■ How quickly you haveto act to prevent further damage.
■ Who else is involved.
■ Who is likely to be involved.
■ What resources you have got – people, equipment,
finance, back-up from other organizations, access to
people with influence.
- Draw up your preliminary plan of action – set it out step by
step and prepare other contingency plans to deal with even-
tualities.
- Line up a crisis management team to deal with the situation.
Allocate roles and tasks and authorities to act (you may
have to give emergency authority to some people).
- Set up a crisis management centre (your office, the board
room).
- Set up a communications system so that you receive instant
intelligence on what is happening and can put your mes -
sages across to the members of your team and anyone else
whom you want to take action.
- ‘Load shed’ when you can on the principle of the electrical
system which sheds part of the load when the total load
rises above a certain point. This means getting rid of any
peripheral problems as quickly as possible.
- Put items on the ‘back burner’, ie relegate problems to a
non-crisis area where they can be dealt with at leisure.
- Prepare your detailed plans, which will include:
■ timescales – act now or later;
■ scope for a cooling-off period;
■ longer-term solutions to be prepared and implemented
at the right time;
■ contingency plans to deal with new developments or
emergencies.
- Monitor continuously exactly what is happening. Ensure
that you get the information you need fast so that you can
react quickly but without panicking.
- Evaluate actions and reactions continuously so that you can
modify the plan and swiftly take corrective or pre-emptive
steps.
How to Manage a Crisis 163
