marissa,
I applaud your great planning. I have served on Crisis teams and when we had to actually implement we were ready because of the for thought that took place with a proactive plan. Your approach is an outline for making a readiness for the disruption a crisis may cause.
Dr. Gary Carlson
I do believe it is possible to plan for a crisis situation. As a leader, it is wise to list potential threats or dangers that may impact your staff or business needs. Once you establish several key events that would be considered a crisis, next you would select your key players that would best suit a crisis managment team. Some qualities that I would look for are: problem solver, loyal, trust worthy, and open minded. Once your team is formulated, I would then suggest asking the team what potential events they might consider a crisis. You can then compare your list of events to theirs. Being prepared and having a contingency plan in place will help most businesses and teams to be able to move forward in a crisis event.
Stacey,
Being able to communicate quickly and effectively is the difference of saving lives and avoiding a greater catastrophe. Usually the difference in a good crisis plan vs. a bad one is the ability to communicate effectively in the time of the crisis.
Dr. Gary Carlson
Yes, it is possible and important to plan for a crisis situation. We (unfortunately) have many prior instances of crisis in different settings that allow us to learn from their experience what worked and what didn't. Specifically in school settings, it is critical to have the ability to communicate quickly to many people in order to keep everyone safe.
Cathy,
Great planning makes some crisis easier to deal with when they are over. Storms can be devastating but you can prepare for the recovery. Your message is one all should hear.
Dr. Gary Carlson
Debra,
Very good comments. In short it is always good to plan ahead. It may not avert a crisis situation but it helps to be prepared for the worse.
Dr. Gary Carlson
I believe it's possible to plan for a crisis situation. Several days ahead of SuperStorm Sandy striking, our school instituted a plan to protect critical assets as much as possible. Even though work/school days were lost due to flooding and power outages, the core assets remained intact due to that planning and allowed us to get up and running quickly.
I agree it is possible to plan for most crisis situations. As a leader in a small organization, we have the obligation to have contingency plans in place, identify potential threats or crises that may arise and work with our teams to execute these plans to ensure safe conditions for all staff and students as well as minimize business interruptions. For example, it is possible to have clear written plans delineating what to do in a weather emergency, or off-site IT that can log in remotely to minimize technological crises, as well as a crisis team organized in advance armed with resources and the company's mission and priorities are a good starting point to minimizing a crisis. It is also a good idea to invite local law enforcement into the business to provide emergency response training to the staff (i.e. what to do in an active shooter situation on campus) as well as provide a floor plan for law enforcement to have on file. It would be irresponsible to operate in today's market without some sort of plan for a crisis situation.
Megan ,
You are so right. Crisis management becomes a proactive measure to not prevent crisis as much as it is to contend with crisis to lesson the effects.
Dr. Gary Carlson
I agree - You absolutely can plan for a crisis situation. I do not believe you can plan for all before they happen, but by having a framework in place you can minimize and contain those that do arise.
David,
I am in totally agreement with your final statement. Many attempts have been stopped by to many cooks in the kitchen. You act fast people need to know their role and how to take action.
Dr. Gary Carlson
Meghan,
Certain crisis plans can plan for the obvious. Even this is not enough it will get you started and will allow for you to adapt to the crisis at hand.
Dr. Gary Carlson
Pearlina,
This is done often for teams. Just remember the action take should not be over reaction.
Dr. Gary Carlson
Linda,
Great answer, we always need to be prepared with Plan A and Plan B.
Dr. Gary Carlson
It is possible to plan for any specific crisis, or to plan for general crisis scenario. Even the plan to have the companies "think tank" respond in a predetermined pattern. The biggest and most obvious crisis should have detailed plans prepared as quickly as possible at the onset of developing a crisis management protocol, but also to have a generic plan that could fall in to place for any non-anticipated crisis.
**Edited: The assumption is that the Crisis Management team is given the authority to take the required steps.
Yes, I think is possible to plan for a crisis situation if there is enough information available to properly assess the potential for it. Some situations can obviously not be planned for, but having a handle on the players involved, the resources available, and proper training such as this one to provide a framework for responding to a crisis. In the middle of a crisis it can be chaotic and confusing so training is essential. I participated in several extended (10 day) wilderness first responder trainings over the years where we trained to be ready to handle injury, weather events, etc in a wilderness setting with very little resources--like being several days away from a hospital for example. The skills, way of thinking and triaging practice that I learned in that training has proven valuable in crisis situations on "dry land", so to speak. I learned that you can plan to a point and then the gut instinct, intuition and ethical decision making has to take over. I think with those essential building blocks a crisis can be planned for.
The best way to plan is with the SWOT method.
I agree, that it is possible to plan for a crisis situation. At the very least, having a group of varied, critical thinking staff members begin to evaluate potential situations that could result in crisis could influence many decisions along the way that could reduce the severity of the crisis if it should occur. Also, preparatory thinking can increase employees sense of confidence and leadership readiness that also is a valuable asset in negotiating a crisis.
Wendy,
I commend you on your courage in such a serious crisis. The value of your deliberate leadership and calmness to reassure people helps to do the right things in crisis. Follow/up is necessary to prepare again if necessary. No one thinks it can happen to them but it happened to you so we know there is always a possibility. Your volunteer event is a good release and a way of stepping back by helping others.
Dr. Gary Carlson
We recently had the opportunity to deal with an unforseen crisis when the town our school is in went into lockdown after the Marathon bombing. It was handled smoothly largely because we learned something from every smaller "crisis" in the past and conitually built and refined our proecess. The review part after a crisis is so essential. One take-away from this one which i will share........although we did a number of things to address the emotional fallout, what was most helpful was engaging everyone here in planning a volunteer event. It helped to have somewhere positive to channel all that leftover over fear and sadness.
