1. Have a clear sense of what constitutes a crisis, and know how to mobilize energy and resources quickly.

• Develop an early warning mechanism/rapid response capability.
• Designate a senior executive as responsible for crisis preparedness and response.
• Make this executive accountable and provide sufficient resources to conduct a thorough analysis of vulnerabilities, crisis response strategies, and crisis implementation.
• Pre-authorize this executive to take initial response steps without going through usual corporate approval processes.

2. Test the system with wargames, tabletop exercises, and other processes that challenge leaders to make tough decisions and act quickly.

• Remember that the best plan won’t help if executives don’t know what to do.

3. Recognize when business as usual needs to be suspended. A quick test:

• Are the constituencies who matter expecting you to take prompt action?
• Will delay in taking prompt action provide an opening for your adversaries or others to define your involvement negatively?

4. Control the Agenda: Don’t let the media, adversaries, or the rumor mill define your situation.

5. Keep in mind the Golden Hour of crisis response: incremental delays cause greater-than-incremental harm to reputation.

6. Develop messages and tactics with a goal in mind: how do you want your key stakeholders to think and feel, and what do you want them to know and do?

7. In a crisis, assure both self-awareness and situational awareness:

• Coordinate all functions of the crisis response with frequent meetings/conference calls,
• Correct mistakes early.
• Understand what your stakeholders, adversaries, the media, and others are saying about you.

8. Keep your focus on the goal: influencing stakeholders. Decisions become clear when you keep stakeholders in mind.

© 2006 Helio Fred Garcia
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it 914-747-5949