CRISIS MANAGEMENT CONSULTANTS

Developing a crisis plan for your school or organization is no doubt, an overwhelming task. Even more so if you have never done this before. In the same thought, updating a current crisis plan is probably not high on your “things I’d like to do” list.

If you have decided to attempt this and are in the majority, your first step is most likely to find someone else’s plan to use as a guide or template. The danger here is many who do this end up doing little more than changing the address and cover page while recycling the rest of the document.

The worst case of this I have ever come across was in a private K-12 school. In this event, I was conducting an audit of their security. As part of the assessment, I asked for their crisis plan. I was handed a dusty but very thick three ring binder only to find the manual actually belonged to the county public school system. It wasn’t difficult to discover this fact as the school had not taken the time to change the cover page! In fact, the school staff, name or even address, was nowhere to be found in the manual. There was valuable information in the plan but most of it had no bearing on this school. There was a chain of command to be notified but it was for county and state level officials who had no connection to the school. There was even an early dismissal procedure but this pertained to closing the school so it could be used as a shelter while this school was not a county shelter.

In some cases I have found plans that were so exhaustive, it would take a study guide and a tutor to understand. At the other extreme, many schools have no written plan at all.

The point of this is not to discourage you. Quite the contrary, I want you to understand it is imperative you have a current, valid and up to date plan for your facility. In that thought, I hope you can use the following to guide you through the process of updating or authoring your crisis plan.

While beginning this process, the first hurdle is to know what a crisis plan is. A crisis plan is an all hazards approach document that delineates authority and procedures to be enacted during a crisis.

The term “all hazard” may be confusing so let me explain further. It is permissible to establish specific steps to take during certain events such as a tornado warning or fire but it would be impossible to spell out a procedure for every event that might occur at your school. Even a short list would require a manual of steps that would be so large it would be impossible to grasp. Instead, the goal is to author a plan which is an action guide that can lay over any event your school could suffer. In other words, the desire is to establish authority, chain of command, communication links and a recovery process that initiates regardless of the event.

A point to remember here is the authority will not always be the same person. One cannot designate the headmaster or principal as the incident commander for every event. First because they may not be present but more importantly, they may not be qualified. Under the federal government’s Incident Command Structure , we learn the incident commander is the first person on scene. They also remain the IC until the event is resolved or until properly relieved by a more qualified and fully briefed IC.

The most time consuming process of your venture comes next. This is a vulnerability assessment. A VA is an honest and hard look at your facility for any “holes in the fence”. What is your campus vulnerable to? If you are in the northeast, you will need to consider snow days while a southern school may have a threat of hurricanes. The VA should start at the community level and work inward.

Look at your surrounding industry, chemical storage, transportation routes and registered sex offenders. I once gave a presentation at a southern Florida school whose property was in the flight path of a large airport. In fact, the commercial jets flew so low over their sports field they once boasted winning a football game due to the other team being distracted when an airliner passed over.

Moving closer, the VA examines the school property, buildings, storage, classrooms and evacuation routes. This is in no way a complete list. A few other topics schools regularly omit are transportation safety, student accountability and parking. In short, you are looking for the issues you are susceptible to, which if occurred, would constitute an emergency for your school. Ultimately, I recommend a vulnerability assessment be completed by a qualified professional from outside your organization.

With a completed assessment in hand you now know what you are planning for and can tailor the plan for your facility.

This is why there are no “cut and paste” crisis plans for schools. They are specific to the facility, student make-up, geography and population.

At this point, we are ready to take pen to paper. A good plan will start with an introduction, statement of purpose and table of contents. It will also specify authority as well as a review process. An annual review of the plan is common. Your plan should establish the stakeholders in your organization such as board members, your safety committee and authors of the plan. Finally, the plan will contain a distribution list as well as a list of agreements with any volunteer organizations or government agencies.

The next step in preparing your crisis plan is to understand the four phases the plan must include. In order, these are prevention and mitigation, preparation, response and recovery.

It is important to insert here that I am not fond of the “prevention” word. There are several reasons for this but the most obvious being many of the events you are planning for are simply not preventable. We cannot prevent a tornado, hurricane or earthquake.

