Crisis Management

We help clients understand how ‘crisis-ready’ their organisations are and establish the policies, structures and plans which provide the foundation for effective crisis management.  

Our key services in this area include:

Bespoke crisis management frameworks

We work with clients to develop and implement crisis management policies, plans and playbooks, as well as other supporting tools and documents.

The context, needs and capabilities of every organisation are different, and for each project, the framework design starts with a thorough assessment of these elements.

This assessment also informs the development of supporting policies, plans and playbooks. We design with real-life in mind, drawing on experience of how these documents form the basis of internal stakeholder engagement and how they are used in live crisis situations.

We work in partnership with clients to support the implementation of the framework within the organisation’s way of working.

CrisisReady assessments

CrisisReady is a comprehensive assessment that measures an organisation’s crisis preparedness against leading practices and internationally recognised standards, such as BS 65000 and ISO 22301.

It provides an objective view of strengths and vulnerabilities helping to enhance existing frameworks. It can be conducted as a standalone project or as part of a broader Resilience Review 

We help organisations build crisis management capability in their leaders and teams.

We have extensive experience designing and delivering engaging training programmes for leaders, teams and individuals.

We cover a wide range of remits, from building familiarity with specific crisis management team roles through to programmes designed to cultivate decision-making, collaboration, situational awareness and personal resilience.

Our programmes often involve a blend of theory, psychometric tools and practical exercises, delivered by facilitators experienced in guiding leadership teams through live crisis situations. 

We deliver countless exercises every year for public and private sector organisations, varying in scope and scale, and designed to meet specific objectives and learning needs.

From small group scenario walkthroughs, to multi-team, cross-geography and cross-ecosystem live simulation exercises, our specialist team works with clients to understand their requirements, create credible scenarios, and design and deliver exercises that effectively practice and cultivate crisis management capability.

Drawing on a range of techniques, tools and digital platforms, we typically deliver four types of exercise:

Scenario walk throughs

A facilitated discussion that steps through a severe but plausible scenario in slow time. These exercises test assumptions, help to identify blind spots and explore strategic choices to gauge team response in different potential realities.

Desktop exercises

A facilitated session that uses a scenario and realistic ‘injects’ to build familiarity with how crises unfold, and explore crisis management good practice, plans and strategies. It allows teams to understand their respective roles, build relationships and identify strengths and weaknesses in the response process.

War games

A facilitated session using techniques including red teaming, free play, role reversal and non-hierarchical debriefs.

These are designed to challenge strategic thinking, build live operations capability, identify decision-making strengths and weaknesses, and improve coordination and resilience during high-pressures situations.

Simulations

These exercises are based on a severe scenario and supporting injects delivered in real-time to rehearse participants in a range of crisis roles, processes and capabilities.

This includes escalation & mobilisation, holding effective crisis management meetings, managing information flow, decision-making and stakeholder engagement.

We provide specialist crisis management advice, support, coaching and coordination for live situations.

Our key services in this area include:

CR24

Our CR24 solution provides immediate, round-the-clock access to experienced crisis management professionals and a global network of resources, including cyber security, legal and intelligence experts.

Activated via a dedicated 24/7 hotline, CR24 provides flexible crisis response support, including strategic counsel, crisis management office support (establishing response structures, logistics management and stakeholder engagement), and communications support.

Alongside supporting immediate response needs, CR24 also includes a dedicated fund to cover ongoing crisis preparedness activities, helping organisations continually enhance their readiness.

Live crisis response support

Outside of CR24, we also provide live crisis response support as needed. This includes:

• Strategic counsel, with our experienced consultants operating as members of the crisis management team
• Crisis facilitation or coordination, in a ‘chief of staff’ role
• Communications advice and support, including strategy and message development, media spokespeople coaching, media management and stakeholder engagement
• Coaching for crisis team leaders or other senior executives

We help clients learn from crisis events, identifying opportunities to improve management approaches, strengthen resilience and build confidence in the organisation’s ability to navigate future challenges.

A post-incident review (PIR) is a structured process for examining an organisation’s response to a crisis, helping to understand why it happened and how to improve future responses.

It provides an objective assessment, highlighting good practices, vulnerabilities and identifying actionable recommendations.

PIRs are crucial for fostering a culture of continuous learning and strengthening organisational resilience.