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Can a crisis plan really help?

I've heard it said that Crisis Planning is pointless because the crises you plan for are never the ones which happen.

While there may be an element of truth, if for no other reason than any good planning process includes reducing exposure to identifiable risks, it isn't the full story.

There are many different crises which might happen to you. Yet in all of them the situation is characterized by a need to make critical decisions under pressure from a lack of time and information, and in the face of a rapidly escalating cost (in human as well as financial terms) for the resources needed to communicate and implement those decisions.

A crisis plan, at the very least allows you to collect information and allocate resources without the time pressure generated by a critical situation.

The crisis planning process can focus decisions and establish a common point of view from which your team can respond in a crisis, confident in their interpretation of the organisation's position.

Any plan is a flexible guide to action, and it is only ever as good as the planning process which produced it. A sound planning process will not only reduce the risk of crises occurring, it will develop the skills your people need to respond appropriately should the unanticipated actually ever occur.

© Kerrie Mullins-Gunst
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