Crisis Leadership Blog

Critical Takeaways: Conducting training or an exercise without learning from the experience is a waste of resources, time, and attention. You need a process to capture these learnings and to put these into an action plan. Start with an immediate 'hot' debrief with participants. We find asking them to answer 'I like, I wish, I wonder' gets quick, honest...

Critical Takeaways A great simulation depends on thorough preparation, and that includes preparing the participants and yourself. Start by taking care of the basic administration. Otherwise, you'll get off to a bad start before the exercise even begins. Use your SMART Objectives to determine the right kind and level of preparation and remind everyone that...

Getting to yes: persuading your executives to buy-into a simulation Critical takeaways Simulations and training are excellent ways to prepare your organization for a crisis but their benefit might not be evident to your leadership. We've found that a needs-driven approach, based on a gap analysis, with a clear explanation of the budget, time, team, and...

Get SMART about your crisis training Critical takeaways Training without a clear objective often wastes time, resources and money. Instead, have a clear sense of the gaps that you face in your crisis readiness program and where you need to see change. Then use SMART objectives to help clearly define your desired outcomes to ensure that your training or...

One of the real benefits we see with crisis simulations is that these work very well as gap analyses. After a simulation, it's easy to see the gap between your current state and your desired state. How well can you develop a plan and put that into action? How well do our processes hold up? What deficiencies are there in our teams Which areas are aligned...

Speed is critical to success in a crisis but speed alone isn’t the answer – you need speed that’s based on an understanding of your core values and chain of command. Speed for the sake of speed leads to mistakes, inaccuracies, and rambling responses that get you into deeper trouble, not help pull you out. Instead, take some time to be clear, accurate, and brief. It requires additional time but helps you speed up in the end.

Critical Takeaways The Crucible of Crisis doesn't develop your skillset, it reveals it. Your strengths and weaknesses are exposed and magnified: great leaders excel while weak ones stumble.  This is counter to the idea that the unique circumstances of a crisis will somehow unlock previously unseen skills and people will rise to the occasion. Ensure that...

Sharing the bad news: don't be afraid of being called Chicken Little Critical Takeaways Sharing bad news, and warning of impending danger, is a necessary part of being a crisis communicator.  These warnings don’t always play out leading some people to worry that they are going to be accused of being Chicken Little: always warning that the sky is falling....

Going From Bad To Worse: How To Overcome System Failure During A Crisis Critical takeaways Things go wrong and, in a crisis when things are already going wrong, it's dangerous to assume that everything - and everyone - you need will be available and working.  Instead, you need to consider your critical systems, resources and people, and think about what...

Small is beautiful Critical takeaways A large, incisive simulation is an excellent training vehicle to practice your crisis readiness and put your team through its paces in a realistic environment.  But a sort, simple simulation - even discussing a specific topic with your team - will still add value and may be more appropriate in some cases. Apply the...