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…
Business continuity is an integral part of any organization. Those that do it well invest in their people and ultimately in the security of the organization’s future. Those that don’t do it well, and those that don’t do it at all, run the risk of creating an environment that is not only unstable, but that…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…