Is it an Issue or a Crisis?
In this first episode of the Whiteboard Wednesday video series, Rob Burton discusses the characteristics of an issue vs. a crisis.
What is this thing we call resilience? There are various definitions dependent upon the context in question. We tend to talk about ‘organisational resilience’ or ‘personal resilience’ without necessarily understanding the relationship between the two. In the personal context, resilience is generally understood to be how we react to challenging life circumstances, how we recover,…
The communications professional should establish the organization as the most authoritative source of news about the crisis so the organization’s messages are more likely to be included in the coverage. Hiding from the media will always make matters worse. Engaging with the media will enable the organization to disseminate its messages about the crisis to…
The key asset in crisis management is information. Its effective management is crucial. At some point information should be processed into a form that can be used as a coherent basis for decision-making. This is called Situational Awareness (SA). SA is the concept of developing the ability to observe your environment, orientate to rapid changes,…
Let me begin by stating my position very clearly: I do not write scenario-based business continuity plans. I don’t think that it’s appropriate to base your continuity protocols on a series of unfortunate events so specific that your strategy is obsolete if the disaster isn’t a power outage on a Tuesday afternoon in May. That…
The COVID-19 pandemic has required organizations to form new routines. Many crisis management team members are working remotely and have now become used to the comfort of their home office, the convenience of Zoom meetings and all sorts of other new procedures driven by defensive measures taken against the pandemic. Our new routines certainly…
A Wake-Up Call from the Real World Imagine this: it’s a crisp Tuesday morning, the board has just wrapped up a quarterly strategy review, and the CEO is preparing for media interviews about a new product launch. Suddenly, phones start buzzing. The company’s systems have been locked by ransomware. Files are encrypted, customers are locked…
Interesting. Loss of electricity for 16 hours and a broken water main involving over 500 residential homes can become a crisis easily. We had increased crime and many of us had to arm ourselves to fend off would-be petty thieves because there were hardly any police squad cars in the area the entire time. There was no way to contact fire department. Apparently cellular phones were inoperative at the time. Amateur radio was useless in this area as well. I could go on and on. Fortunately, no conflagrations occurred and I do not know why not but I am glad for it. A little help with a police or fire vehicle using driving down the main cross street could have told us something that was going on. An extra addition to a patrol route would also have been nice. But no. No one really cares. So, if you have no electricity, our local history says you are on your own and good luck.