crisis cycle
How do you view emergencies? As one time events to which you respond as best as you can? Are they disconnected events that upset your operations and consume untold management hours to resolve? Are you like many people who expect that crises will not occur and then are surprised when one does?
People are surprised when they convince themselves that emergencies will not happen and then neglect to prepare for their occurrence. We assist companies in taking proactive steps for emergencies.
CrisisR4 Consulting views emergencies in a cyclical manner, recognizing that emergencies have phases — Readiness, Response and Recovery. Each phase has specific tasks for an organization to fulfill in order to achieve effective crisis management. Encircling these is the fourth component of crisis management — Resilience, the natural capacity of organizations and people to bounce back from the setbacks each of us encounter in the course of our lives.
Readiness Phase
The Readiness Phase is like an insurance policy that may never be used — it gives peace of mind that the organization has identified potential emergencies and implemented strategies to mitigate in the event an emergency occurs. Readiness engrains a conviction that any emergency is possible and that preparation for the emergency is the best crisis management strategy. How the event is managed will influence how traumatic its effects will be on survivors and victims of the event. How well the organization has prepared for a critical incident is the primary factor influencing whether an event is well-managed.
The major tasks during the Readiness Phase are assess vulnerabilities, mitigate vulnerabilities, develop response plan, conduct test drills on plan and revise plan based on lessons learned from drills.
Response Phase
The Response Phase is the period most associated with crises and draws the most attention. An event has occurred. It could be a natural disaster such as a hurricane, tornado, wildfire, snow storm, or lightning storm creating a power outage. It could be a terrorist attack, an act of violence, an industrial accident or explosion or a pandemic health crisis such as the currently feared Avian Flu. Or the death of a highly respected co-worker or manager or of an inspiring executive could prompt grief reactions for the organization’s people. The Response Phase can be short-lived over a few hours and require minimal personnel or last months with major investment of personnel and resources. The size and intensity of an event will influence whether the event is contained as an emergency or becomes a crisis or a full-fledged disaster.
The major tasks of the Response phase are attend to “human” concerns — information, shelter, food, financial assistance, security, social network — and attend to the emotional concerns of people.
Recovery Phase
The Recovery Phase begins during emergency management planning with the organization’s commitment to recover from rather than just respond in the aftermath of an event. Rebuilding, re-committing, reinvigorating, re-appraisal, supporting, re-financing, re-connecting, re-validating, re-defining, resource utilization, and re-establishment of organizational, community individual self-worth are all tasks that influence successful crisis management.
Resilience Phase
Resilience, or the ability of organizations and people to bounce back from setbacks, is the component that motivates people to manage critical events. What personal setbacks have you experienced? What organizational setbacks has your company experienced? What did you learn from your response to the setback? What helped you to not only survive it, but also to find opportunities you might have missed without having had the setback? What personal, social, professional resources did you realize in your response? How can they help you manage the reactions you and your organization are experiencing in the current crisis? Your answers to these questions are the building blocks for your effective crisis response and recovery. They are the “stuff” of your resilience to manage the crises of your life.