3 Common Crisis Management

Gaps

Published on June 14, 2016

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Robert Burton

Creating Stronger Crisis Management Teams Through Effective

Simulation Exercises - Managing Director
We recorded a podcast with 10 common gaps back in December of 2015. Here's three of those
common crisis management gaps. For the full list, check out the podcast.
1. Not Having a Decision-Making Process Pre-Determined
Responding to a crisis without a pre-determined decision-making model or having to respond to a
crisis with a new decision-making model that has not been previously employed by your crisis
management team is in effect putting your organization at a great disadvantage. Valuable time that
could be used to stabilize the situation and start the recovery process will be lost. This is a mistake
that can be rectified. There are a number of decision-making models that have been used
successfully by corporate and military organizations during times of crisis. These models include
the 5-step, 7-step, 8-step process, and variations of each. While any of these decision-making
models can be effectively employed by your organization, to a large degree your success with
employing any model will largely be determined by your teams familiarity with the models
process. That is, the crisis management team needs to conduct exercises employing the decisionmaking model selected by leadership and incorporate different scenarios so team members will have
a good understanding of the process and their roles and responsibilities before an actual crisis
occurs.

Resource - 5

Steps to Problem Solving

2. Lack of a Well Established Crisis Management System

A crisis management system should be part of the mainstream of organizational management and
not just a set of arrangements for responding to the day of the crisis. That implies it will be
apparent that additional work for the organization and, possibly, some significant changes. But
developing, exercising and being able to use a crisis management system can provide a shared
sense of focus, a collective purpose and higher levels of confidence and morale. This can lead to an
organization that is generally more resilient and better able to adapt to change. Well-prepared
organizations that deal effectively with actual or potential crises may emerge from the experience
stronger, internally and in terms of their brand, even after suffering significant short-term losses. On
the other hand, organizations that are seen to have failed to prepare for a crisis will suffer
potentially massive reputational damage. They may even be seen as having betrayed their staff,
customers, and stakeholders.
3. Not Engaging All Stakeholders
A stakeholder is a person, group or organization that has interest or concern in your organization.
Stakeholders can affect or be affected by the organizations actions, objectives and policies. Some
examples of key stakeholders are creditors, directors, employees, government (and its agencies),
shareholders, suppliers, unions, and the community from which the business draws its resources.
Your stakeholders should be kept informed of potential or actual crisis events. And your
communications strategy should identify and prioritize which stakeholders will get what
information; when (i.e., what triggers the contact), how, and by whom in the organization. Although
communications may be adjusted in tone and style for different stakeholders, the basic message
being conveyed should be consistent. Crisis managers should be aware that a crisis might generate
new stakeholders as interest groups (e.g., in case environmental crisis environmental activists will
come to the fore). Each crisis can bring in different new stakeholders and many of these can be
predicted. Some, however, may come as a surprise and your communications plans and processes
should be flexible enough to accommodate these new stakeholders and meet their respective needs.
If you have a question or would like to request more information regarding crisis management,
please send me a message here on LinkedIn or through our website here.......

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Robert Burton

Creating Stronger Crisis Management Teams Through Effective

Simulation Exercises - Managing Director
59 posts

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2d

Ion Iordache
Security Consultant*Professional Trainer in Adult Education*Lead
Auditor ISO 9001 & ISO 27001
This is a great truth: "Crisis managers should be aware that a crisis might
generate new stakeholders as interest groups". Excellent presentation, Robert!

5 Steps to Problem Solving

Whether making ordinary day-to-day decisions or critical, time-sensitive decisions in an
emergency, using a standard problem-solving model will help ensure that your decisions are
rational and logical.
In this course, you will learn a five-step, problem-solving model. After completing this course,
you should be able to:

Describe how decisions made before an emergency affect decision making and
problem solving during an emergency.

Describe the steps in the problem-solving model.

Review a case study and distinguish the problem from its causes and symptoms.
Course Lessons:

1.

Course Introduction

2.

Case Study Mandatory or Voluntary Evacuation

3.

The Starting Point

4.

Step 1: Identify the Problem

5.

Step 2: Explore Alternatives

6.

