Effective Strategic Crisis Management begins with effective decision-making. In an emergency, the first major decisions made regarding how to handle the unfolding situation are almost always the most important ones. Good initial decisions can make even a catastrophe manageable; bad decisions can fatally exacerbate an otherwise small problem. In both cases, the window of opportunity for initial decision making is extremely small and closes rapidly. Once the moment for decision making has gone, it does not come back.

Your strategic corporate response must be coordinated and effective, your strategic crisis management team/s pre-identified and fully trained.

By the end of this course delegates will be able to:

• Acquire an in-depth knowledge of the key aspects of Strategic Crisis Management
• Learn how to identify incidents and crises so you can cultivate and harness the potential successes of a crisis.
• At the incident site learn how to avoid mis-management and so make a bad situation worse.
• Learn how to generate ownership and responsibility by all stakeholders to ensure your organization responds efficiently and effectively.
• Learn how to recognize and prioritize the issues that are most likely to affect corporate reputation during and after crisis.
• Learn the fundamentals of organizing and managing Crisis or Emergency Control Centers.
• Learn how to plan and manage multi-agency exercises - and make them more rewarding and exciting.
• Take away step by step guidance on how to validate plans, to improve staff ownership, to augment training programmes and to raise awareness

This powerful program will be of benefit to those who find themselves responsible for leading on, or implementing Crisis Management response and recovery mechanisms.

In addition, it will raise the awareness of those Senior Executives who may have been allocated 'potential' or specific tasks in an existing corporate Crisis and Emergency Management programs yet have had insufficient time to devote to the subject.

The program has been designed to be interactive with several case studies and group exercises. A modular approach will take the delegates through the four stages of Crisis Management - Preparation, Planning, Response and Recovery. Participative lectures will involve the use of PowerPoint, handout material, work manual with all instructor notes and slides, examples of best practice and appropriate video/DVD material. The use of flip-charts, syndicate work-shops and reporting back sessions will encourage a fully participative and enjoyable event.

Day One

What should be in place before the event?

• Understanding Crisis Management
• How to manage a crisis?
• Virtually every crisis contains the seeds of success as well as the roots of failure
• The Rationale of the Crisis Manager
• Consider the range of risks: Natural/Environmental; Hazards; Technological - loss of utilities/product/process/plant; Human Error; Sabotage and Terrorism
• Crisis Managers - Roles & Responsibilities - manage the issue before it becomes a Crisis
• Who else inside and outside the organization should be involved?
• Evaluating your risks and vulnerabilities; Consider the worse-case scenarios
• Understanding 'denial-curve' and 'group-think' syndromes
• Who decides who sits in the 'hot-seat'?
• Case Studies, why some companies fail and others survive?

Day Two

Pre-planning, who and what else should be considered?

• Who owns the mitigation process?
• Self-evaluating questionnaires
• Developing and Implementing Emergency Plans
• Twelve point check list covering the whole planning process
• Mutual Aid arrangements
• Company-wide strategic contingency plans
• Service or departmental plans
• Building evacuation plans
• Crisis Management and Communications. Emergency Centre/s
• Developing and implementing a Business Continuity Management (BCM) strategy
• Business Impact Analysis. Case Study and Workshop

Day Three

Dealing with a crisis - the 'communications' perspective

• Command and Control Issues
• Operational (at the scene)
• Tactical (at the forward control point/incident command)
• Strategic (boardroom level/emergency operations centre)
• On Scene Crisis Management, essential elements for success
• Reputation Management - Managing the Media. 'How to' sessions include
• Organizing a Press Conference
• Conducting Radio and Television Interviews
• Case Study Exercise: Crisis Communications Strategy. Develop a crisis communications strategy and action plan based upon a given scenario

Day Four

Incident Management & Aftermath

• Alerting and Warning. Case Studies. What can go right and what can go wrong
• Case Studies - Texas City Disasters 1947 and April 2005
• Major Incident Simulation - Role Playing Workshop
• Syndicate selection
• Reporting back
• Potential Psychological & Welfare problems in Crisis Management
• How to improve staff morale and confidence in the process
• The psychological effects during and after an incident involving injuries - and worse
• Looking after yourself and your staff
• Questionnaire, are your batteries in good condition?

Day Five

Essential post incident actions

• Validating plans and procedures
• Discuss the four types of exercise
• How to get the most out of an exercise
• Post Incident evaluations
• De-briefing skills - managing the de-briefs - hot and cold
• Critique report writing, executive summaries and recommendations
• How to keep all 'stakeholders' informed
• Prioritising the Recommendations
• Examples of critique questionnaires
• Closing the loop. How to continue the process
• Case Study - Buncefield Oil Depot, Hertfordshire UK 2005

 CDGA Consultant Certificate will be issued to all attendees completing minimum of 75% of the total tuition hours of the workshop.