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Integrated Crisis Management Defined

A complex process like crisis management can only be discussed and understood with success if there is agreement on the meanings of its essential terminology. The first article defines and clarifies elements of crisis management, which are sometimes referred to by different names, or about which there can be confusion. Terms defined include crisis management, emergency response, disaster recovery, humanitarian assistance, business continuity, crisis communications, crisis management team vs. planning committee and others; several types of crisis response practice drills are delineated.

Chances are, if you take a survey in your office regarding what constitutes a crisis, you will come up an array of answers. If you ask your people how the organization should respond to the crisis, you may get an even wider variety of answers. The truth is, although the people may have different answers, your organization as a whole should not. Your organization should be able to clearly define a crisis, and how your team or teams will activate and respond.

As a crisis management consultant, I have met with many crisis management teams" in the early planning stages to find that they do not agree on what a crisis is, and they also cannot clearly define crisis management. Many people view it as emergency response or business continuity, while other people will only consider the public relations aspect. They are all partially correct, but true crisis management has many facets. It must be thoroughly integrated into the organizations structure and operations. Achieving an effective level of crisis management requires a thorough internal analysis, strategic thinking and sufficient discussion.

When it comes to integration, think of it this way - if you can foresee a risk affecting your organization, then your plan must address all consequences of that risk. For example, if a tornado hits your production facility, you obviously have to get everyone out safely, but you also need to deal with business continuity issues. Your customers and suppliers will likely be affected - so you must communicate effectively with them. Your employees may have lost their homes, and you may need to offer some assistance if you expect them to quickly get back to work. Although no plan can address every possible scenario, a solid plan can provide a structure for an integrated response.

Before we talk about the process of developing an integrated crisis management program, we must first all be speaking the same language. One of the reasons for the confusion surrounding crisis management is that the terminology is anything but standardized. Often enough, a single term is used in several ways, or a single element is called by more than one name.

So, lets first look at the terms that describe the main facets of an integrated crisis management plan.

Crisis Management is the umbrella term that encompasses all activities involved when an organization prepares for and responds to a significant critical incident. An effective crisis management program should be consistent with the organizations mission and integrate plans such as Emergency Response, Business Continuity, Crisis Communications, Disaster Recovery, Humanitarian Assistance, etc.

Emergency Response consists of all activities related to safely managing the immediate physical, health and environmental impacts of an incident. These include providing first aid and emergency medical services; containing any fire or hazardous materials that may have been released; securing sites; and evacuating people who are not actively part of the emergency response.

Business Continuity refers to the efforts required to maintain the consistent delivery of products or services to customers. It includes, but is much broader than, Disaster Recovery. It is also sometimes referred to as business resumption and continuity of operations.

Disaster Recovery refers to those activities required to repair and ensure the ongoing function of technology infrastructure, including data backup and recovery, data processing, and voice and data communications. It should be considered part of Business Continuity.

Crisis Communications typically refers to the public relations aspect of crisis management. It involves communicating both internally and externally about what happened, and what the organization is doing to manage the crisis. The key audiences to be addressed are employees, shareholders, media, customers, suppliers, and the surrounding community.

Humanitarian Assistance consists of efforts designed to address the psychological and emotional impact on the workforce. In contrast to emergency response, which typically focuses on the immediate safety, humanitarian assistance refers to the range of services necessary to get your employees back to original levels of productivity.

Crisis Management Planning Committee is the group charged with analyzing vulnerabilities, evaluating existing plans, developing, and implementing the comprehensive crisis management program. Sometimes the Crisis Management Planning Committee ends up being the Crisis Management Team, but often the members are different. The Crisis Management Team is typically made up of top-ranking officers - whereas the planning can be delegated.

This planning committee should include representatives of all appropriate departments and disciplines; champions committed to get the task accomplished, who have the support of senior leadership to shepherd the planning process through to completion. The planning committee is most effective if you have a mix of creative and analytical types. In addition, an outside consultant can offer objective advice and guidance.

Crisis Management Team consists of top- ranking individuals responsible for handling the response in an actual crisis situation. They should be trained and tested through simulations. The Crisis Management Team exists to protect core assets- people, finances and reputation- during times of risk. This team must be able to work well together under pressure, and should have clearly delineated responsibilities and levels of authority.

Notification and Activation Drills have the purpose of practicing and streamlining the assembly of a crisis response team so that it can quickly get to work, regardless of the nature of any potential crisis.

These drills focus on the processes of communications and logistics that must occur from the moment an organization is first made aware of a crisis until all team members are in place.

Table-top Exercises are scheduled meetings that use a discussion-based approach, to introduce a team to the elements of a crisis response plan. No equipment is involved, and all activity occurs inside a meeting room, or in the organizations designated crisis command center. Participants are given a hypothetical crisis scenario, and walked through their expected initial responses. Then additional information updates are distributed, followed by a similar discussion of appropriate actions. After the exercise, a short debriefing is conducted; written comments and feedback are collected later. An evaluation report outlines the strengths observed and improvements needed.

Simulation Drills or Full-Scale Exercises are real-time role-playing exercises. They can be either pre-scheduled, or come as a surprise to team members. In place of the fixed script and limited objectives of a table-top, in a simulation the crisis management team faces a shifting landscape of occurrences that require it to implement solutions, just as it would have to do in a real crisis situation. Simulations involve two groups: the players, who are the members of the crisis management team, and the simulators, who are producing the drill and evaluating the players responses. A large simulation can involve multiple participants.

The players operate in the same rooms they would use in a real crisis. The drill then moves in real time, as simulators introduce additional information to the players via phone, fax, email, prerecorded mock newscasts, and in person. The information revealed to the players about the scenario is dynamic, changing based on the players decisions. At the end of the drill, both groups are brought together for a lessons-learned debriefing.

Mike Keating is the Vice President of Client Services for Crisis Management International, and Atlanta-based crisis management consulting firm. Mr. Keating has helped hundreds of organizations prepare for and respond to crises of all types. Mr. Keating has also presented at large conferences across the country, been published in various trade journals, served as the only industry expert witness in the most significant U.S. court case in the business continuity industry and was nominated to the Business Continuity Hall of Fame in 1997.

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