Preparing your crisis management team is essential. Many personnel that make up a typical crisis team come from various functions of the company and have never been exposed to or had to manage crises during their careers. This podcasts uncovers some of the minimum requirements that a crisis team must have in place for them…
In episode 28 of the PreparedEx podcast series, Managing Director, Rob Burton, discusses the crisis management briefing cycle. The briefing cycle is a disciplined crisis management activity that if implemented into a crisis team’s DNA, will increase their overall ability to respond to, and manage crises. This disciplined activity is taken from the military. Armies…
There are many skills and personal traits that leaders should have in everyday business. During a crisis, a leader needs to have a range of specific traits that are crucial to the management of the incident. Here are three of those traits based on my personal experience from both the military and corporate environments: 1…
In those first few moments of a fast-paced incident, it is essential that the Crisis Management Team (CMT) comes together quickly in an organized and disciplined manner. It is in these early stages of the incident when discipline is incredibly important. If discipline is lacking in the early stages of an incident, the management of…
So, what is situational awareness? There are many definitions all of which explain what situational awareness is in a similar way. The term we use is as follows: Situational Awareness is “closely monitoring what is going on around you in a complex and dynamic environment”. Closely monitoring what’s going on around you will help you…
On October 25, 2011, Jessica Buchanan and a colleague were kidnapped at gunpoint by Somali land pirates and held for 93 days, enduring the most harrowing and painful experience of her life. On the day of her kidnapping, she silently said to herself, “Some do come out alive, the numbers are small but they do…
Ensuring the simulation exercise is a success requires detailed planning. The Exercise Coordinator has a number of responsibilities that are described in this short video. The exercise team has a number of specific responsibilities when preparing, delivering and evaluating the exercise. This short video describes those responsibilities. Related: eLearning – Introduction to Crisis…
1. The Master Events Log The MEL (Master Events Log) is an essential document that can help the crisis team document the incident as soon as it starts to unfold. The MEL is a document that should be filled out by a scribe who usually is in close coordination with the crisis leader. The document…
Communicating during crises is important, especially in today’s world of fast-paced social media and mobile communications. Knowing what to say, and how to say it, is probably something that many organizations don’t practice enough. In this episode, we interview Erik Bernstein of Bernstein Crisis Management. During the podcast, we discuss several areas of corporate crisis…
Throughout 2016, we have created and delivered multiple crisis simulation exercises. Each scenario was custom created to each organization based on their exercise objectives. Scenarios must be customized to ensure the team being tested is engaged. Without engagement, the exercise will not be as successful as it could be. Scenarios should also include each exercise…