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STRATEGIES FOR MANAGING CRISES AND UNEXPECTED SITUATIONS
Managing crises and unexpected situations within the context of an organisational environment can be very challenging.
Organisations the world over, are constantly faced with challenging and unexpected situations that can be devastating and can potentially take them out of business. These situations are unplanned, very hostile and demand decisive and immediate responses.
People usually prefer to work in an environment where things are relatively calm, orderly and somewhat predictable. The world however is marked by increasing turbulence, problems and disorderliness which usually demands immediate attention.
Organisations must create scenarios and put effective plans, and solutions in place as a means for responding to these crises. The plans provide approaches for tackling emergencies, unexpected situations and setbacks that affect their work and operations.
The objective will be to minimise the impact of such occurrences by putting careful, well-thought-out and coordinated plans in place by taking immediate specific steps.
The following provides strategies for managing crises within the organisation and recovering from their devastation when it does occur.
Organisations must be adequately prepared for such occurrences. Through scenarios and risk assessments, an organisation can develop an effective crisis management plan and a team to manage the crises. Members of the team and the entire organisation must be fully aware of the structures and plans that have been put in place as a response to potential crises. This calls for an effective communication system.
The team comprises a team leader to direct the activities of the team, ensuring that they are well prepared, a spokesperson to provide information on behalf of the team and the organisation in general, and an operational person to keep track of the team’s activities together with other members. The team activates when crises occur and takes charge of the situation, serving as the control centre for managing the crises.
A crisis plan should be very detailed specifying steps, and actions to be taken by whom when the inevitable occurs. For example what occurs when there is a fire outbreak at the workplace? Who sounds the fire alarm, where do employees assemble, and who calls the emergency services to ensure that employees are not in harm’s way? All of these must be contained in a detailed crisis management plan. These details must be written and adopted for reference purposes and should be communicated to the entire members of the organisation, together with other stakeholders that have anything to do with the organisation; these include visitors, customers, workmen, security officers etc. So for instance a fire evacuation plan will boldly be displayed at the reception of the organisation for everybody to see.
Every plan and every piece of information about the crisis and its management must be communicated effectively so every stakeholder knows what to do when crises actually occur.
During actual crises, there should be a reliable and effective flow of information. There should be a unit in the crisis management team that is charged with information flow. They monitor incoming information and sort out outgoing information all in a bid to control the effects of the crises.
Because crises are unexpected, unplanned and sometimes inevitable every effort must be made to control their effects. Every plan in place must be executed to mitigate the effects of the situation. The team tasked with managing the crises should be able to rapidly respond to the situation and must do so effectively. There should be free information flow and the image of the organisation must be maintained. Every action must be coordinated so that there is cohesion, collaboration and collective responsibility. The organisation must present a united front by rallying support from every member of the organisation. They must have one voice and a collective approach, to demonstrate that organisational structures and operations are fully functional. This helps maintain the confidence level of shareholders, and the general public and helps carry on after the organisation recovers from the crises.
Once the crisis has passed, it beholds the organisation to give a sense of security and reassure its stakeholders. It doesn’t mean that serious issues should be downplayed or give a false sense of hope by passing on false information. It only means that the organisation must go out of its way to reassure all stakeholders, that they are still in control. Organisational structures must be maintained, culture adhered to and efforts to acquire and retain customers must be increased. Once again regular information flow must be provided.
Employers must be reassured to retain them and clients must be encouraged to stay with the business. The status quo must be maintained and the chain of command should not be tampered with right after the crises.
The re-planning stage has to do with hindsight. Reports must be studied, mistakes must be reassessed and rectified and decisions weighed to ensure that the crisis never happens. Officers who were negligent should be disciplined, to send the right signals across. Those that lived up to expectations should be rewarded, and more importantly, a more thorough plan should be put in place to prevent such occurrences from ever happening. The physical and emotional needs of stakeholders must be taken into consideration, providing them with security and assurance.
As with everything else, effective crisis management and unexpected occurrences can be managed by putting effective management systems in place. An organisation must constantly be prepared, playing out scenarios and conducting regular risk assessments to prevent any such occurrences from happening. It is only through such preparedness can an organisation reduce the effects of crises when they happen.
By Michael Kuma Avuglah- CEO of Ghana HR Solutions
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