STOP! Prevent Common Crisis Errors from Occurring
A crisis can occur at any moment, whether your organization is ready or not. Crises range from isolated events that are difficult to understand and plan for, to risks that can be identified through strategic risk analysis, and subsequently prevented. Most crises, however, end up being incidents that are not planned for by organizations, resulting in surprised management teams.
Disaster denial plays a significant role in the lack of crisis planning. Common denial phrases include:
- It won’t be so bad.
- I’m smarter than everyone else.
- It’s not going to happen to me, it’s going to happen to them.
In crisis management and response, it is not about what happens. What matters is how an organization handles the situation and prevents further crises from occurring. STOP when a crisis occurs. When you think of stop, think Crisis STOP™.
In previous articles, we discussed the first three phases of Crisis STOP™: Stabilize, Trigger, and Opine.
Stabilize: When a crisis occurs: STOP and stabilize the situation. Focus on the issues at hand before taking actions or releasing statements. Actions taken in the immediate aftermath of a crisis may make sense in the moment, but without a clear decision-making process, they may not make sense a week, a month or a year later. Read the full article on Stabilizing During a Crisis.
Trigger: An issue many organizations face is the lack of established external resources prior to a crisis. Why? Because many people are guilty of disaster denial and don’t believe a crisis will strike their organization. Once the situation is stabilized, trigger the appropriate resources to assist in decision making; whether it be a crisis professional, lawyer, counselor, or another professional. Read the full article on Triggering the appropriate resources.
Opine: Opine upon the decisions made during a crisis. When Crisis STOP™ is activated, a leader of a school or organization can maintain confidence that appropriate decisions will be made. We assist clients during this critical phase of a crisis when the decisions you make, the actions you take, and words you say determine if a crisis escalates or stabilizes. Although no two crises are the same, many times incidents possess similar characteristics. There are very few crises that arise now that are not similar to incidents the Firestorm team has already handled. Read the full article on Opining upon the decisions made during a crisis.
The final stage of Crisis STOP™: Prevent
Our goal is to prevent crises from occurring, but when a disaster does strike your organization, we want to ensure leaders do not make common crisis errors. Oftentimes, people want to do and say the same things when a crisis occurs.
They want to:
- Defend themselves
- Express what they did wasn’t their fault
- Explain what they did wasn’t wrong
Firestorm has handled hundreds of crises that have impacted large organizations to small, privately owned camps. We know which actions create secondary crises and additional issues. When Crisis STOP™ is activated, Firestorm leadership will ensure clients do not make common crisis errors.
Why Crisis STOP™?
Crisis STOP™ provides a no-fee hour of consulting during the first critical moments of a crisis. Pick up the phone and call us; we’ll be here.
Our goal is to place Crisis STOP™ in as many hands as possible. We offer the program to associations, insurers, and large aggregators. The only way the program works is if everyone and every organization already has it in place prior to a crisis. You never know the exact timing of when a disaster will strike your organization and people. Unless everyone has the program, there’s no way to immediately activate Crisis STOP™ when an incident begins.
Regardless of the crisis, Crisis STOP™ can be activated. From natural disasters, to workplace violence, to episodes of misconduct.
“What happens after that first hour?” Our Crisis STOP™+ Program adds additional consulting time and products – including training and webinars – prior to an incident. These resources are in addition to the first hour of consulting Crisis STOP™ provides. This program better prepares clients for when disaster strikes.
Are you prepared for disaster? The time to identify if your organization needs assistance is now. Contact us to complete a no-fee assessment to determine how prepared your organization is for a crisis.
“What should we do now?” “What should we say?”