The importance of effective crisis management cannot be overstated. But if we’re going to effectively manage a crisis, we really ought to know when we’re having one!

The characteristics of a crisis include :

• An urgent need for decisions
• A lack of accurate information on which to base those decisions
• An acute shortage of time
• Insufficient resources at our disposal
• Uncertainty of the outcome

You could argue that for some organisations this is business as usual! But we’re not talking about day-to-day management headaches here. Crisis management is about dealing with extreme situations. Stuff that’s outside the scope of normal business problems. Stuff that might threaten life and limb or the future of the business. Stuff that’s outside the scope of “normal” management experience

Managing a crisis is not the same as normal day-to-day business management. It needs specific skills and abilities. It needs sufficiently trained and experienced people. It needs skills, training and rehearsal if it’s to be effective.

So make sure your crisis management team are up to the job and prepared for it should a real crisis ever strike.