Build
Organisations face challenges and problems every day. Most can be dealt with as part of business as usual. Some require a special way of working.
This ‘special way of working’ should make difficult situations easier. It should not be a straitjacket, a block on creativity, a model that does not reflect how your organisation works or an off-the-shelf manual imposing unfamiliar terminology.
We can help build and maintain a flexible capability that works for you.
The key aspects of this are:
Design
Design the way of working
Train
Train your key people to implement it
Rehearse
Rehearse it to check it works
Outsource
Outsource oversight of the crisis management capability
A note on terminology
We prefer to use the term ‘crisis’ for acute situations of high risk, scrutiny and pressure, where a process outside of business as usual is invoked; we prefer ‘issues’ for longer term challenges that require careful and strategic management, but happen within the context of BAU.
However, there is a real mix of terminology out there! Some organisations do not to use the word crisis at all, preferring just ‘issues management’ or ‘special situations’. It (sort of) doesn’t matter what you call it, provided you have a way – or ways – of working that make difficult situations easier.
Design
Designing a crisis management capability means creating a way of working that will help you through the toughest of situations.
Because all organisations have some complexity, this way of working needs to be simple and effective. It typically involves policies, procedures and handbooks/guidance, sometimes at various levels. But this all needs to add up to something positive, not something to be scared of. We will design a way of working you will want to invoke because it will work for you when you need it most. The way to do this is to make sure it suits your organisation’s culture, structure, scale and geographical footprint.
Train
‘I’d like to thank our polices and processes for helping us through these turbulent times’.
Nobody says that. Crisis and issues management requires skilled and confident people to bring the policies and processes to life, making the right decisions and delivering the right outcomes.
Our training offering includes:
- Training leaders
- Media spokesperson training
- Crisis management leadership training
- Training teams
- Training for Boards (oversight and decision making)
- Crisis Management Team training
- Functional, country management, business unit team training
- Training key roles
- Coordinator/facilitator training
All training can be delivered in person or remotely.
Rehearse
We devise, prepare and facilitate exercises that rehearse your crisis management capability.
Exercises are fully tailored to your organisation, using thoroughly researched scenarios which we co-create with your subject matter experts.
There are three main categories of exercise:
- The walk through. Using a simple scenario, this is a facilitated conversation to increase awareness of processes and guidance, familiarise people with their roles and encourage engagement.
- The desktop. A desktop exercise rehearses decision making against a more complex scenario that involves choices, trade-offs and dilemmas.
- The simulation. This is a ‘pressure test’, simulating the scrutiny and stress of a more acute crisis. A detailed scenario unfolds, with multi-media injects and role players.
After the exercise, we prepare a report, outlining our observations of your strengths and areas for development together with recommendations for improvement.
All exercises can be delivered in person or remotely.
Outsource
Not all organisations have – or want – a unit or individual dedicated to overseeing the crisis and issues management capability.
Organisations can’t outsource accountability, but can outsource responsibility for many aspects of developing, maintaining and improving a capability.
Empowered by your leadership, we can run this capability for you, taking responsibility for some or all of the design, training and exercising. This service gives you comfort that your ability to respond to the most difficult of situations is being driven and overseen by those with the requisite skills and experience in this specialist discipline.Our services
Build
Build a flexible crisis management and issues response capability that works, so you are ready for anything
Respond
Respond to live issues and crises, providing the advice and guidance you need
Recover
Recover from the experience, learning lessons and changing for the better
Reputation lens
Apply a reputation lens to your business strategy and decision making