Note from Neil Nixon - January 2008
While it’s true that effective Crisis Management begins with a sound respond plan, too many organizations believe it ends there as well.
Comparing a business organization with a football team, a crisis plan is like a team’s playbook. It allows key personnel to perform effectively in pressure-packed situations based on established approaches that promote teamwork and coordination.
To win the game however, a football team doesn’t end its preparation solely with the playbook – it practices its approaches, reinforcing how the team is expected to react in different contingencies and situations, while ensuring that substitutes understand “the plays” as well as those who normally hold key roles.
Unfortunately, many business organizations don’t share this view or commitment. While all would agree that any coach failing to let his team run the plays in practice that it plans to use in the big game would be lazy at best, and incompetent at worst; the “coaches” in many organizations don’t see fit to test their company’s playbook for what might be the biggest game their organizations will ever face – responding to a major crisis.
As long-time counselors in crisis management, we often and surprisingly find the concept a hard sell. We’ve even had CEO’s and senior officers tell us “look, I know we need to have a response plan, but it’s just hard to allocate many resources or much expense in this area because it doesn’t add to the bottom line. And besides, we haven’t had many incidents anyway.”
The reality for most organizations – especially companies that operate physical assets – is that it’s not a question of “if” they’ll face an operating problem, but rather “when.” The costs and repercussions of responding poorly far outweigh the effort and costs in putting together effective response structures and mechanisms.
Personally, it always amazes me that many companies spending vast amounts of money and staff time on training and personnel development never train their staffs on how to respond effectively in critical situations; situations where not only the image, reputation and viability of the organization’s brand name is potentially at stake, but where human life might be imperiled.
We’ll discuss steps the organizations can immediately take to put together an effective and well rehearsed “playbook” for crisis management in future posts.
While it’s true that effective Crisis Management begins with a sound respond plan, too many organizations believe it ends there as well.
Comparing a business organization with a football team, a crisis plan is like a team’s playbook. It allows key personnel to perform effectively in pressure-packed situations based on established approaches that promote teamwork and coordination.
To win the game however, a football team doesn’t end its preparation solely with the playbook – it practices its approaches, reinforcing how the team is expected to react in different contingencies and situations, while ensuring that substitutes understand “the plays” as well as those who normally hold key roles.
Unfortunately, many business organizations don’t share this view or commitment. While all would agree that any coach failing to let his team run the plays in practice that it plans to use in the big game would be lazy at best, and incompetent at worst; the “coaches” in many organizations don’t see fit to test their company’s playbook for what might be the biggest game their organizations will ever face – responding to a major crisis.
As long-time counselors in crisis management, we often and surprisingly find the concept a hard sell. We’ve even had CEO’s and senior officers tell us “look, I know we need to have a response plan, but it’s just hard to allocate many resources or much expense in this area because it doesn’t add to the bottom line. And besides, we haven’t had many incidents anyway.”
The reality for most organizations – especially companies that operate physical assets – is that it’s not a question of “if” they’ll face an operating problem, but rather “when.” The costs and repercussions of responding poorly far outweigh the effort and costs in putting together effective response structures and mechanisms.
Personally, it always amazes me that many companies spending vast amounts of money and staff time on training and personnel development never train their staffs on how to respond effectively in critical situations; situations where not only the image, reputation and viability of the organization’s brand name is potentially at stake, but where human life might be imperiled.
We’ll discuss steps the organizations can immediately take to put together an effective and well rehearsed “playbook” for crisis management in future posts.