Strategic Crisis Management: Planning for Unexpected Challenges

The program has been designed to be interactive with several case studies and group exercises. A modular approach will take the delegates through the four stages of Crisis Management - Preparation, Planning, Response, and Recovery. Participative lectures will involve the use of PowerPoint, handout material, work manual with all instructor notes and slides, examples of best practice and appropriate video/DVD material. The use of flip-charts, syndicate workshops and reporting back sessions will encourage a fully participative and enjoyable event.

Day 1:

What should be in place before the event?

• Understanding Crisis Management

  • How to manage a crisis?

  • Virtually every crisis contains the seeds of success as well as the roots of failure

  • The Rationale of the Crisis Manager

• Consider the range of risks: Natural/Environmental; Hazards; Technological - loss of utilities/product/process/plant; Human Error; Sabotage and Terrorism

• Crisis Managers - Roles & Responsibilities - manage the issue before it becomes a Crisis

• Who else inside and outside the organization should be involved?

• Evaluating your risks and vulnerabilities; Consider the worse-case scenarios

• Understanding 'denial-curve' and 'group-think' syndromes

• Who decides who sits in the 'hot-seat'?

• Case Studies, why some companies fail and others survive?

Day 2:

Pre-planning, who and what else should be considered?

• Who owns the mitigation process?

  • Self-evaluating questionnaires

• Developing and Implementing Emergency Plans

• Twelve point check list covering the whole planning process

• Mutual Aid arrangements

• Company-wide strategic contingency plans

• Service or departmental plans

• Building evacuation plans

• Crisis Management and Communications. Emergency Centre/s

• Developing and implementing a Business Continuity Management (BCM) strategy

• Business Impact Analysis. Case Study and Workshop

Day 3:

Dealing with a crisis - the 'communications' perspective

• Command and Control Issues

  • Operational (at the scene)

  • Tactical (at the forward control point/incident command)

  • Strategic (boardroom level/emergency operations center)

• On Scene Crisis Management, essential elements for success

• Reputation Management - Managing the Media. 'How to' sessions include:

• Organizing a Press Conference

• Conducting Radio and Television Interviews

• Case Study Exercise: Crisis Communications Strategy. Develop a crisis communications strategy and action plan based upon a given scenario

Day 4:

Incident Management & Aftermath

• Alerting and Warning. Case Studies. What can go right and what can go wrong

• Case Studies - Texas City Disasters 1947 and April 2005

• Major Incident Simulation - Role Playing Workshop

  • Syndicate selection

  • Reporting back

• Potential Psychological & Welfare problems in Crisis Management

• How to improve staff morale and confidence in the process

• The psychological effects during and after an incident involving injuries - and worse

• Looking after yourself and your staff

• A questionnaire, are your batteries in good condition?

Day 5:

Essential post-incident actions

• Validating plans and procedures

  • Discuss the four types of exercise

  • How to get the most out of an exercise

• Post Incident evaluations

• De-briefing skills - managing the de-briefs - hot and cold

• How to keep all 'stakeholders' informed

• Prioritizing the Recommendations

• Examples of critique questionnaires

• Critique report writing, executive summaries, and recommendations

• Closing the loop. How to continue the process

• Case Study - Buncefield Oil Depot, Hertfordshire UK, 2005