Schools and Crisis Management

In the wake of the Columbine High School Massacre, the September 11, 2001 attacks, and shootings on college campuses including the Virginia Tech massacre, educational institutions at all levels are now focused on crisis management.

A national study conducted by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and Arkansas Children's Hospital Research Institute has shown that many public school districts have important deficiencies in their emergency and disaster plans. In response the Resource Center has organized a comprehensive set of resources to aid schools in the development of crisis management plans.

Crisis management plans cover a wide variety of incidents including bomb threats, child abuse, natural disasters, suicide, drug abuse and gang activities - just to list a few. In a similar fashion the plans aim to address all audiences in need of information including parents, the media and law enforcement offices.

 

Text 7. 25 More Crisis Management Lessons Learned

By Jonathan Bernstein

On October 15, 2005,"25 Crisis Management Lessons learned were published based on someconsulting assignments of the preceding year. You may wish to review those first, since most, if not all of them are still valid.

1) We have probably not seen the end of food and product-related crises originating in the People's Republic of China. Any organization with relevant connections to the PRC should factor this into their crisis preparedness.

2) The Internet continues to make it easier to read about, hear and view skeletons in your closet. Corollary lesson: Conduct your business as if everything you write, say and do might be recorded and you'll avoid a lot of crises (P.S. There will be 300 million multimedia-capable mobile phones mobile phones shipped in 2008).

3) Intra-organizational infighting is one of the leading causes of crises and plays a major role in exacerbating crises that may otherwise have remained minor.

4) No written statement can transmit crisis-related messages as well as video communication.

5) If you're a technophobic CEO, get the heck out of the way and let your techno- savvy staff and/or consultants guide you on the best ways to use technology for crisis management purposes.

6) The Better Business Bureau (at least in the United States) can be a royal pain in the ass to deal with because of its institutionalized bias and bad habit of presenting information out of context. Unfortunately it's probably still worth your reputation management time to be highly responsive to BBB complaints and to be a member as well. BBB complaints are often cited by your critics and it's a very common destination for consumers deciding whether to do business with you.

7) Ignore a committed online critic and he'll take most of the top Google rankings under your preferred search terms.

8) The most predictable judge or jury is unpredictable. Always prepare for multiple potential outcomes in litigation-related crisis management.

9) Every organization in the world needs a blog.

10) Changing copy less than once per week on a blog created as a primary communications vehicle (versus strictly for SEO purposes) is like riding a horse in the middle of the German Autobahn - everyone's going to pass you by or run you down. If you don't know what "SEO" means, see lesson #5, above.

11) Too many organizations engage in Search Engine Obfuscation instead of Search Engine Optimization, enhancing their vulnerability to crises.

12) Policies vital to avoiding and/or minimizing the damage from crises MUST be accompanied by initial and refresher training or they are worthless. Corollary lesson: almost every functional area of an organization has (or should have!) such policies.

13) When there are significant cultural differences between the foreign owners of a company and the natives of the country in which they're doing business, those owners must be willing to defer crisis communications strategy and decisions to those who best understand the culture(s) in which they are communicating.

14) If an organizational leader make a commitment to his/her stakeholders, he/she should make certain that everyone in his/her organization (a) is aware of the commitment and (b) does nothing to violate it, or the entire organization's credibility can suffer immense and completely preventable damage.

15) Few organizations have telephone systems or website servers capable of managing the dramatic increase in traffic that would result from a crisis. And many of those who think they do haven't tested their systems through simulation exercises.

16) If I emptied 10 trashcans in the executive suite (and many other parts) of most organizations at the end of a workday, I would find information that could compromise the reputation and/or financial well-being and/or security of those organizations.

17) If you are likely to need certain types of products or services as a result of the types of crises most common to an organization such as yours (e.g., backup generators, testing laboratories), the time to establish relationships with product/service providers is now, not under the gun of a crisis. Corollary lesson: during times of widespread crises, such as a natural disaster, demand for certain types of products/services is higher than the supply; "preferred customers" move to the front of the line, last-minute customers may not be served at all.

18) It's a mistake to let crisis response depend on the leadership skills of any single individual, no matter how talented and charismatic he/she might be. Crisis response should be based on advance planning that generates a system for effective response which works even when individual team members are unavailable at the time the crisis occurs.

19) PR representatives for any organization need to be very familiar not only with traditional media, but with leading bloggers covering their industry. In times of crisis, leading bloggers can become more important than traditional media, as they are more prolific, more focused on a subject over the long-term, and more frequently quoted by other bloggers.

20) Not all IT departments or consultants are created equal. Some of them think they understand all the ways in which the information on their systems can be compromised. Some of them are wrong.

21) Far too many organizations have no contingency plan whatsoever for what to do if - tonight - they permanently or for some long term lost access to their primary workplace or a major facility due to a disaster of any kind (e.g., fire, flood, earthquake, tornado, hurricane).

22) There are relatively few organizations that have functional disaster response plans - functional meaning that they include all details of what to do in the event of a man-made or natural disaster and that training has accompanied the plans, to including drills and/or exercises.

23) Many crises, from reputational threats to threats of violence, have been foreshadowed by messages on traditional websites, blogs or social media sites, but most organizations fail to regularly monitor these online locations. Those seeking to harm individuals or an organization have the portable ability to easily record the written word, audio, and video and post it on the Internet very quickly - or even live.

24) Quite a few organizations have a policy of not allowing their top leaders to fly together, yet they are actually at more risk driving together, which they do all the time.

25) While many organizations go to great length to protect the security of data stored on their servers, the same organizations usually allow executives (and others) to have notebook computers on which they stored sensitive information. Those notebook computers, which are taken to public places and highly vulnerable to theft, are seldom secured by anything more than a password, which is easily bypassed. There are many articles about notebook security available online.

 

Text 8. Crisis Management in Safe Haven

By Jaimie Page

Crises will occur in! Safe Havens. Crises may occur inside the Safe Haven facility, in its immediate neighbourhood, or in the comimlnity-at-large. Types of potential crises include:

• threatening behaviour,

• dangerousness to self or others,

• medical emergencies,

• missing persons,

• outsiders attempting to victimize a Safe Haven resident, and

• fires and natural disasters.

Effective Safe Havens anticipate and prepare for crises. These programs develop crisis management procedures and train staff to respond efficiently and calmly. Effective crisis management reduces potential harm to resi­dents, staff, community members, and property. It also minimizes the potentially traumatic effects of crises on Safe Haven residents.

This chapter suggests five tenets of crisis management to guide a program's response to emergency situations. It then describes several potential crises and effective responses. The chapter also contains a scenario of a crisis common to Safe Havens and outlines immediate, secondary, and follow-up responses.

Prevention is key

Many crises that could potentially develop in Safe Havens can be prevented or minimized. Not only can Safe Havens and staff anticipate and take action to prevent general crises, but they can also identify and address potential crises that could occur with individual residents.

Staff, for example, will observe that one resident who has organic deficits as well as chronic mental illness is prone to smoking in his room and sometimes drops his cigarette without knowing it. The resident may not be able to follow the standard "rule" of no smoking in rooms, and staff will need to take a more proactive approach. The response could include more vigilant monitoring of the resident's room, having him check his cigarettes at the front desk, or having him smoke with staff accompaniment.

Another resident may have a behavioural "red flag" of further escalation once he/she begins to think that others are "part of a plot" to control his/her mind and body. Effective responses include assigning staff to more intensive one-on-one interaction, considering additional medications as needed in addition to any regular medications he/she may be taking, keeping other residents at a distance, and preparing to intervene quickly should an incident arise.