Crisis management is transforming. Gone are the days of a crisis being a singular event with a clear-cut solution. Organisations today face many complex and interrelated challenges – from natural disasters to cyber attacks to insider threats – all of which demand a new approach to crisis management.
Organisations need an agile and dynamic approach – one that is scenario-agnostic – to help them navigate today’s complex risk landscape and quickly respond to acute impacts on their operations and reputations.
Adopting an agile and dynamic approach
At the heart of this approach is the need to be prepared to respond swiftly and decisively to crises, regardless of the nature or cause. Using a scenario-agnostic framework, organisations can prioritise triaging and assessing events, enabling quick action and coordination. This ensures that crisis teams are not bound by rigid scenario-specific protocols and can adapt strategies to meet the evolving needs of the situation.
However, a scenario-agnostic approach is not sufficient. Crises are rarely static. They are characterised by rapid changes and unexpected developments. This is what is known as a “polycrisis” – where seemingly unrelated events converge to create simultaneous impacts with increasing velocity overwhelming an organisation's ability to effectively resolve, mitigate and recover.
Organisations must be dynamic and agile in their crisis readiness and responses, able to adjust response strategies in real-time while ensuring that they are always aware of and responding to the changing circumstances of a crisis. This agility is critical for organisations that strive to be resilient in today’s polycrisis world.
Managing a polycrisis
When Control Risks was engaged as the crisis response advisor for a multinational company responding to a military coup in one of its key markets, one of the first actions we took was to implement a more agile and dynamic crisis management approach.
The coup triggered a multitude of crises, including supply chain disruption, blocked repatriation of profits, a changing sanctions regime, significant operational disruptions and increasing security threats.
Our client had established response teams in Europe, Asia and inside the country concerned. Together these teams totalled 40 members, each with their own functional, corporate or departmental priorities. These teams had competing objectives and differing views on how to respond to and navigate the polycrisis. Adding to the complexity, each entity had intricate crisis plans and functional-led objectives that hindered effective coordination during the early stages, delaying critical decision-making and forming risk scenarios.
We implemented a smaller and more agile crisis management team, while ensuring that key decision-makers were retained and that the right expertise was available. This shift greatly improved the efficiency of critical decision-making, minimised disruption to the business outside of the country of focus and enabled it to quickly implement necessary actions.
Our approach also helped avoid the crisis fatigue that so many organisations experience. The scenario-agnostic and agile operating model was sustainable and enabled crisis team members to maintain focus and coordination over the months during which the situation unfolded.
Prior preparation: the key to resilience
Adapting a crisis management approach on the fly is not ideal – it is far better to build a resilient structure before it is called into action.
To achieve this, organisations should focus on the following:
- Building up and modelling scenario-agnostic crisis teams. Move away from large crisis teams, and focus on strong competencies, temperament and leadership skills.
- Building up agile and scenario-agnostic crisis plans. Abandon the 100-page plans sitting in those red binders on the shelf. Organisations need a crisis response plan that a high-flying and nimble crisis team can navigate quickly. Rely on process and healthy team dynamics, not detailed or overly prescriptive written plans scripted for every eventuality.
- Introducing an incident assessment team (IAT) to enable rapid triaging of an event or incident. This will allow faster responses in the early stages, commensurate to the event or incident.
- Testing regularly, including using a micro-sim model and testing the various levels and roles of a crisis team.
- Building redundancy. Train delegates as often as you train your primary roles because crises tend to hit at midnight on a Friday or when key people are unavailable.
- Building up muscle memory as an organisation by testing various levels of the crisis teams, even at a functional level. That muscle memory also positions organisations to deal with the day-to-day dilemmas that corporations face.
- Remembering that crises emerge in many forms. Resist the temptation to rely solely on templates and precedent. Maintain an agile approach and mindset.
- As the changing environment continues to demand an evolving approach to crisis management, investing in resilience and preparedness will help your organisation turn crises into opportunities.