Cours 7 Flashcards
Why is preparation the key?
Preparation is key, because experience shows that the first 24 hours of any crisis are the most critical in order to contain risks and protect your company’s reputation.
WHAT DO YOU NEED TO HANDLE A CRISIS?
REFLEX
• Know what to do first
• Train intuition
• Correct reactions
• Mindset
• Act quickly
COORDINATION
• Teamwork
• Forward-thinking
• Set priorities
• Macro-management
• Realistic action plans
PROCEDURES
• Structure
• Clear procedures
• Know what YOU have to do
• Handle issue precisely
• Diminish emotional impact
Crisis units - What is CMP
Crisis Management Plan (CMP)
A crisis management plan (CMP) is a document that outlines the processes an organization will use to respond to a critical situation. Things to do when you are face with a crisis.
A good CMP must be a short and user-friendly document, if it’s not efficient it will not be usefull. Quand les gens sont en panique, il doit être facile à comprendre et à utiliser, ils doivent savoir quoi faire, quelle action à prendre.
The most important elements contained in a CMP are:
o Crisis Risk Assessments
o Who to contact and how
o Checklist of things that must be done
o Crisis control center description
o Prepared holding statements
Crisis unit - What is CMT?
Crisis Management Team (CMT)
The CMT is a cross-functional group of people in the organization who have been designated to handle any crises
The CMT provides support through management of crisis level issues & of additional risks
Who are the members of the CMT? Generally the CEO (or representative), legal, security, operations, HR, finance, marketing, IT, government relations, PR & communication
The CMT is responsible for creating and updating the CMP, for enacting it and for dealing with any problems not covered in it.
What does a CMT do?
Ensure activation of the emergency mechanisms (calling emergency services, evacuation plan, etc.)
Issue the first information filtering instructions
Determine the experts to be mobilised
Evaluate the situation and elaborate the plan of action
Anticipate the development of the situation by considering the corresponding actions
Readjust the human and material resources if necessary
Apply the plan of action
Provide the interface with third parties
Identify the right spokesperson, depending on the nature of the crisis
Crisis units - What is CCT?
Crisis Communication Team (CCT)
o The CCT is a more specific group of people in the organization who have been
designated to handle the communication aspects related to a crisis
o Led by the Communications Manager of the organization, the CCT is composed of
media experts, external communication experts, internal communication experts
and digital media experts
o The CCT is a very “hands on” team: the role of its members is to develop internal
and external communication tools (holding statements, Q&A’s, press releases…), to
coordinate internal and external communication actions and also to prepare the
spokesperson for media interviews
C’est quoi le tableau de crisis units?
Page 35 des notes de cours
How is a crisis control center describe in a real CMP?
Image page 36 des notes de cours
Risk mapping?
C’est évaluer les risk potentiel avant. Tu ne peux pas tout prévoir, mais tu peux prévoir certaines choses. Voire les mal page 37
Stakeholder mapping?
WHAT IS A STAKEHOLDER
o Stakeholder: Any individual, social group, or actor who possesses an interest, a legal obligation, a moral right, or other concern in the decisions or outcomes of an organisation, typically a business firm, corporation, or government. Il doit avoir un lien avec ta compagnie. Soit il affect ou peut affecter ta compagnie.
o Stakeholders either affect or are affected by the achievement of an organisation’s
objectives.
Va voire les map à la page 38-39 des notes de cours
- Stakeholders mapping
o In the context of an important announcement, contacting some important
stakeholders in advance can also be a way to reduce risks
Dans la stakeholder mapping, parle moi de CMT, Communication manager et CMT members
CMT
• Assign stakeholders to CMT members
• Validate communication strategy
• Validate statements
Communication Manager
• Develop communication strategy
• Develop a communication action plan
• Develop key messages
• Draft Qs
• Monitor press & social media
CMT members
• Follow-up with appointed stakeholders
• Adapt statements to stakeholders’ expectations
• Ask validation if requested
• Monitor stakeholders’ perception
• Send communication to appointed stakeholders
PROCEDURES: THE 5S?
Structure check :
• Ensure that everyone is in place/reachable
• Determine the role of everyone in the team
• Determine if additional resources (internal or external) are needed and readjust the composition of the teams according to the situation
• Anticipate the need to activate back-ups
Situation analysis :
• Have a joint latest status update situation and ensure that everyone shares this same overall impression
• Check which information can be considered confirmed and validated or which information is missing
• Think in most likely scenario & the worst case scenario
• Ask all team members to give a structured overview of ongoing actions & issues
Set priorities :
• Establish a crisis mission statement that will ‘guide’ all your decisions
• Determine your priorities
• Identify what is urgent & what is essential in your decision making
Stakeholders:
• List the key stakeholders and assign them to crisis team members
• Prioritize the actions to be taken regarding them
• Anticipate their expectations and reactions
• Analyze the reactions (information, behavior, emotion, accountability) in the press & on social media
Step back!
• Clearly determine the next status update / hold point
• Ask each member to present briefly a status update of their action plan
• Take a step back to take the pulse of the situation (devil’s advocate)
• Readjust the strategy if necessary
What is the Crisis threat formula ?
Crisis Threat = Likelihood x Organizational Impact x Stakeholder Impact
What is there to say about the point 6 : scenarios
o Different crises can necessitate the use of different crisis team members, emphasize different stakeholders, and warrant different crisis response strategies
o Impossible for an organization to prepare a CMP for every single crisis, but it can prepare CMPs for the primary types of crises they might face (natural disasters, workplace violence, terrorism, rumours, technical-error accidents, human-error accidents,…)
o Vulnerabilities assessments are a quick and efficient way to identify potential incidents and crisis scenarios: it’s a group discussion and management interviews to visualize potential incidents / crises (impact versus probability) & to identify and rank potential crisis scenarios
TRAININGS: CRISIS SIMULATIONS?
EXERCISES ARE NECESSARY TO CREATE AUTOMATISMS
o Defining processes and procedures without providing adequate practical training, prevents the company from solving crises in a professional way
Exercises are necessary to create automatisms
o Focused crisis exercises make it possible to efficiently test the different aspects of
crisis management and communication
o There are lots of possible crisis exercises
• Activation exercises (simulation of the first 45 minutes of a crisis situation)
• Mobilisation exercises (assessment of the physical availability and knowledge level of crisis procedures among key crisis personnel)
• Walk-through exercises (familiarize personnel with crisis procedures)
• Desktop exercises (elaborated simulation of a crisis scenario, without activation of procedures)
• Simulation exercises (full-sized, real-life crisis simulation)
Exercises are necessary to create automatisms
o On 18 November 2023, Brussels Airport held a large-scale emergency exercise in cooperation with all external intervention services, including fire brigades, medical intervention services, the Federal Police, Defence, and the local authorities concerned. Some 450 people participated.
o During this large-scale emergency exercise, the effective operation of internal and external procedures were tested in a realistic setting.
o To make this scenario as realistic as possible, most actions were simulated live using a training aircraft and helicopter wreckage, among others.
o The exercise simulated the collision between a military helicopter and a taxiing aircraft. In this fictitious crash, there were a lot of injuries and, unfortunately, deaths.
o The emergency exercise, which lasted about 6 hours, concluded with a debriefing of all participating parties.