Step 3: Select an Alternative

7.

Step 4: Implement the Solution

8.

Step 5: Evaluate the Solution

There is a short quiz at the end of some lessons as well as a final quiz at the end.
Course Materials:

5 Steps to Problem Solving Cheat Sheet

Step 1 Job Aid: Checklist for Identifying, Defining, and Analyzing Problems

Step 2 Job Aid: Criteria for Evaluating Alternatives

Step 3 Job Aid: Best Solutions

Step 4 Job Aid: Action Planning Checklist

Step 5 Job Aid: Checklist for Evaluating the Results

Length: 60 Minutes
Certificate: A PreparedEx certificate of completion is provided after the final quiz has been
completed.

Take this Course

Course Content
LessonsStatus
1
Course Introduction
2
Case Study Mandatory or Voluntary Evacuation
3
The Starting Point
4
Step 1: Identify the Problem
5
Step 2: Explore Alternatives
6
Step 3: Select an Alternative
7
Step 4: Implement the Solution
8
Step 5: Evaluate the Solution

3 Reasons to Invest in Tabletop Exercises

by Rob Burton | Apr 4, 2016

In any discussion on continuity of operations, it is reasonable to ask, Why should my

organization invest in a tabletop exercise program? While the reasons are many, some that
serve as a foundation for a strategic-based approach to tabletop exercise programs include:
1.

Increased operational resilience: Operational resilience requires comprehensive

knowledge of the organization; as such, it cannot be achieved by a single department or
managed by a single individual. Best business practice calls for effective BCPs (Business
Continuity Plans), EAPs (Emergency Action Plans), CMPs (Crisis Management Plans) as well

as other plans based on the organizations needs. These plans are only effective once theyve
been validated through an exercise program. The result is a greater opportunity to actualize
operational resilience enterprise-wide.
Related: 5 Common Tabletop Exercise Mistakes
2.

Enhanced protection of shareholder value: Studies have shown that organizations

who experience an outage without any plan in place have a more difficult time recovering; for
many, lost revenue may lead to closed businesses or significant decrease in value as well as
reputational damage.

3.

Improved operational effectiveness and efficiency: Experience has shown that the
collaborative style required to conduct effective simulation exercises will invariably identify
gaps in response planning and capabilities which are counterproductive to a resilient operation,
and which are usually also counter to operational effectiveness. The result of mitigating the
findings though comprehensive tabletop exercises and other types of exercises will usually
lead to a more effective and efficient organization.
5 Steps to Creating and Delivering Tabletop Exercises An eBook

About Rob Burton

Rob is a Principal at PreparedEx where he manages a team of crisis preparedness
professionals and has over 20 years of experience preparing for and responding to crises. Part
of his leadership role includes assisting PreparedEx clients in designing, implementing and
evaluating crisis, emergency, security and business continuity management programs. During
his career Rob has worked for the US State Departments Anti-Terrorism Assistance Program,
as a crisis management consultant in Pakistan and Afghanistan where he negotiated with the
UN and Pashtun tribal warlords and he served with the United Kingdom Special Forces where
he operated internationally under hazardous covert and confidential conditions. Rob was also
part of a disciplined and prestigious unit The Grenadier Guards where he served Her Majesty
Queen Elizabeth II at the Royal Palaces in London. Rob was a highly trained and experienced
infantryman serving in Desert Storm and commanded covert operational teams and was a
sniper. Rob has keynoted disaster recovery conferences and participated in live debates on
FOX News regarding complex security requirements and terrorism. Rob has a Queens
Commendation for Bravery.

LinkedIn
|

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Tabletop Exercises Pros and Cons

2.

5 Steps to Creating and Delivering a Simple Tabletop Exercise

3.

10 Reasons to use LaunchPAD to Manage your Simulation Exercises

4.

