Introduction:

Effective strategic crisis management depends on sound and swift decision-making, and neither can happen without corporate-wide and multi-agency pre-planning. Expert analysis of business crisis find that rushed strategic management decisions, incorrect statements, actions, or inactions have caused many of the most newsworthy business crises during or following an event. Effective strategic crisis management begins with effective decision-making. In an emergency, the first major decisions made regarding how to handle the unfolding situation are almost always the most important ones. Good initial decisions can make even a catastrophe manageable; bad decisions can fatally exacerbate an otherwise small problem. In both cases, the window of opportunity for initial decision making is extremely small and closes rapidly. Once the moment for decision making has gone, it does not come back. Your strategic corporate response must be coordinated and effective, your strategic crisis management teams pre-identified and fully trained.

Course Objectives:

By the end of this course, delegates will be able to:

• Learn the fundamentals of organizing and managing crisis or emergency control centers
• Plan and manage multi-agency exercises and make them more rewarding and exciting
• Validate plans, to improve staff ownership, to augment training programs and to raise awareness
• Understand strategic crisis management as it relates to yourself, your teams and your organization
• Learn about your personal strategic leadership effectiveness
• Acquire an in-depth knowledge of the key aspects of strategic crisis management
• Identify incidents and crises so you can cultivate and harness the potential successes of a crisis
• Avoid mismanagement and so make a bad situation worse
• Generate ownership and responsibility by all stakeholders to ensure your organization responds efficiently and effectively
• Recognize and prioritize the issues that are most likely to affect corporate reputation during and after crisis
• Learn to think strategically in a crisis
• Enhance strategic leadership in your crisis response teams, your organizational systems and your processes

Who Should Attend?

Security Directors and Managers, Security Supervisors, Security Officers, Facility Supervisors, Facility Officers, Facilities Directors and Managers, Health and Safety, Fire personnel, Fire Managers, HSE Officers, Security Personnel and CCTV Operators, Loss Prevention Engineers, Control Center Operators and Supervisors, Emergency Personnel, Emergency Dispatchers, Security Personnel and CCTV Operators, HSE Officers, HSE Engineers & Personnel, HSE Professionals, Emergency Response Team Members, HSE Managers and Auditors, HSE Professionals, Inspectors, Advisors, Auditors, Laboratory Personnel, Process Control Engineers and Technicians, Process Control Designers and Systems Engineers, Instrumentation and Control System Engineers, Plant Engineers, Maintenance Personnel, Maintenance Engineers and Supervisors, Electrical and Instrumentation Supervisors and Technicians, Procurement and Supply Chain Managers, Engineers and Maintenance Personnel, HR and Administrative Supervisors responsible for security

Course Outline:

 What Should Be in Place Before the Event?

• Understanding crisis management
• How to manage a crisis?
• Virtually every crisis contains the seeds of success as well as the roots of failure
• The rationale of the crisis manager
• Consider the range of risks: natural/environmental; hazards; technological, loss of utilities/product/process/plant; human error; sabotage and terrorism
• Crisis managers, roles & responsibilities, manage the issue before it becomes a crisis
• Who else inside and outside the organization should be involved?
• Evaluating your risks and vulnerabilities; consider the worse-case scenarios
• Understanding denial-curve and group-think syndromes
• Who decides who sits in the hot-seat?
• Case studies, why some companies fail and others survive?

Pre-Planning, Who and What Else Should Be Considered?

• Who owns the mitigation process?
• Self-evaluating questionnaires
• Developing and implementing emergency plans
• Twelve point check list covering the whole planning process
• Mutual aid arrangements
• Company-wide strategic contingency plans
• Service or departmental plans
• Building evacuation plans
• Crisis management and communications
• Developing and implementing a business continuity management strategy

Dealing with a Crisis: The Communications Perspective

• Command and control issues
• Operational
• Tactical strategic
• On scene crisis management, essential elements for success
• Reputation management, managing the media
• Organizing a press conference
• Conducting radio and television interviews

Incident Management & Aftermath

• Alerting and warning, what can go right and what can go wrong
• Case studies: Texas City Disasters 1947 and April 2005
• Syndicate selection
• Reporting back
• Potential Psychological & welfare problems in crisis management
• How to improve staff morale and confidence in the process
• The psychological effects during and after an incident involving injuries
• Looking after yourself and your staff
• Questionnaire, are your batteries in good condition?

Essential Post Incident Actions

• Validating plans and procedures
• Post Incident evaluations
• Debriefing skills, managing the debriefs
• Critique report writing, executive summaries and recommendations
• How to keep all stakeholders informed
• Prioritizing the recommendations
• Examples of critique questionnaires

COURSE LOCATIONS