Developing resilient organizations, leadership and human capital

We often spend enormous amounts of time and money on emergency planning or crisis management.  Very rarely though do we invest in crisis leadership training, helping leaders create sustainable organizations, internal and external communication skills and the ability to lead human capital toward recovery and sustained resilience. When someone has attained the positional authority to lead a crisis response, that leader needs to develop skills in five additional areas to effectively address the leadership challenges of a crisis, namely:

  1. The psychological challenges of leading the response to and recovery from a traumatic event
  2. The challenges of making decisions quickly in the absence of complete information
  3. The challenge of effective internal and external communication
  4. The challenge of assuring the ongoing prevention and minimization of a crisis
  5. The challenge of creating organizational and human capital resilience, recovery and sustainability 

This program addresses the following crucial elements of effective crisis leadership: 

Part 1: Crisis Leadership Competency Evaluation

Every participant is pre-assessed prior to the comprehensive training to identify his/her preferred leadership style, leadership strengths and areas for development.  These assessed competencies and challenges, as well as the effectiveness of their preferred leadership style will be used as development points throughout the course. 

Part 2: Fundamentals of Crisis Leadership

When leaders find themselves faced with crisis situations, their effectiveness is largely determined by their levels of emotional and social intelligence.  The ability to manage one’s emotions, empathize with others, and provide clear direction in times of crisis is critical to the success of leaders during emergencies. This portion of the training helps participants identify their strengths and weaknesses regarding their preferred style of leadership and helps them to create a personalized plan for developing the skills necessary to: 

  1. Prepare themselves and their organizations for times of crisis
  2. Manage themselves well prior to, during, and after crises, and 
  3. Lead others during these three phases of crisis leadership.

Part 3: Decision-Making and Critical Thinking

This portion of the training is based on the premise that people make good decisions when they understand and act on what they believe is important, when they anticipate the consequences of their decisions on others and when they hold themselves accountable for their decisions.  Participants will learn how to make good decisions that are whole, coherent and transparent using proven decision making models, even when time is of the essence and the outcome is life threatening.   Using proven models of decision making and critical thinking skill development, participants will learn: 

  • The importance of pre-event relationship building and the development of trust
  • Obstacles to good decision making and strategies for overcoming obstacles
  • Risk evaluation
  • Psychological components of decision making at the individual, team and organizational level
  • Stress and trauma management techniques to counteract ineffective decision making and critical thinking 
  • Conflict management skills

 Part 4: Crisis Communication

During a crisis, the ability to communicate effectively - both within your organization and to external stakeholders - is extremely important.  This not only aids in crisis management but can potentially be the difference between reputational harm or repair.  This portion of the training will address

  • How to use crisis leadership skills to effectively communicate internally within your organization to aid in crisis management and human capital recovery
  • How to craft effective messaging to your stakeholders via the media
  • Elements of the successful interview
  • Body language, wardrobe and appearance
  • Interview pitfalls to avoid
  • Planning for operations and communications in the event of a crisis   
  • Building relationships with the media, and media advocacy
  • Internal relationship building

Part 5: Human Capital and Organizational Preparedness and Recovery

What distinguishes effective from ineffective leadership during crisis is one’s ability to understand, plan for and lead their people through recovery, as well as develop a resilient organization and people prior to a crisis occurring. The human response to trauma/crisis is unpredictable and it is a leader’s responsibility to oversee the recovery process in order to create organizational sustainability following a crisis. This part of the training includes: 

  • Understanding the human trauma response
  • Leadership and organizational strategies to prepare the organization and staff for crisis prior to a crisis occurring
  • Appropriate activation of resources-models for recovery  
  • Stress management and fear reduction strategies
  • Self care methods for recovery

***Please note, this training can also be part of a 3 or 5 day crisis preparedness and leadership course involving other international experts.

International Crisis & Leadership Preparedness Program

Most CEOs rate crisis management and associated business continuity issues as one of their greatest concerns. In addition, research has consistently shown that the stakeholder perception of an organization that deals well with a crisis improves significantly because there is increased confidence in the leadership team’s abilities. Despite this, little practical attention is paid to this vital area of business and the human and organizational response is often improvised – despite there often being clear forewarning of the emerging crisis situation.

People and organizations can survive disaster and crisis, but it is usually those that have prepared, tested and adjusted that are most likely to experience successful recovery. Planning on its own is not enough, as it is only in the heat of a crisis that most leaders and teams are tested, and so preparation must also encompass a practical aspect in order to prepare them as best as possible.

This dynamic multi-level program aims to equip leaders and professionals with a practical toolkit to prepare and plan. Bringing together international experts from the worlds of intelligence, crisis preparedness, psychology and leadership development, the program aims to help create sustainable organizations - from leaders to line staff. A strong focus on experiential training, simulation, and intensive leadership and skill development means that participants will take away practical experience as well as the necessary theory. This program is therefore a must for those who understand that performance in a crisis relies on sound all-round preparation, education, experience and exposure.

Who should attend?

