Steps in Proactive Crisis Planning

Prepare your organization for a crisis before it occurs.

Nearly every business model requires proper crisis planning in the event of an emergency or public crisis. Most companies, though, tend to create a crisis plan and then react when a crisis occurs. Proactive crisis planning ensures that a company not only reacts when a crisis occurs, but also aims to reduce the likelihood that it will happen, or reduce the damage when it does.

Instructions

1. Create a crisis plan. The first step in effective proactive crisis management is to anticipate potential crises before they happen and create a plan for dealing with them. For example, in creating a crisis plan for a mental health organization, an agency might anticipate that a future client could become volatile or violent. To proactively protect therapists, the agency might set up an intercom system. Rather than using codes such as "code red," which could further antagonize the client, the agency could plan to have the mental health practitioner say, "Please send Doctor Smith to Room 3." Pre-training other staff members to understand that this call means there is a potentially volatile situation developing in Room 3 can bring trained staff members to the practitioner's aid and stave off a crisis.

2. Form a crisis management team that includes managers, coworkers, and even clients, if this can be done easily. Crisis management team members can work together to anticipate crises, add to the crisis plan, and teach others how to anticipate a crisis. Make sure every department in your organization is represented on the crisis management team. For example, an administrative assistant might see potential crises that a manager might not be aware of. The crisis team can be proactively responsible for making management aware of any modifications that need to be made to the business to avoid a crisis and begin to think of possible responses to a crisis should one occur.

3. Create a work environment in which every staff member knows and understands his role should a crisis occur and gets the training needed beforehand. The time to tell someone what to do is not during a crisis, but before one occurs. Strongly encourage employees to take a proactive view and anticipate potential risks, and to feel supported by the organization in bringing things to management's attention. Usually, when this type of environment is encouraged, most potential crises can be completely averted before they can develop.

References

• Free Management Library: Crisis Management
• The Free Library: Taking the Long View
• Durham System of Care: Proactive and Reactive Crisis Planning