Capturing Crisis Management learnings – evaluating response

Post-crisis evaluation is a review of a crisis response. It is not about evaluating front-line tactical/emergency response or clean-ups. It is about how crisis teams responded. The following items are some of the issues that need to be addressed in a post-crisis evaluation review:

1. A narrative of the actual event. What caused the event?
2. How was the response managed by the crisis management team?
3. How did the crisis response relate to governance of the business
4. Was the reputation and brand of the business affected?
5. What was the decision making process based on?
6. Were human and technical resources adequate?
7. Is the organisation still at threat from the problem?
8. What were the unintended consequences from the original incident?
9. Were there any barriers to communication (internally or externally)?
10. Were all stakeholders advised effectively?
11. Was there sufficient co-operation with government?
12. Were crisis plans, manuals and procedures useful?
13. Was human resources response effective?
14. Were there barriers to crisis response from senior management?
15. Were legal and commercial issues dealt with efficiently?
16. Was the spokesperson’s role effective?
17. Were message strategies effective
18. Was media managed effectively?
19. How was business continuity and recovery managed?
20. What is in place to prevent this crisis from happening again?

A post-evaluation needs to be carried out by either outside consultants or a senior management team and preferably not by the crisis management team. The process should be dedicated to continually improving crisis management response capability, decision making, plans and protocols and particularly leadership skills. It should also ensure the crisis management team has understood its roles and responsibilities.

Executive rehearsal of crisis plans

There are countless cupboards of costly crisis management, risk management, business continuity, emergency management, issues management and product recall plans that sit gathering dust on corporate shelves. These plans are simply no use unless the people using them are trained and tested. Crisis-prone organisations are exposed and vulnerable without a process that assures continual review and testing of plans.

It is not just organisations involved in oil, resources, transport or manufacturing who need executive training for crisis management. Organisations operating in hazardous industries invariably have and test crisis plans, but it is amazing how many businesses in the service sector such as banking and finance, legal and accounting have never tested a plan or a team.

A large corporate legal firm recently had cause to face its own internal crisis with the rapid departure of a number of senior partners following an issue of ethics. Countless media arrived in the plush foyer and the crisis lingered for many weeks. There may have been a crisis plan in place but very few of the senior management partners had ever practised their response to such a situation. Damage control took far too long and their client base was seriously affected by the loss of reputation.

The major problem faced by crisis management leaders in every organisation is the difficulty in getting team members together to train and practice. The most successful plans are those that make sure the team rehearses as a unit. Where the CEO makes himself available for the Head Office team training process, the organisation can be assured of a positive and committed result. Live leadership involvement is a great team builder.

Crisis management and the police

One of the most frequently asked questions of organisations participating in crisis management and recovery training is - "how do we work with the police"?

It is essential that police be informed in the event of a serious accident or incident, particularly if it relates to the death or injury of people. It is in fact a statutory requirement that police be contacted immediately following the identification of a critical incident.

The police will designate personnel to assist in the tactical response but they can also provide senior officers to work alongside an organisation to help coordinate the flow of information between an organisation and emergency services. In many countries this is mandatory.

The police must have a key role in informing next of kin of those dead, injured or missing. Company representatives should accompany the police in this process and planning for this is an important part of human resources preparedness for crisis response.

The police can also provide a well-oiled communications structure to support the delivery of messages to stakeholders in a crisis. Internationally, police forces have special Media Liaison Units that will provide interface guidelines in the process of announcing critical information to the public following a serious event.

In escalating crises related to terrorism, police will take command and can be relied on for high-level strategic advice for organisations that need clarity on response and control of their particular situation.

Incorporate police liaison details in your crisis plans.

Demise of crisis management planning in top corporations

BP's massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico; the deaths of leading mining executives, all on one plane in Africa, and the resignation of a major retail CEO in the wake of sexual harassment claims - the crises keep coming. And the management of these critical events is under the microscope. What is the brain of these corporations doing to ensure crises will be managed?

