Transforming your crisis manual into a workable tool… How do you do it?
Transforming your crisis manual into a workable tool… How do you do it?
Everyone knows that there is no such thing as zero risk. Therefore, it is more a question of ‘when’ your company will ever face a crisis. Crises can occur in very diverse areas; product, social, reputation, IT, a disaster,… How well and fast you respond to limit the impact of the crisis will depend on how prepared you are for this crisis situation. But how do you do it?
When a crisis breaks out, the first moments are crucial. Good crisis management starts with preparation. Therefore, an important cornerstone of your system is the crisis manual. As Food Security, we see many crisis manuals: limited or extensive, detailed or summarized, a proper guide or rather a paper tiger…
Common issues are:
- The lack of good checklists,
- No clear role and task assignment
- Incomplete lists
- Not having a clear meeting structure
- …
This can create bottlenecks in some functions, chaos during meetings, missing roles, duplication of tasks and much more. What characterizes a good crisis manual?
3 tips!
Transform your crisis manual into a workable tool
If you really want to use the manual during a crisis, it should be easy to use and practical, clear and not too extensive. Use good checklists that can serve as a reminder for the different roles.
Create clear roles and tasks
Knowing your role and the responsibilities and tasks that come with it, helps dealing with the crisis with knowledge.
Practice makes perfect
By participating in a simulation exercise on a regular basis, you test whether your crisis manual is a practical tool. Moreover, the crisis team members learn to know their roles and tools that can help them manage a crisis.
How can we help you?
Crisis manual template
Use our template to create or improve your crisis manual. Request access to our tools here.
Customized training programme
Together we design a customized training programme for both the crisis team and other staff members. Check out the training courses on our website.
Simulation exercise
Put theory into practice during a simulation exercise. Together we create a scenario, we coach you during the exercise and afterwards we provide a report with points of improvement. An overview of our tests can be found on our website.
Learning points
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Make sure you don’t become the poster boy for the crisis
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