My husband died suddenly and without a will. We’d agreed on the simple things; leaving all our worldly possessions to each other etc. But the sticking point was who would take care of our young children should tragedy befall both of us at the same time. There was no obvious answer to this and so the whole discussion was left in the ‘too-hard’ basket… until the day the unimaginable happened. And my husband died intestate.

The mess this caused was highly foreseeable – I had just counted on this scenario being unlikely enough to not deal with it.

Trying to make decisions and deal with unintended consequences in the middle of a crisis is tough. It takes a very stressful situation – when emotions are high and clear thinking is at a premium – and takes the pressure up to a 10.

But the harsh reality is that crises rarely come at a good time (and when would that be exactly?). They arrive like a tantrum-ing child needing everyone’s attention now. The noise is so loud nothing else can be dealt with until the screaming child is placated or put to sleep.

In the corporate world, I could fill a book with the excuses I’ve heard for why a crisis preparedness plan hasn’t been drafted or updated. “We’re just so busy right now,” “My key person is on leave and I need them in the room,” “We’re about to go through a restructure,” and so on. All plausible reasons, but every one of them ready to trigger remorse the moment the proverbial hits the fan.

I will now tell you what you already know in the hopes of putting this back at the top of your ‘to do’ list:

A crisis preparedness plan allows decisions to be made in the cold light of day.

It is a chance for you to assess the real risks to your business, where they may come from and the best way to address them when they eventuate.

In my experience, the CEO is inevitably on a long-haul flight without access to data when the media calls, and in many cases, this will paralyse the organisation who has made no contingency plan for this scenario.

So here is my first-round checklist to know if you are crisis-ready:

• Do you have a risk matrix that itemises the potential vulnerabilities across the organisation, and who would be impacted by those risks occurring?
• Have you clearly identified the ‘trigger points’ for informing stakeholders – including the Board of incidents? (And have you identified at which point an issue becomes an incident or indeed a crisis?)
• Is there an existing flowchart clearly outlining each stakeholder group, who would be in charge of communications to that group, and what channels you have available for fast-response communication?
• Where do external consultants such as lawyers and communications advisors fit into the management plan? Who do they report to? And who gets ‘right of way’? (Many a decision can be held up by arguments over issuing apologies…)
• Is there a clear chain of command for approving collateral such as Board comms, media releases, social media posts etc?
• Do you have a way of dealing with communications if the crisis involves the CEO and the Board has to take over?

One of the biggest hand-breaks on smooth communications is
version control of written documents – keeping up with who is responsible for which colour when tracking changes on a document can be a major headache. And when a clean, edited version goes around again with new tweaks, you know you are losing the time war.

The other big determinant as to how a real crisis will be managed is the familiarity the people in charge have with each other and their surroundings.

Crisis simulations put everyone in the war room together, allowing for people in heavily siloed organisations to understand the roles of their colleagues in a crisis. It also allows everyone to witness and become part of the information flow. First-time simulations are invariably a mess, but they allow for learnings and familiarity to develop.

A sound crisis management plan does take time to discuss, agree and draft. But it’s so much less stressful than handling the issue on the run.