5 Steps to Crisis Recovery Planning

I recently attended a webinar on the title of this blog post presented by Pam Green, pamelajgreen.com, and the following comments are from her talk and PPT.

Stages of a Crisis

  • Warning
  • Risk Assessment
  • Response
  • Management
  • Resolution
  • Recovery

Each group needs to define where you are in the above stages and respond accordingly.  In the Covid-19 we’re in the two steps forward and one step back.

 

Focus on how you must change to do business not the “hole” of the pandemic.  What can you do to keep your chamber relevant?

 

The Leader’s Role in a Crisis:

  • Lead decisively – don’t be afraid to fail forward.
  • Frame and reframe the crisis – curate all the new information you can to make appropriate decisions.
  • Actively communicate – internally and externally with your stakeholders.  You want to be the go-to resource at the local level.
  • Flexibility – maintain a mindset of being radically flexible and prepare for the unexpected.
  • Credible intelligence – consider multiple viewpoints from the right sources.  As stated earlier, think being a curator on the information.

The discussion was fascinating!

 

5 Steps to Successful Crisis Recovery

  1. Recognize – is it over?  Or are we going to have to deal with this all over again?
  2. Recalibration – think about where you want to focus your program of work moving forward.  This might be a good time to kill some sacred cows.  For a blog post on that subject go HERE.  It’s important to be focused on the new normal in delivering value through the right technologies.
  3. Repair – articulate a communication strategy for your key stakeholders.
  4. Redirect – communicate more, not less, accentuate the positive, share best practices and resources that are out there.
  5. Reinvigorate – focus, focus, focus on value.  Deliver value to your members, they need it now more than ever!

She ended with authenticity and genuine concern for your members are priceless!  People will go with you if you’re authentic and genuine in dealing with the issue at hand.  It’s Covid-19 today, it will be something else on another day.

 

For more resources on crisis management go HERE.

Setting up a Covid-19 Task Force is a Proactive Strategy

How do we anticipate and adapt to the current Covid-19 situation? Roy McGrath, IOM and Michael Gellman, CPA conducted a webinar on creating task forces as a proactive strategy.

A place to start is to manage your focus, expertise and deliverables on a specific task.  If you do, that will lead to your outcomes.

 

Public health vs economics are the two key areas most chambers are focusing on right now for their small business members and the community at large.

 

They went on to talk about the different uses of task forces in these Covid-19 times:

 

Task Forces can be set-up to:

  • Help give advice on internal changes at your organization (strategic planning, etc.)
  • Reopening guidance for your small business members.
  • How you will conduct future events for your chamber members based on the latest information from the local and state health care professionals.
  • Safe work environment for chamber staff when they re-engage back in the office.

They gave some best practices advice you should think about when forming a task force:

  • The task force should be expert-driven, and it should have external partners.
  • It’s key to set expectations for the task force with clear roles and duties of its members (3-5 task force members).
  • Task forces give advice and information and have no direct authority or approval functions, that’s the role of your board.
  • Keep each task force focused on their specific issue and not stray from that task.
  • Task forces should report to CEO and then secondarily the executive committee.
  • Communications should be clear both ways.
  • Weekly meetings might be a place to start.  You can adjust as you move forward.
  • Set a 90-day task force period with the option to extend if needed.
  • Transparency and messaging is key from senior management of the chamber.  It’s about telling your story!

They ended with reminding those participating that the four key points of a task force:

  1. Resource to your chamber;
  2. Can be nimble;
  3. A team of specialists; and
  4. It’s your consulting team to provide solutions.

A task force can help you manage through these unprecedented times.  Set-up your task force/s today!