How will your organization handle social media during a crisis? David Kalson of PreparedEx recently presented, “The Internet, Social Media, and Crisis Communications”, at the International Crisis Management Conference in Boston this past April. During his presentation, he discussed the pros and cons of social media during a crisis. Negatives: Irate customers who may not…
A Three-Year Crisis Simulation Exercise Program That Validates Preparedness is an Approach Every Organization Should Take Does your organization just “check the box” when it comes to conducting crisis simulation exercises? Do you really understand the true value of conducting effective simulation exercises? Do you take the annual “one off” approach, or are your…
The Crisis Management Team’s (CMT) role during a physical event may vary depending on the scale and complexity of the emergency. Knowing what to do during such events is essential. In the early stages of a physical event, the CMT needs to be organized. Making timely and accurate decisions due to the team being well…
The media continue to be filled with stories about companies that fail to manage crisis situations, costing them millions in damage, fines and reparations, lost revenue and lost jobs. Many of those failures can be tracked to a few common causes: 1) lack of attention to the identification and assessment of risks, 2) weak leadership…
As painful as it is to replay in our minds the recent terror bombing in Manchester, crisis planners are obligated to study it. Two lessons jump out: Lesson 1: Outside perimeters, by definition, are not secure Without having to pass through any sort of security screening, terrorists view outside perimeters of buildings, auditoriums, stadiums, crowded…
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…
In episode 31 of the PreparedEx Podcast, Rob Burton discusses Horizon Scanning and how it can help improve an organization’s ability to identify threats before they happen. Rob describes who should be represented during the horizon scanning sessions, how often the sessions should take place as well as some of the key benefits to having…
An Organization is Not “Crisis Ready” Unless it Validates Plans and Teams Through Crisis Simulation Exercises on an Ongoing Basis Do your crisis simulation exercises really engage your team members? Are they impactful in a way that your leadership team wants to invest more time and financial resources into them? Not sure? Then this short…
A Crisis Leader Needs to Think Strategically and Make Key Decisions for the Overall Management and Response Being able to coordinate multiple functional areas of an organization during a crisis requires detailed preparation. The CMT (Crisis Management Team) should have a leader as well as someone designated as his or her backup. In addition to…
At some point, nearly every organization will experience a crisis. For many, unfortunately, their crisis planning strategy is denial: “that will never happen to our company.” Except that it probably will. Sooner than you think. When all hell breaks loose, consider these “truths” of a crisis as you wade in to manage your organization’s reputation,…