Crisis Management
Day to day routines and normal crisis management techniques are not designed to deal with fast moving complex situations which are key characteristics of an organisational crisis. To identify, analyse and respond to situations which challenge the strategic well-being of an organisation requires the application of specialist knowledge. LINK creates the opportunity for executives and senior managers to learn what works and what doesn’t when facing crisis situations. It is an experience which will benefit all executives and senior managers.
Crises are rare but they strike without warning and to be prepared requires knowledge and experiences. LINK helps you develop the suite of procedures, tools and facilities you will require for crisis management and helps to develop the internal capability and confidence of the organisation by allowing individuals and teams to practise against realistic business conditions in a controlled environment.
2011 is proving to be a challenging year for many companies with crises arising from national disasters through security breaches and data theft to protest. All this is set against a backdrop of western nations struggling to emerge from the financial crisis and worries over the Euro-zone stability.
LINK has a wealth of experience in establishing programmes to support managers and executives who wish to learn how to handle such situations contact us to learn more.
Crisis Management Services
Set your vision in a crisis
Right now we are seeing challenging times for organisations. Assessing long term risks is becoming harder and the future more uncertain. In such circumstances it is hardly surprising that business confidence is falling. The economy is undergoing a painful adjustment to higher oil and commodity prices. We have seen the embarrassing but not unexpected failures of companies including big name banks. At the same time mergers and acquisitions are expected to grow, driven by opportunity and necessity. Terrorism remains a threat. And the media is not missing an opportunity to highlight the downside of all of this!
All of these issues define the business environment, change the risk profile of your organisation and raise significant questions for the management of crises.
What is the solution? How can we avoid the bad the times and look to the future?
Times of threat call for strong leadership. So we offer the 'leaders' three strategies as they think about the times we face here and now.
- See things as they are, but not worse than it is.
- See things better than they are. Set a vision.
- Act. How do I move from where I am to where I want to be?
1. See things as they are, but not worse than they are.
Yes we are seeing difficulties in the housing markets. Yes we are seeing inflation creeping well above targets. Yes we are seeing investment and expansion plans being shelved. We are right to be aware of these things. They form the contextual environment over which we do not have control.
However don't get caught in the trap of seeing the environment as worse than it is. Understand what is still good and what the strengths of your business strategy are. Be aware of the impact on competitors and your markets. Identify key criteria to monitor your risk profile. Start to look at your internal systems. Don't wait for the issues to strike home but be proactive. Be aware that the changing business world will impact the criteria for crises in your organisation. You can then accept change and prepare to take advantage where you can when the environment presents an opportunity. Like attracts like. If you believe in doom and gloom, then doom and gloom can come knocking.
2. See things better than they are. Set a vision.
The problem with downturns or challenging times is that it is the easy option to look at tomorrow and think that it will be worse than today. See things better than they are. And set a positive future vision. In doing so you give people a reason to get through today and look forward to tomorrow. And this is not just down the external environment. It is about the internal environment which can be controlled. As a leader you need to find something to motivate and encourage people to look towards and become positive about.
Use crisis exercises to strengthen the bonds across the team and promote the opportunity side of crises. Creating doom gloom and despondency by a no win exercise is not likely to improve the organization. Instead explore with the executive intellectual challenges which illustrate how crisis management can aid the organisation.
3. Act. How do I move from where I am to where I want to be?
The final phase is to then focus upon the HOW? How do we move towards the vision, HOW do you make the organization more resilient? Analyse the possible outcomes learn to use strategic tools In doing so, you then begin to eliminate the limiting factors in the environment. When you focus upon the HOW, set against a clear positive vision of a better future position, the answers begin to present themselves.
