In today’s unpredictable world all organisations face significant risks, and effective crisis management is crucial to maintain operational resilience. GSA Global specialises in providing top-tier crisis management planning, training including bespoke scenario-driven exercises tailored to meet the individual needs of private, public and third–sector organisations. Our services are designed to enhance preparedness, response, and recovery capabilities, ensuring our clients are configured to overcome major incidents.
We work with organisations to prepare a practical plan to immediately support and guide all members of the crisis management response in the crucial phases of crisis resolution – including identification of a critical event, escalation, command structure, ongoing situational awareness, communications, logistics, and lessons learned. We follow the good practice offered in ISO 22361:2024 and provide action plans to help organisations achieve adherence.
We offer comprehensive crisis management training programmes that can be conducted in person or remotely using advanced online platforms. Our training is designed to:
Our bespoke scenario-driven exercises are the cornerstone of our training programmes. These exercises are developed in close collaboration with our clients to reflect their specific needs and identified threats. Key features include:
Customisation: We design scenarios that are relevant to the client’s industry, organisational structure, and risk profile.
Realism: Scenarios are crafted to simulate real-world conditions, providing a realistic and immersive experience.
Audit Trail: The platform enables an audit trail of decisions made and the rationale for each decision, allowing for thorough post-exercise analysis.
Feedback and Improvement: Post-exercise anonymised debriefs using our online platform help identify strengths and areas for improvement, ensuring continuous development.
A key component of our crisis management support is our advanced online after-action learning platform, which provides key insights into how stakeholders coped with the crisis:
Anonymised Feedback: Participants can provide feedback about what went well/less well anonymously, encouraging more candid and comprehensive responses.
Better Engagement: Anonymity ensures that all voices are heard, leading to richer and more diverse feedback.
Data Analysis: The collected anonymised feedback is analysed to identify common themes and insights, which are then compiled into a detailed report.
Continuous Improvement: This report highlights areas of strength and opportunities for improvement, driving continuous development and readiness for individuals and organisation.
“The programme has increased the professional confidence of our staff, and we intend to do more of this in the future.” Booking.com
Many organisations fail to distinguish between incidents and crises in their responses meaning that potential crises are identified too late, or minor incidents are escalated too frequently leading to ‘crisis fatigue’.
There will be some valuable retained corporate memory from previous events, but threats and risks change as do your staff and their capabilities. It must not be assumed that yesterday’s solutions will address tomorrow’s problems. Preparation and practice are the best ways to avoid and resolve crises quickly and successfully.
These are inter-related fields but separate disciplines requiring different skills and mind sets. Crises are inherently ‘messy’ and require real problem-solving skills and flexibility. There can’t be business recovery until the crisis has ended. Disaster recovery tends to relate to IT crises but again, recovery comes after the crisis is ended.
There are many notable exceptions, but executives are often mainly concerned about delivering business objectives and assume that a crisis won’t arise and their existing crisis management arrangements, if any, will cope. Sadly, it is often only when a major incident arises that these assumptions are exposed as being insufficient.
The main test is when was it last exercised? If not in the last year, then it is not likely to be current. Secondly, was there a ‘lessons learned’ review of the exercise or of the last crisis/major incident the organisation experienced. If the ‘lessons learned’ have not been documented, actioned, and followed up, then it is unlikely that crisis management arrangements are adequate. A new global advice standard (ISO 22362:2024) has been issued recently which sets current expectations.