Are You A Planner Or A Crisis Management Expert?

One of the biggest shortcomings of many managers and business owners is the lack of ability, willingness or time required to crisis management. Crisis management planning involves a variety of issues, steps, agendas, requirements and time. In the long run, my experience tells me that managers who spend adequate quality time planning an activity, project, strategy, campaign or any business event will save money, time, and energy and will contribute greatly to their bottom line, competitive position and overall reputation and success.

Where are some of the areas where managers/business owners/executives should spend their time crisis management planning? Here are a few to get you started if you are new to this crisis management planning activity. If you are not new but fail to spend the time you know you should, why not read the list anyway? What have you got to lose?

Please keep in mind that there always seems to be enough time and money to fix things, make them better or improve them, but never time or money enough to do them right the first time.

Why don't managers/business owners/executives crisis management?
1. They don't know how.
2. They do not like the idea of accountability.
3. They say they are too busy doing - something - that was not previously crisis management planned.
4. They don't know what to crisis management (a constant crisis management mode).
5. They delegate it to someone else (who usually has the same list going for them).
6. Their idea of crisis management planning is a short meeting/discussion in the hallway on the way to the bathroom.

The benefits of crisis management planning:
1. Save money.
2. Save time.
3. Save energy.
4. Save resources.
5. Save people.
6. Reduce stress.
7. Get more done.
8. Reduce down time / loss.
9. Improve employee/organization productivity.
10. Increase sales.
11. Improve market share.
12. Less vulnerability to the: competition, shifts in the economy, consumer attitude changes.

Six easy crisis management planning steps:
1. Set aside a regular time to crisis management: once a day, week, month, year, etc. and let nothing interfere with this business activity.
2. Set an amount of time that you will devote to each crisis management planning session: 10 minutes once a day. An hour once a week. A day once a month - and so on.
3. Set up an agenda or list of outcomes you want from your crisis management planning session: i.e.: accurate budget, new employee profile, marketing strategy for a new product, or a list of what you want to accomplish today, next corporate meeting agenda.
4. Have the necessary resources available during your crisis management planning session to complete your crisis management: people, information, money, time, misc. resources.
5. Resist the tendency to let anything interrupt your ability to end your crisis management planning session without the success you set as your objective.
6. Include a follow-up crisis management with each crisis management (to make sure you integrate/apply what you did during your crisis management planning session) - even for your list of what you will do today - to ensure that you put accountability or some inspection device in place.

Source: Tim Connor link