Education and Training | Crisis Management Structures

Education and training creates the conditions in which individuals and groups can successfully utilize sound BCM Plans, as well as have the confidence to step outside of established policies and plans to meet unique challenges which the BCM Plan may not have fully addressed. The following forms of education and training are available to develop and sustain the skills and capabilities of an organization's crisis leaders.

§  Formal Instruction.: Formal instruction may take the shape of a focused training course for crisis leaders on risk and security management issues, whether conducted as part of a series of modules or as a condensed package.

§  Mentoring Programs.: Mentoring programs may be formal or semiformal with experience, and trained crisis leaders mentoring less experienced team members so that cross‐pollination of skills and knowledge occurs.

§  Shadowing and Transitioning.: Crisis leaders may delegate or transition responsibilities over a defined period to ensure that new crisis leader incumbents have a period of indoctrination prior to fully assuming responsibilities.

§  Tabletop Exercises.: Management leadership exercises and discussions can be used to run a crisis management team, and individuals, through their paces as a low cost, high value training medium.

§  Discussion Groups.: Discussion and working groups or forums can provide a valuable medium whereby information and ideas are shared and friction points or shortfalls are identified and resolved.

§  Instructional Manuals.: Training manuals can be used (often in conjunction with other education and training mediums) to educate crisis leaders on their own role, as well as how an organization will function and respond to a crisis.

§  Web‐Based Training.: Web‐based education and training mediums can be used to meet the needs of a dispersed crisis management team.

§  Train the Trainer.: Creating internal capability through a train the trainer scheme can improve the knowledge and capabilities of the instructor, while also creating a pyramid effect of capability within a wider group.

§  Activation Exercises.: Activation exercises can be used to determine the ability for individuals and the crisis management team to effectively respond to a crisis event. This tests both the mechanisms for activation, as well as the competence of individuals and the wider group in terms of response.

There is no miracle answer for how crisis leadership should work, nor necessarily a way of predicting, nor assessing after the event whether the individual or group leadership approach used was the most effective way of managing a particular crisis. Establishing a solid platform from which good decisions can be made should be the principle goal of companies and organizations. In addition, corporate leadership should bear in mind that it is better to make some form of decision, rather than make no decision at all in the event of a crisis—recovery is invariably preferable than inaction.