5 Common Tabletop Exercise Mistakes

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10 Considerations for a Hurricane Tabletop Exercise - PreparedEx - [] industrial sites

that are located in hurricane regions should have a plan that is tested through a tabletop
exercise

Tabletop Exercises Pros and Cons

by Rob Burton | May 13, 2015

I recently came across some information regarding the main advantages and disadvantages of
tabletop exercises. I decided to expand on the list based on my experience and knowledge of
conducting these types of exercises regularly.
The tabletop exercise is the most common kind of training exercise conducted by corporations
and governments. It is a very useful training tool that has both advantages and disadvantages,
as summarized here:

Advantages of Tabletop Exercises

Requires only a modest commitment in terms of time, cost, and resources.

Is an effective method for reviewing plans, procedures, and policies.

Is a good way to familiarize key personnel with their roles and responsibilities.

Is an opportunity to build trust (team building).

It stimulates thought processes.

Helps focus the team within a specific situation (scenarios such as cyber)

Helps identify any issues, challenges and / or assumptions.

Helps identify resources necessary to overcome any issues, challenges and / or

assumptions.

Helps identify means of overcoming any identified issues, challenges and / or

assumptions.

An opportunity leaders to practice their crisis management leadership skills.

Join the Tabletop Exercises LinkedIn Group

Disadvantages of Tabletop Exercises

Lacks realism and thus does not provide a true test of a crisis, emergency, security or
business continuity management systems capabilities.

Provides only a superficial exercise of plans, procedures, and team capabilities.

Does not provide a practical way to demonstrate system overload.

Related: 10 BENEFITS TO EXERCISING
Resource: Learn How to Design and Deliver a Tabletop Exercise

About Rob Burton

Rob is a Principal at PreparedEx where he manages a team of crisis preparedness
professionals and has over 20 years of experience preparing for and responding to crises. Part
of his leadership role includes assisting PreparedEx clients in designing, implementing and
evaluating crisis, emergency, security and business continuity management programs. During
his career Rob has worked for the US State Departments Anti-Terrorism Assistance Program,
as a crisis management consultant in Pakistan and Afghanistan where he negotiated with the
UN and Pashtun tribal warlords and he served with the United Kingdom Special Forces where
he operated internationally under hazardous covert and confidential conditions. Rob was also
part of a disciplined and prestigious unit The Grenadier Guards where he served Her Majesty
Queen Elizabeth II at the Royal Palaces in London. Rob was a highly trained and experienced
infantryman serving in Desert Storm and commanded covert operational teams and was a
sniper. Rob has keynoted disaster recovery conferences and participated in live debates on

FOX News regarding complex security requirements and terrorism. Rob has a Queens
Commendation for Bravery.

LinkedIn
|

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1 Comment
1.

Bob Wilkerson on April 13, 2016 at 10:16 am

No organization should be choosing between the different types of exercises. There is a time
and place for each type in the exercise program of the organization. Tabletops can be used as
a strong component in managing the maturation of the program.
There are a number of additional Pros to tabletops including variations in the format of the
tabletop that change the learning focus of the activity to areas other than the risk itself.
Similarly there are other cons if one takes the authors perspective.
Rather than pros and cons, i would suggest that they are all characteristics of the tabletop that
can help the organization choose between the three generally recognized exercise formats. Its
all about learning and maturing the preparedness of the organization.

Pros and Cons of Social Media Before,

During and After a Crisis
by David Kalson | Sep 1, 2015

When a crisis, such as a natural disaster, affects the public, social media, most notably Twitter
and Facebook, will always come into play. While social media is an increasingly vital aspect of
crisis communications, it usually does not exist on its own. Social media supplements and
enhances other, more traditional communications, whether its a siren alert or a TV news
broadcast.

In addition to its many powerful, desirable characteristics, social media, like traditional
communications platforms, also has limitations and disadvantages:

Social media advantages for crisis communications

Before a disaster affecting the public strikes, social media provides organizations with a
powerful tool for building trust among people who use social media by developing constructive
dialogues in social media communities. Emergency managers in particular are thus able to
establish their social media presence as a go-to source for authoritative public information
during a natural disaster.

Social media disadvantages for crisis communications

O
Unauthorized or inept use of the social media platform by the organizations personnel could
be damaging to credibility and ability to earn trust. Effective use of social media requires a
commitment to policies and resources.

P
Reinforces crisis alerts being sent to the public through traditional routes, e.g., sirens and
traditional media, while simultaneously fostering public feedback.

