.  If an organisation is ready, then there will be a clear message about what is being done and who is doing it.  

It is not just large organisations that need to have comprehensive and integrated crisis management plans.  All organisations need to anticipate crises.  It is so important that small and medium-sized organisations look at their worst case scenarios - the service industry, government, educational institutions, professional firms and research organisations.  They often face the greatest damage from a negative event because they may lack the financial and managerial support required to respond and recover efficiently.

Ownership of crisis management planning must come from the top because most crises end up at the top.  The top global executives recognise that crisis management is a corporate governance strategy and endorse its implementation.  They know that a crisis out of control is liable to lead to loss of profits, lawsuits, loss of market share,  serious loss of reputation and, in many cases, loss of senior jobs.  After writing numerous plans for organisations, I am totally convinced that unless complete support of the Chief Executive and top management is assured, the crisis management program will flounder and never reach its currency.  The day the Chief Executive or Managing Director endorses the organisation’s intentions to install a crisis management program is the day it really happens.

Debriefing after Real Crises. The Best Learning

Financial disaster, major accident, cyber attack, massive recall. No simulation or crisis management exercise can ever replace the real thing.  When a real crisis occurs, most aspects of the crisis management plan would be applied, but there will be many more critical issues and intricacies which will appear. 

It goes without saying that the strategy behind a solid crisis management plan is to protect the company’s operations and reputation by providing a secure response.  But the identification of gaps in the response plan can be best discovered after a review of a real crisis situation.

A crisis simulation or exercise concludes with an evaluation and critique where responses are examined and roles and responsibilities reviewed.  The aim of these crisis exercises is to improve the effectiveness of the teams in managing a crisis, at the same time as reviewing the crisis manual and the various human and technical resources that assist the process.

A real event, aside from its serious consequences, can offer greater learnings, particularly related to the complex issues of communication, interactiveness and stress.

Any post-crisis evaluation must be done relatively quickly after the event.  The real value of what has happened, and how crisis teams responded, can be only be learnt while memories are alert to the central issues of the response. 

The purpose of the post-crisis evaluation is not to investigate the cause of the incident nor items such as emergency response, product recall action or security performance, but more how the crisis management team performed in its role.  Was the crisis identified effectively?  Was the team called out efficiently?  Could the team respond immediately and was the response effective?

Post-crisis evaluation is about managing and controlling the corporate issues related to the future of the business.  The following items need to be addressed in the audit:

1.      A narrative of the actual event.  What happened, why and how and what caused the event?

2.      How was the response managed by the crisis management team?  How did the response relate to incident and operational response procedures?  What was the decision making process based on?

3.     Were human and technical resources adequate?  Where did they fail and how could they have been improved?

4.      Is the organisation still at threat from the problem or similar problems?

5.      What were the unintended consequences that came out of the original incident?

6.      Were there any barriers to communication?

7.      Were all stakeholders advised effectively?  If not, what were the problems?

8.      Was there sufficient co-operation with outside agencies (emergency services, government, etc.)?

9.      Were the plan, manual and procedures useful?  Where could they be improved?

10.    Were human resource issues and employee communication handled efficiently?

11.    Were there any barriers to crisis response from senior management?

12.    Were legal issues dealt with efficiently? 

13.    Was the spokesperson’s role effective?  Were messages continual and consistent?

14.    How was business continuity and recovery managed?  What were the problems?

15.   What has been put in place in the short term and the long term to prevent this crisis from happening again?

This post-evaluation needs to be carried out by either outside consultants or a senior management team and preferably not by the crisis management team.  It is designed to improve operations, decision making, plans, skills and to ensure the crisis management team has done its job effectively.  

The post-evaluation team needs to interview the crisis management team, management executives, employees and external personnel/contractors involved in the crisis response.   

A post-evaluation project is no easy task.  While it has to be done as soon as possible after the crisis has occurred, it needs time for investigation, review and context. The project team needs the support of the Chief Executive and senior management, and commitment has to be given to ensure that the learnings from across the business can be incorporated in the overall crisis managing planning process.  This process ensures continual improvement and further development of a best practice response.  

The learnings of the post-crisis evaluation of a real event should be made available for training and response reference to the crisis management team.                           

Responding to Unpredictable Crises

Malaysia Airlines' two tragic incidents of an aircraft disappearing in flight and another crashing into a war zone are international worst case scenarios. The massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was beyond a crisis of usual circumstances. A terrorist shooting in a coffee shop in Sydney is an unusual and rare event in that city.

A Crisis Management Plan has to outline courses of action to be taken in the event of a critical incident or catastrophe. Importantly, worst case scenario response to threats have to go as far as possible in providing orderly and efficient transition from normal to critical conditions. A plan must provide specific guidelines appropriate for complex and unpredictable circumstances.

The crisis you don’t expect or plan for will be the one that’s likely to cause the most damage.  And while a lot of pundits believe that a good manager is automatically a good crisis manager, it is important to understand that many managers cannot cope with the stress, pressure and abnormal behaviour that occurs during a crisis. 

Most normal management behaviour is reversed.  One minute you are managing a business, the next minute you have to manage a crisis.  Different skills under different pressures.

How many managers can move rapidly from the normal pace of a business meeting to the hectic, urgent demanding pace of life and death decisions, evacuation, emotional trauma and split-second timing?

Containment is the key.  Managers who are prepared, rehearsed, educated, trained and aware are those that can make the transition when crisis hits and contain the situation.

If there is a single, critical feature to being prepared for crisis, it is in treating crisis management and recovery as an ongoing process.  Seeing it as an integral part of an organisation's everyday business activities, not merely as a plan that is created, approved, then shelved until needed. 

It is a process that has the whole organisation - from site management to CEO and Board - trained, tested and involved in a crisis management plan that is integrated seamlessly across the whole organisation. And regularly monitored, reviewed and audited, just like any other quality control policy that is demanded by compliance factors in today’s business environment.

To achieve this, there are a number of critical features of a crisis plan that facilitates speedy business resumption. Whether the crisis is an aircraft incident, cyber crisis, oil and chemical spill or explosion, a tainted food product or charges of business corruption, or an act of terrorism a crisis management plan must:

• Have tactical decisions made at the crisis location and quickly.  (This is where the public focus will be initially)
• Localise the response while maximising corporate and strategic assistance.
• Provide training and support to give executive management the skills and confidence so they can manage the early stages of a crisis.
• Create a tailor-made plan around uniform standards, organisation-wide
• Develop realistic simulations and training exercises.
• Start planning for recovery before a crisis occurs.

What fundamentally distinguishes crisis-prepared, from crisis-prone organisations, is their overall cultural view of crisis management and recovery. 

Strategic actions, technical and structural response, communication initiatives and psychological support have to be part of an integrated management plan and checklist process that immediately puts the organisation in charge of its own destiny.

The worst case scenario requires more than critical risk analysis. It needs to go beyond the ordinary critical event and consider extreme escalation. This planning is essential for effective inter-organisational response.