BP continues to struggle with the crisis management of, and recovery from, one of the world's worst environmental spills. This is long after the global learnings that came from the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska, and the devastating Piper Alpha explosion in the North Sea. The BP oil spill carries with it major safety concerns related to response capability, ongoing communication problems, particularly from the CEO, and an early loss of stakeholder trust from the general public to the US President. An extraordinary response from a company that in 1989 was at the forefront of international crisis management planning.

The deaths in a plane crash of the Sundance Resources mining executive Board in remote Africa is a tragic crisis. Debate continues regarding the gigantic risk of so many key personnel flying together on one aircraft. Not only a loss of life but a serious loss of intellectual capital and corporate leadership. This event occurring only months after the catastrophic Polish air crash that killed 96 VIP passengers, most of whom were part of the Polish Government, including the President. Both these disasters needed to have been mitigated against in pre-crisis planning.

Sexual harassment, another high-level threat to corporations, is at the centre of the shock resignation of retail giant, David Jones CEO, Mark McInnes. He acknowledged that he committed "serious errors of judgement". The resignation led to $81 million being wiped off the market value of David Jones. As The Australian newspaper reported: "The resignation and the reasons given are unprecedented in corporate Australia". A parallel to this is the recent top-profile resignation of the CEO and President of Penguin Canada, David Davidar, who quit his post and later admitted that the publisher had sacked him after a sexual harassment case was filed against him by a former female colleague.

High impact, low probability critical events are a reality, and high-performing corporations must be prepared to face these events with a proactive and well-rehearsed strategic crisis management response. This requires a continual review of best-practice crisis management planning and should be an essential ingredient of an organisation's corporate governance.

Cutting crisis management chaos

Deciding on the structure and composition of a crisis team on the day of a crisis simply does not work. Effective performance during a crisis relies very much on team members' prior understanding of their roles and responsibilities in responding to an escalating event.

Organisations that know what to do, who is going to do it, and in what sequence, are more effective during a crisis. A prepared organisation can respond faster and better with reduced decision making time. Cooperation between team members enhances effectiveness and this experience through pre-training, discussion and planning will increase response.

A crisis team that is used to working together under clear leadership moves into their operational function with a more positive approach particularly in chaotic situations. Shared knowledge of the team organisation produces a capability far greater than the sum of individual members.

CEO crisis manager

Good to see Qantas Chief Executive, Alan Joyce, extolling the virtues of crisis management in Business Review Weekly magazine. "Flexibility and adaptability is really key," says Alan Joyce, the diminutive, Irish-born Chief Executive of Qantas, without any hint of irony. "We have a fairly refined crisis management team and crisis management process, probably more so than many other companies." Joyce was talking about a broad range of threats including the volcano turmoil where Qantas lost $10 million during the threat to air travel. "It's what (my predecessor) Geoff Dixon calls the constant shock syndrome...we plan on a steady state and then we plan scenarios and risks around that. But the volcano would not have been on the risk register." (BRW May 6-12,2010 - Managing the Unmanageable)


There is determined growing recognition among CEOs that crisis management is part of day-to-day planning. The process, its respondents and its leaders need to have matured either in an arena of real crises or with the experience of test runs. Best practice is practice. CEOs and crisis teams need to practise together. Organisations never know when the worst case scenario can happen but they can be prepared to handle adversity and minimise the impact when it does.

CEO crisis leadership

As we can see from current global crises, there is no hiding place for the CEO in a crisis. And when the big one hits, it is the CEO who will end up facing the music.

It is inevitable the CEO will be pursued for their views and opinions. What did they do? What did they say? Every stakeholder involved in the organisation knows that the company stands the best chance of surviving if the leadership is from the top and on top.

Ensuring the cultural approach to managing a crisis must have the imprimatur of the CEO. It is they who should proactively oversee the corporate crisis management strategy that will work in a crisis situation. However, the levels of unpreparedness, inexperience and defensive reactions that still exist in many organisations generally indicate that many lessons have not yet been learned.

To see the CEO walking the talk in crisis planning is a statement of strong leadership that will direct the organisation to the high ground when the worst case scenario happens.

In the end, the buck stops at the top. In rapid escalation, the sooner the CEO leads the agenda, the better.