Decision-making is a major challenge for incident management teams. The time and effort that goes into decision-making usually leads to delays in response, which can lead to increased costs and legal liability. One way of tackling this problem is having a cyber security plan and an incident response team with clear roles and responsibilities (e.g.,…
Guest Author – Natalia Andrew With over 3.96 billion active social media users worldwide, platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok have become mainstream sources of more than just entertainment. In fact, a social media report by Our World In Data states that Americans between the ages of 18-29 are more likely to get their important…
Guest contributor: Jo Detavernier, SCMP, APR – Principal with Detavernier Strategic Communication Post-mortems are very popular management tools among communicators, including crisis communications professionals, and for good reason: They are crucial to the continuing improvement of processes and tools, as we explained in this article. Many crisis communications manuals will actually contain a template for…
After a crisis and our management of it has run its course, it pays to review all the details of what occurred and evaluate how we responded. We need to determine what could have been done to help us prevent such a crisis from happening in the first place, and take the necessary steps…
During an incident it is imperative that the CMT (Crisis Management Team) has good overall Situational Awareness throughout the whole event. This will allow leaders to better understand the situation enabling them to make well informed and accurate decisions. Here are some questions that should be asked on a regular basis throughout the response to…
The presence of dangerous substances in industrial facilities located close to population centers presents inescapable challenges for crisis planners and crisis teams. Any accident at such a facility, even when no dangerous toxins have been released, will be seen by the public and reported by the media as a near catastrophe — a bullet…
One of my favorite George Carlin quotes is, “I never worry that ALL hell will break loose. My concerns is that a PART of hell will break loose. It’ll be much harder to detect.” I have always loved that quote because it’s true in the lives of crisis management professionals. Many times, we write…
Storytelling. Why It’s Become a Buzzword in Business From international companies like Nike, Microsoft and IBM, to small startups, many organizations now employ Chief Storytellers as part of senior management, a move that makes a lot of sense. The business of selling has grown more complicated and competitive requiring new methods of communication to engage…
The United States and Canada have a long history of working together to ensure that, should there be a major incident, frameworks exist to enable joint response, across the international boundary. In 2016, total bilateral trade in goods and services exceeded $635 billion USD, a large portion of which occurs cross border via trucking and…
Being able to prepare for, manage and recover from a crisis, is becoming a necessity for every organizations. As an incident starts to unfold, crisis team members need to act quickly to ensure they are in a position to manage the event in a cohesive manner. The pace and intensity of a crisis can be…