Co-Ordinating a Crisis

Many different themes emerge from crisis exercising with our clients.  One of the most common, and perhaps easiest to fix, is having experienced, well trained crisis co-ordination support in place for crisis management teams.  

We frequently see the effectiveness of crisis management teams compromised due to not having co-ordination support in place to take teams through the process of responding effectively to a crisis.  We should remember, particularly with the most senior crisis management teams, that these individuals have challenging day jobs and don’t manage crises every day.  They need to be supported with the process to follow in a crisis to allow them to focus on providing the strategic input. 

Best practice is to have two roles supporting each crisis management team, an ‘Incident Recorder’ and a ‘Crisis Co-ordinator’.

The Incident Recorder will record important developments, actions & decisions and provide an incident audit trail.  So where does the Crisis Co-ordinator add value?  High performing Crisis Co-ordinators have the confidence to engage with and guide senior teams to ensure the response process is followed effectively by:

• Gathering a common view of the situation

• Understanding key information, decisions and delegated actions.

• Informing all teams of the Strategic Objective

• Disseminating status reports and ensuring other items of critical information are shared between teams.

• Ensuring the Chair is reminded of the process and the content of plans, where appropriate.

If you have any thoughts on this subject or want to talk to Crisis Solutions about our crisis co-ordination training solutions please contact us.