O
Many segments of the public, (e.g., elderly and infirm, economically disadvantaged, nonEnglish speakers, etc.) do not typically use social media. Other communications channels,
including, for example, door-to-door personal meetings, may be necessary in such cases.

P
Regular monitoring of social media can help serve as an early-warning system for helping first
responders identify pending disasters.

O
Information gathered from social media users may be inaccurate. Hoaxes are prevalent.
Information gathered that seems critical to public safety requires careful confirmation.

P
Enables monitoring of timely reports from the public as well as general public opinion before,
during and after a crisis.

O
Requires increased human resources to properly monitor social media, assess it and respond
appropriately. Individuals of the organization may not know procedures for flagging and
reporting pertinent information gleaned from social media. Training may be necessary.

P
Offers an additional way to track the course of a disaster and the effectiveness of the response
as perceived by the public

O
The publics views on the disaster and the response to it could be erroneous. Immediate
corrections, necessitating a commitment of communications resources, may be necessary.

P
Another way to assess recovery progress in the wake of a disaster.

O
Social media can also fan negative public opinions about the way first responders managed
the disaster, possibly creating a post-disaster public relations crisis.

P
A wide variety of social media platforms are available, each having its own characteristics, e.g.,
short messages (Twitter), long messages and multi-media (Facebook), video (YouTube), photo
sharing (Flickr). Software is available that can help sort through data and support human
evaluators.

O
Multiple channels can overwhelm those tasked with monitoring social media.
The goal for any organization experiencing a crisis that affects the public is to integrate social
media with traditional communications channels. The two platforms must be mutually
supportive in their messaging and responses to the public. During a natural disaster,
understanding and acting upon both the advantages as well as the disadvantages of social
media can literally be a matter of life and death.

About David Kalson

David Kalson is an expert in issues and crisis management. He has more than 25 years
experience providing strategic communications counsel, on-the-ground assistance and highly
targeted media relations and new media programs to manage issues and crises as well as
reputation enhancement for both profit and not-for-profit organizations. Business sectors he
has counseled include energy, food and beverage, financial services, healthcare, consumer
products and technology. He has designed and implemented communication / media relations
programs, often emphasizing Web-based strategies, to address issues including data security
breaches, environmental accidents, product recalls, financial problems, high-profile lawsuits,
corporate governance issues, criminal behavior, attacks by opposition groups,
government/regulatory challenges, competitive challenges and labor disputes. Companies he
has counseled in relation to crisis drills, plans and crisis management include Cargill, Dunkin
Brands, Cadbury Schweppes, Staples, Entergy, Eli Lilly, Canaport LNG and the American
Automobile Association (AAA)

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How to Use Real-Life Testing to Improve Your Online Crisis Communications

How to Use Real-Life Testing to Improve

Your Online Crisis Communications
by Rob Burton | Mar 25, 2014

Im often asked which times are better to tweet and communicate with ones audience on
social, in a crisis. With tons of studies out there revealing the best days and times to tweet
and share online, I can see how people get confused and wonder such things for their own
crisis communications.
Im here to tell you to disregard all of the studies, surveys and articles that youve read and to
ignore all future ones that may come your way.
Why is that, you ask?

Because, as theyre a good starting point for your marketing departments, when it comes to
your crisis communications, they simply dont make any sense.
Every organizations audience is different, yours included. The only way to have a good, albeit
never perfect, understanding of the best times to tweet and share in a crisis, is by testing your
audience prior to being in a crisis situation.
By testing I dont mean to publicly test your crisis communications plan. No! Doing so would
only be asking for trouble. I mean to test and monitor your daily shares and online interactions,
in order to adapt these tried and tested best practices for YOUR organization into your online
crisis communications plan.
This includes:
1.

Tweet and share your typical social media communications on a daily basis, mixing up
the times, systematically

2.

Document and analyze the days and times with the highest engagement, retweets,
mentions, shares, comments and traffic to your designated landing pages

3.

Trial and error, getting creative and being consistent will get you the best results

4.

Take your findings and include them as a guideline within your online crisis
communications plan

5.