Individuals or teams likely to be leading or otherwise involved in a crisis driven incident: Ideally managers, directors and executives from security, facilities, crisis management/business continuity, risk/resilience and human resources departments of public and private sector organizations.

Aims and Objectives

To provide participants with a fully-rounded understanding of the factors involved in a crisis, a suitable theoretical frame of reference and a suite of well-tested practical skills sufficient to help them cope with an emerging incident.

At the end of the program participants should:

  • Understand how to assess the likely threats to their business.
  • Be able to recognise the preliminary warning aspects of man-made disasters.
  • Understand how to develop a comprehensive crisis preparedness plan, incorporating people, process and technology to maximum effect.
  • Be able to structure effective intelligence networks to give early warning and aid preparation.
  • Be able to mount effective deterrence and prepare intelligently.
  • Have learned their own leadership and team-working strengths and weaknesses, along with improvement strategies to effectively lead before, during and following times of crisis.
  • Have understood their own crisis response and thinking styles during a stressful event.
  • Mastered strategies to counteract styles that may interfere with effective leadership.
  • Have the appropriate internal and external communication skills to protect organisational reputation and support rapid human capital recovery and resilience.
  • Understand the legal implications attached to risk situations.
  • Know how to minimise the practical and psychological impact of a crisis on staff and customers.
  • Be able to manage effectively throughout the recovery phase

Consultant Profiles

Justin Crump / Security Intelligence and Management Process Consultant

Justin is an intelligence expert with fifteen years’ service in the British Armed Forces, including operational experience in the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan. His civilian experience includes various roles as a front office banker in JP Morgan, management consulting for the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office and work as an intelligence advisor to UniCredit (the Italian banking giant). In 2008 Justin became Director of Threat Intelligence for the international risk consultancy Stirling Assynt, and last year established Sibylline in order to focus on furthering the use of intelligence in business. He is a respected commentator and lecturer on jihadist affairs and global terrorism, while media work includes a regular column for the Huffington Post and guest appearances on many TV channels, most notably Al-Jazeera. 

Nicole Lipkin, PsyD, MBA / Business Psychologist and Organizational Consultant

Nicole is a leadership strategist and the President of Equilibria Coaching and Consultation Services, a leadership and organizational solutions company.  Based in the US, Nicole coaches and consults with leaders and their organizations to improve management skills, strengthen the pipeline and develop sustainable behaviours and practices that help ease organizational and staff recovery related to crisis.  She is a sought after international speaker on issues related to leadership development, crisis leadership and human capital & organizational resiliency.  Dr Lipkin co-authored "Y in the Workplace: Managing the "Me First" Generation", released by Career Press in July 2009 and is a regular contributor to the US and International print and broadcast media community.

Tomer Benito / Conceptual Counter Terrorism and Homeland Security Expert

Mr. Benito is a security consultant specialized in human capital. His outstanding military service and governmental duties in four continents prepared him to facilitate and enhance security frameworks. He works with the US Department of Homeland Security, The Science & Technology Directorate and delivers training and initiatives such as The Art of Deterrence™, a counterterrorism methodology for vulnerabilities reduction and threat mitigation. Mr Benito is the author of “Rain for The Wicked”, a fictitious training novel. He is the deputy chief of training for US Airport and Seaport Police and a contributor to several think tanks in the Americas, Australia, Singapore, and Israel.

Approach

The program is delivered in two different ways:

  1. As part of a dedicated consultancy program for a host organization. In this case while the areas addressed are as given in the example below all scenarios and training would focus directly on the host. This can be run as a simple in-house training course or over a longer period as a performance improvement and assessment program.
  2. We also deliver a small number of scheduled courses throughout the year, lasting either three or five days. These are more generic as attendees come from a variety of organisations and backgrounds. They follow the model below.

SAMPLE COURSE OUTLINE (FIVE DAYS)

*Three day course available

Note that all the exercises throughout this course build on each other and form part of an enduring scenario under which the participants are tested on the final day. Leadership, team and interpersonal skills will also be continually and professionally assessed throughout the process, and participants will be given sound action plans for personal development with regards to their abilities before, during and after a crisis. 

 

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Morning

Session

Introduction to Course and Basic Principles

 

 

Intelligence and Risk Management

Managing the Human Capital/

Organizational Response to Crisis and Trauma

Principles of Business Continuity

Final Practical Exercise - Crisis Scenario

 

Table Top Exercise of Crisis Scenario

Overview of Crisis, Risks and Threats (Including Terrorism)

Crisis Leadership Skill Development

BCM Lessons Learned and Applied – Practical Examples

Test of Crisis Response in Practical Scenario

Afternoon

Session

Table Top Exercise of Crisis Scenario

 

 

Assessing Business Vulnerabilities

External Crisis Communication

Emergency Preparedness Planning

Evaluation of Personal Strengths and Gaps

 

Strength and Gap Assessment

Risk-Oriented Thinking and Planning

Internal Crisis Communication

Prioritizing Vulnerabilities

Course Evaluation and Action Plans