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…
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…
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…
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,…
On October 25, 2011, a young American humanitarian aid worker, Jessica Buchanan, was in Somalia teaching children how to avoid landmines when she and her colleague were kidnapped for ransom by Somali bandits. They were held in the desert at gunpoint for 93 days before they were rescued by Seal Team 6. Buchanan will be…
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…
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…
Leaders need to understand the importance of creating a culture that is cyber-security aware. Corporations need to address their current cyber-defense technology deficiencies to ensure they remain one step ahead of the aggressors. Incident response teams and communications personnel need to work together to ensure they are prepared for their moment in the “data breach”…