As your online audience increases and trends change, continue to test, analyze,
document and update your crisis communications plan as needed
In a crisis, you need to be sure that the right people will be on the other end, receiving your
communications and sharing your brands message, as much as possible. Understanding
YOUR audience, how they interact with your brand and what, when and how you get the most
engagement from them, is something that can only be determined with targeted testing and
experimenting, over time.
That said, be sure to start testing your social sharing today!
Melissas Bio:
Melissa Agnes, president of Melissa Agnes Crisis Management, is a specialist in online and
social media crisis response, management and training. She has a highly acclaimed daily blog
where she writes about all aspects of your businesss online crisis management and
communications.

About Rob Burton

Rob is a Principal at PreparedEx where he manages a team of crisis preparedness
professionals and has over 20 years of experience preparing for and responding to crises. Part
of his leadership role includes assisting PreparedEx clients in designing, implementing and
evaluating crisis, emergency, security and business continuity management programs. During

his career Rob has worked for the US State Departments Anti-Terrorism Assistance Program,
as a crisis management consultant in Pakistan and Afghanistan where he negotiated with the
UN and Pashtun tribal warlords and he served with the United Kingdom Special Forces where
he operated internationally under hazardous covert and confidential conditions. Rob was also
part of a disciplined and prestigious unit The Grenadier Guards where he served Her Majesty
Queen Elizabeth II at the Royal Palaces in London. Rob was a highly trained and experienced
infantryman serving in Desert Storm and commanded covert operational teams and was a
sniper. Rob has keynoted disaster recovery conferences and participated in live debates on
FOX News regarding complex security requirements and terrorism. Rob has a Queens
Commendation for Bravery.

LinkedIn
|

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Crisis Exercises and the SimCell

Published on March 22, 2016

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Robert Burton

Creating Stronger Crisis Management Teams Through Effective

Simulation Exercises - Managing Director
Have you ever considered using a SimCell (Simulation Cell) for your next crisis management
exercise? Are you at the end of the road when it comes to your tabletop exercises and not
sure how to go to the next level? Try having a SimCell in your next exercise.

What's a SimCell?
A SimCell (Simulation Cell) is a location, usually a room, where role players act out various
characters during exercise play. When developing your scenario, consider what injects could
actually be placed into the exercise via phone, email, text, radio or other ways that are more in-line
with what would happen in your operating environment. This can increase engagement and will be
better than your usual bullet pointed power point. Here are some of the roles you may want to
represent:

Media - A reporter looking for information on the crisis

Regulators - An industry related regulator that's inquiring
about your emergency
Clients - Calling to find out if their data has been leaked
(cyber related scenario of course)
Family - Employee family members calling to find out
about a loved one that might have been in the blast
(explosion / fire scenario)
Leadership - A leader or other internal person calling to
find out what's going on (does this interrupt your briefing
cycle and how do you handle it?)
The list could go on depending on your specific scenario.
These were just a few off the top of my head.
If you do decide to use a SimCell in your next crisis simulation
exercise, ensure you plan it out as it needs to be well thought
out and controlled during the exercise. I will write another
piece next week on how to set up a SimCell and manage it
during the exercise.
Listen to what I have to say about SimCells at the ICMCBoston on March 31st, 2016.

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Robert Burton

Creating Stronger Crisis Management Teams Through Effective

Simulation Exercises - Managing Director
59 posts

2 comments
Recommended

3mo

Elsa Lemos
Crisis Communications // Media and Information Warfare //
Perception Management
Thanks for the ideas, Robert Burton! I usually put a journalist who only knows
to do unprofessional questions ... or person who protests and make noise. But
the idea of a family member seems to be very close to reality... I will steal the
idea ;-)
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3mo

Thomas Grof
--Deputy Marshal
Outstanding points Rob. Our weekly operational training always involves injects
but usually all parts played by the facilitator for that session. Stepping that up
a notch for a larger scale TTX is an excellent concept.
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3mo

Robert Burton
Creating Stronger Crisis Management Teams Through Effective
Simulation Exercises - Managing
Thank you, Thomas. We find the participants really appreciate the additional
pressure, especially if they have been through a number of regular tabletops as
a team.
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