Crisis Management & Business Continuity Planning

For leaders, a crisis can be the most painful experience that will test whether they are fit to be who they are in the organization. It is also an acid test for businesses as it will challenge how strong their brand is and their brand-based system in a state of turmoil.

The real challenge in handling crisis is how you would balance the act. On one side you need to strive towards solving the problem and on the other side you need to ensure that everything is within your control and behave that everything is going on fine.

If you are not powerful and careful enough, you will be charged for Information Pollution. The media is out there to magnify the pollution and the consequences can be devastating

This will be a 2 days programme, comprehensive enough to enable participants to understand the basic fundamentals required to handle a crisis. Providing a very hand on approach to the subject matter.

How Will You Benefit:

• Understand what is a crisis and the various types of crisis that could impact your business
• Establish a crisis detection system to detect any potential problems and unforeseen conditions
• Use the crisis detection system to monitor the extent of damage and minimize the impact of the crisis
• Establish a powerful crisis management team
• Setting and enforcing the new rules of engagement
• How to develop a practical plan to respond effectively to any type of crisis
• Establish your organization’s readiness for crisis communication activities to mitigate reputational damage
• Understand the information needs of different groups of stakeholders (customers, employees, authorities, the wider public, the media)
• Understand what information will be needed so you can plan ahead
• Learn how to make social media an integral part of any communication response
• Know what needs to be said by whom and when
• Know how and what to talk through the media to strengthen the brand image
• Protect and fortify investors and stakeholders confidence
• Build a system to lead in the new crisis situation
• Handle dispute resolution both internally and externally

Course Contents:

• Day 1
• Module 1 - The BLUEPRINT Of A Crisis
• What is a Crisis?
• The Crisis ANATOMY
• Various Types Of Crisis and Their IMPACT to your organization
• Five Things To Assume on How Your Crisis Will Emerge
• “Identifying & Communicating without delay and hesitation that you are in a crisis”
• Denial vs ACCEPTANCE
• Developing The TEAM
• Solution Consciousness
• Damage Recovery
• Case Study – Group Activity
• Module 2 - PREVENTION – Risk Management Plan
• The First Line of Defense against A Crisis
• The Proactive Preventive measures
• Establishing The Rules of Engagement well in advance
• Risk Management Planning
• Hazard Identification
• Risk Description
• Impact Analysis
• Probability Analysis
• Risk Treatment
• Crisis Detection System
• Process Re-engineering vs Infrastructural Modification
• Case Study – Group Activity
• Module 3- Business Continuity Plan
• Overview
• Definition
• Planning Method
• Information gathering and Data Management
• Documentation
• Implementation Methodology
• Execution
• Module 4 - The Crisis Management FRAMEWORK
• TEAM – Establishing the Crisis Management TEAM to Combat the CRISIS
• LEADETRSHIP – Taking Command & Control Of the Crisis Situation
• MISSION – Inspiring the purpose of the WAR
• FINANCIAL – Forecasting & mitigating the Financial IMPACT
• COMMUNICATION – Establishing an unique INTERNAL & EXTERNAL Communication standards
• SYSTEM – Establishing & Enforcing a new system to Resolve the Crisis
• LEGAL – Knowing What To Say and What Not To Reveal
• BRAND – Managing your Brand Image and Establishing Service Recovery Plan
• Case Study – Local and Global
• Module 5 – FOUR PHASES Of Crisis Management
• 1st Phase : Moving From denial To ACCEPTANCE
• Managers and directors can waste a lot of precious time at the outburst of a crisis denying its existence and trying to prove otherwise
• How you can overcome this unnecessary reaction by using a tracking system
• How to communicate the reality to the key people in the organization
• 2nd Phase : Mustering The TEAM
• Communing the team together
• Identifying the extent of damage using the Crisis Detection System (CDS)
• Establishing the internal crisis communication standards
• 3rd Phase : Mitigating & Controlling The Damage
• Controlling and minimizing the extent of damage occurred
• How to respond to the Media?
• Being On The Edge
• 3th Phase : Swing To Solution Consciousness
• Taking Command & Control Of The situation
• Establishing Proactive action to solving the crisis
• Execute and Monitoring the Situation until it’s back to normal
• Resolving disputes internally and externally
• 4th Phase : Damage Recovery
• Learning From the Mistake
• De-briefing and creating preventive measures
• Communicating the chronicles
• Recover From A Crisis
• Day 2
• Module 6 - Developing The CORE Action PLAN
• The 5 principles to bear in mind during the planning process
• Practical Guidelines and Bets practices to adopt when planning the action plan
• Avoiding the common mistakes and major pitfalls made during the planning process
• Case Study – Group Activity and Role Play
• Module 7 – Communication During Crisis
• Crisis communication planning
• Identifying your crisis communications team and assigning responsibilities
• Preparing by identifying all potential crisis situations and how you would respond to these
• Ensuring that every staff member understands the communication plan to ensure consistency and clarity
• Ensuring a fast response; what needs to be in place to be able to achieve this?
• Understand who your stakeholders are and establish a notification system to be able to reach them during a crisis
• Integrating the use of social media into every aspect of your crisis communication plan
• Critical Communication
• Encoding
• Channeling
• Choice of Words
• Decoding
• Identifying your key crisis-specific messages
• Identifying your key crisis-specific messages unique to each situation
• Knowing what type of information each crisis’ stakeholders are looking for
• Who controls the message going out during a crisis?
• The benefits of ‘holding statements’
• Avoid reacting without adequate information
• Keeping it simple
• Communicating with staff
• Identifying any potential gaps or bottlenecks in your current internal communication system
• How to reach your staff during a crisis; ensuring that you have all the information needed before the crisis hits
• Dealing with the ‘human factor’ in a crisis
• Ensure staff receive the messages you would like them to repeat elsewhere
• Communicating with the media
• Practical advice about how to manage the media in a crisis
• Assessing what information should be provided and how to communicate this to the media
• Meeting the needs of different media groups during a crisis
• Managing unexpected enquiries and how to answer questions when you don’t have the answer
• Why it pays to engage, rather than avoid the media
• How to deal with misreporting
• Communicating with consumers and other external stakeholders
• Reaching your customers directly if required
• How your current communication efforts will aid your message during a crisis
• Responding to negative stakeholder responses or confusion
• Re-establishing credibility and confidence with internal and external audiences
• Using social media
• Social media overview: What are the different types, how do they work, who will you reach using these media?
• How social media is changing crisis and emergency responses
• How to harness the power of social media in a crisis – as an information gathering tool, to communicate internally and externally, to aid your response effort
• Managing your messages through social media during a crisis
• Case Study - Group Activity and Role Play Optional Module - Additional ½ Day Crisis Management Drill - Involving the State Crisis Management Team
• Scenario Planning - to have a real life crisis scenario
• Liaison with Paramedic Service / Ambulance
• Liaison with Civil Defense
• Liaison with Police
• Liaison with Fire Department
• Communication: -
• Media - Ad Hoc and Press Conference
• Family members
• Stake holders
• Board of Directors
• Internal Emergency Response