Create a cross-functional team tasked with crisis management.

This might sound a bit “corporate” and arduous, but it doesn’t need to be. The goal here is to pull together key people from all of your appropriate departments that may be called into action should a crisis occur. The exact composition of your crisis team will depend on your organization, size, structure and focus, but some folks that should likely be high on your list will be:
- Executive Team/CEO/ED
- Board of Directors and/or Advisors
- Operations (including Human Resources and Finance)
- Legal
- Communications/Public Relations
- Manufacturing/Suppliers
- Customer Service
- Investor/Donor Relations

In addition to the team tasked with dealing with a crisis, also consider how you’ll set up your organization to monitor issues that may become crises. For customer-facing or product-centric organizations you may delegate this to Customer Care or Quality Assurance, and for issues of reputation and image, you’ll have Public Relations and Legal keep an eye out, and so on.

Make SURE you not only have systems in place to cope, but early warning systems that help you buy team to deal with a crisis, or better yet, avert one!

Develop a written escalation path and process for alerting others to potential risks. A crisis doesn’t always have to be a crisis; and if you don’t see it coming, you’re not likely to handle it well.

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Diana L. Reid, Conscious Communications