HOW RECOGNISING THE 5 COMMON TYPES OF CRISIS CAN HELP PROTECT YOU
As an opener to several of the crisis communication
themed sessions I deliver I will start by asking participants to list the 5
major incidents that would constitute a crisis for their organisation. The
results are interesting because whatever the sector or size of the organisation
pretty much the focus falls upon the same five incidents.
Death or
serious injury to staff or customers or possibly consumers of a
product or users of a service is always going to be a major incident. A recent
example would be Pret a Manger, and wherever people are harmed organisations
recognise that as a major incident.
With an increased dependency on technology within our
business operations any IT related
incident is likely to have a major negative impact. This would include the loss of the IT system
or significant parts of it, a data breach including deliberate hacking or
ransomware based demand by an organisation such as Wannacry in the recent
attacks on NHS IT systems.
Often the most visible of the five incidents is
something estates related. This
might be a fire, a flood or structural damage to a key building such as a head
office or manufacturing site. These types of crisis always provide exciting
images that help to raise the profile of the incident.
The discovery of criminal
activity is always big and bad news.
Things such as fraud will make the news but also inquests or a court
cases against the organisation or individuals within it fall into this
category.
The final incident would be a quality related issue including product recall or intervention by
a regulatory body suspending a licence to operate. This type of incident
clearly highlights the threat that a crisis represents to an organisations
ability to operate as well as its public reputation.
How does the commonality of these types of incident
across sector boundaries help? If your organisation is to respond effectively
to a crisis it is vital that it has a plan in place. These 5 incidents provide
a start point for developing that plan. Recognising what kinds of crises you
might have to deal with allows you to consider the people, the places and the processes
you will need for each type of incident.