This interactive and participative course will demonstrate that it is possible for an organisation to plan for those ‘Unexpected Challenges’. It covers the best practices and the proven way of successfully dealing with a crisis. This course will constructively help delegates to develop those essential crisis management skills and reveal how to effectively use advanced techniques that will improve leadership performance at that critical time.

Delegates will gain tangible results with up-to-date case studies and exercises to reinforce key learning points for immediate implementation at their workplaces. This course will ensure you do not make the same mistakes of those other Crisis Managers. Your organisation must be prepared; without delay it needs to identify all potential vulnerabilities, map out the possible crisis scenarios and mitigate shortcomings.

• Best practice advise drawing on the expertise of crisis researchers, analysts and practitioners
• How to consider the main areas of activity: Preparation, Planning, Response and Recovery
• Getting the maximum from emergency responders and crisis management teams
• How to avoid mis-management and so make a bad situation worse
• Managing yourself and others, make judgements, redefine standards, establish options

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Acquire an in-depth knowledge of the key aspects of Strategic Crisis Management
• Develop strategies so ensuring you and your organisation responds efficiently and effectively
• Understand the five deadly leadership behaviours and six winning strategies in a crisis
• Learn the fundamentals of organising and managing Crisis or Emergency Control Centres
• Acquire step-by-step guide on how to plan for more beneficially rewarding multi-agency exercises

This powerful course will be of benefit to those who find themselves responsible for leading on, or implementing Crisis Management, Emergency Response and Business Continuity/Recovery mechanisms in both the public and the private sector.

This course is suitable to a wide range of professionals but will greatly benefit:

• Security & Fire Management
• Health, Safety and Environment personnel
• Emergency and Crisis Management Responders
• Professionals who have been allocated crisis management tasks yet have had insufficient time to devote to the subject

This course will utilise a variety of proven adult learning techniques to ensure maximum understanding, comprehension and retention of the information presented. This includes case studies and several group exercises, participative lectures with handout materials, manual, and slides. Syndicate work-shops and reporting back sessions will encourage a fully participative and an enjoyable event.

Day One  : What should be in place before the event?

• Understanding Crisis Management and how to manage a Crisis
• Consider the complete range of risks facing businesses in the 21st century
• Crisis Managers - Roles & Responsibilities - manage the issue before it becomes a Crisis
• Who else inside and outside the organisation should be involved?
• Five deadly Leadership behaviours & Six winning strategies
• Understanding 'denial-curve' and 'group-think' syndromes

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

• Case Studies, why some companies fail and others survive?
• Who owns the mitigation process?
• Developing and Implementing Emergency 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, Tactical and Strategic
• On Scene Crisis Management, essential elements for success
• Reputation Management - Managing the Media.
• Organising a Press Conference & step by step guidance on how to conduct TV interviews
• BP Press Conferences – What went wrong?
• Exercise: Crisis Communications Strategy

Day Four : Incident Management & Aftermath

• Alerting and Warning. Case Studies. What can go right and what can go wrong
• Corporate Case Study – BP Texas 2005; BP Alaska 2006; BP Gulf of Mexico 2010.
• Major Incident Simulation - Role Playing Workshop
• Potential Psychological & Welfare problems in Crisis Management
• How to improve staff morale and confidence in the process
• Questionnaire, are your batteries in good condition?

Day Five : Essential post incident actions

• Exercises: a programme of learning and of validating plans and procedures;
• How to get advantageous results from an exercise
• Post Incident evaluations, de-briefing skills - managing the de-briefs - hot and cold
• Critique report writing, executive summaries and recommendations
• Closing the loop. Implementing the recommendations, continuing the process
• 3 disastrous Case Studies with the same cause, are we learning from others?