Responding to a crisis

This is a hands-on topic during which you will complete a series of exercises to help you start to build a Crisis Management Plan for your business.  Continue using the template you have started in the previous topic and record your answers to the exercises in it.

There are 5 phases to responding to a crisis.

1. Alert
2. Assess
3. Activate
4. Administer
5. Adjourn

In your crisis management plan, outline the steps and actions required in each of the stages of the crisis.

Phase 1: Alert

Outline the actions necessary to ensure the response team is notified as soon as possible.

Your alert system can be as simple as an internal chat system channel or email alias.  Steps might include:

Phase 2: Assess

Once the Response Team has been notified, what happens next? Explain how the team will assess the (potential) crisis, gather any available information, classify the incident via the escalation framework above, and prepare to take subsequent action.

Here are some questions to answer to get you started:

● What happened
● Where and when?
● Who was affected?
● Who is involved?
● When did we learn about the incident?

Phase 3: Activate

Turn your plan into action. Explain how the response team will communicate with the appropriate team members for their tasks and/or with external stakeholders for specific messaging.

Complete the exercise in the workbook and refer to the tactics lesson of this course for communication templates and examples.

Phase 4: Administer

Determine how the incident response team will continue to assess, address, and resolve the incident. Once again, the type, scale, scope, and severity of the incident or crisis will determine the response.

Phase 5: Adjourn

Once the immediacy of the crisis has dissipated, regroup as a team to go over your process for crisis management, response, and communication. Consider what changes should be made and update this plan with those changes.