Crisis Response Planning: Four Steps You Can Take

A year ago I returned from a trip abroad. I returned knowing my business was about to shift, that I felt called to focus on the hot button issues impacting businesses and teams, and that I had something to offer that could make a difference. Within 3 months I heard of businesses impacted by employee suicide, deaths from faulty equipment, murder suicide in a workplace, and mass injury events.  All of these incidents were unexpected, all were hugely impactful, and all shared a common factor: each business had to learn in the moment how to respond to the events.  It has been nearly a year for some of these events and in that time I have seen businesses impacted respond by decreasing staff, changing services, leaving the market, and some by holding steady.  None of the businesses that experienced these events have grown in services or revenue 6-12 months following the event. While I don't think this is the only metric that matters, I do think it is a telling metric. And while some tragedies can be avoided or prevented, the perception that these are "rare" events in a business life-cycle is clearly mistaken. Most businesses will experience crisis events.  What makes the difference in their success following it is their planning before. We know this, and are committed to equipping leaders before and supporting businesses after an event. Crisis Response Planning involves mapping out post-event how your team will prepare, respond, and recover to operational capacity while allowing and facilitating review and correction. We are hosting 1 day crisis response planning in the NH area this August. 
So, what will one day of crisis planning entail?
Crisis preparation involves four steps. 1) pre-event assessment for risk (probable, likely, and possible) 2) Identifying and preparing a crisis response team and set of spokespersons. 3) Assembling a crisis portfolio allowing for shared knowledge from prior events and a crisis communication system plan.  4) Designing a post-event review system. 
One day of time from key players is a small investment that might make a huge difference in setting your business up well to endure and thrive despite crisis. If you are ready to plan, you can register here for our August 12 event.