Introduction to Crisis Management
Why do we need crisis management?
Crisis management means damage control. We know you cannot remove the risk altogether. The aim is to prevent, contain, and minimise the negative impact of a crisis. And that often comes with short timescales and limited resources. Therefore, leaders must know what to do and how to do it, in the case they are required to, both before, during and after a crisis. These stages are discussed below:
1. Planning and preparation
Planning helps you to systemise crisis management; and make it habitual and routine. Preparation lays the groundwork for your response during and afterwards. Assemble a team, understand and reduce your risks, and develop a response plan. A routine crisis management process saves time and decreases the likelihood of mistakes.
2. Response
Your response is how you react during a crisis. It’s how you coordinate efforts to respond to and contain the crisis. This will depend on many skills, perhaps people management, decision-making, resource management, etc. Remember, people come first: your company’s reputation, operations, and finances concerns come second to safety. Be transparent and helpful.
3. Recovery
The aftermath of a crisis. It takes place after the significant threats of a crisis have been avoided, minimised, or avoided altogether. If all has gone well, you have mitigated the major impacts and are on a smooth path to business continuity. If people are still affected, continue to help them. Get the business back to normal activity. Plan to learn lessons for next time.
By having a crisis management plan in place, you can mitigate the risks of your most likely emergency situations, respond effectively when they happen, and recover afterwards.