A second reason a prevention mindset is detrimental is because this breeds complacency and complacency is a dangerous place to live. When you head out on a prevention campaign you expect the undesired event will be eradicated. After we establish our prevention tactics we arrive at a place where we feel insulated from the event. At that point, we begin ignoring the possibility that event will ever happen to us. Know this; no one ever believes it will happen to them!

I understand that some dangers are preventable but the warning here is to not be lulled into a sense of security. The wiser choice is mitigation.

Crisis mitigation is an approach that accepts it will happen but reduces the cost of it. Reducing the monetary cost, injuries, casualties, property damage and even liability is the goal. An example of mitigation is using non-flammable or fire retardant construction materials. In doing this, you have not guaranteed a fire won’t occur but instead reduced the chance it will destroy everything when it occurs. Some other examples of mitigation are good locks, proper storage of chemicals or hazardous materials, and effective training.

While authoring our mitigation section, we will establish regular training and some important tools for our organization. These are crisis counselors, threat assessment teams, adopting the National Incident Management model, establishing an emergency operations center, and conducting a vulnerability assessment which was discussed above. The plan should establish when and how often a VA is conducted.

Crisis counselors are probably self-explanatory but threat assessment teams may need some explanation. A threat assessment team is a multi-disciplinary team from your organization which meets to assess behavior or reports of activity which may be threatening or indicate impending violence. The team will assess the actions and background of the subject to determine if further concern is warranted. If necessary, the information will then be forwarded to law enforcement. If not, the results will be recorded for future reference.

The National Incident Management System or NIMS is a federal, standardized approach to crisis. The federal government requires all government organizations adhere to this and recommends private organizations adopt it as well. Instruction for this is provided for free through the government’s Homeland Security website via on-line courses.

Establishing an emergency operations center or EOC sounds like a big task but truly isn’t that complicated. At best, your EOC will be a purpose built room with phone, internet and cable TV access. This is the heart of an operation where requested resources are dispatched, tracked and accounted for. In its simplest form, your EOC could be the hood of a car with some white boards, a note pad and a cell phone or portable radio.

Moving into the preparation phase, we learn this is an ongoing process. Crisis management is not a one-time event. Instead, it should be a constant in your organization. Some preparative steps could be stocking of emergency supplies, authoring memorandums of understanding, establishing liaison with your local first responders and conducting drills.

You may have noticed training is listed under mitigation while drill is listed under preparation. The reason for this is training is not drill and drill is not training. Training is where we teach what we are supposed to do, who is in charge and the steps to be accomplished during a crisis. Drill is where we practice what we have learned. You cannot practice what you have not learned. There is a third step in this mini-cycle which is assessment. A good assessment is a hard honest look at the drill to determine if the tactics worked, if we included the appropriate steps and if we forgot anything. After the assessment, we then make adjustments to our plan, train the modified plan and conduct another drill. This is the train, drill assess cycle you should employ regularly.

Under preparation, we will also establish our school safety committee. This is no more than a group of volunteers, teachers, parents and if possible first responders (police, fire or EMS) who will meet regularly to discuss current safety issues, revise plans and conduct training. Having a consultant guide this group in its early stages is acceptable.

After preparation, we are ready to embark on response. The response section of your plan will be the technical portion. You may choose to seek guidance from first responders (fire, EMS and police), someone with experience from your staff or an outside consultant during this step. In the response section you will establish pre-determined points of interest such as a command post and triage areas. Response will also include your methods of communicating with parents, employees, and first responders to both alert them of the crisis and continue communication throughout the event.

As previously stated, it is acceptable to have specific steps for certain events such as tornados or a lock-down but remember the goal is to have one plan which works regardless of the crisis. The noted specific steps could be printed on quick reference cards for all to have. This ensures your staff has quick access to specific steps without the need to carry around the entire crisis plan manual.

The response section may also include your methods of evacuation including the possibility of relocating to another agreed upon site. This could be required due to a chemical emergencies or any other loss of use to your facility. This is where memorandums of understanding come into play. Making arrangements with sister schools or other facilities where you can temporarily shelter is wise. These may be used for short evacuations or even longer periods while repairs are completed after more serious events.

Finally, your response will establish who has the authority to sound the alarm or activate the plan. You may decide to appoint team leaders such as ushers for a church or the senior teacher at each grade level. Each leader would have a section that reports any problems and the authority to notify higher authority or call for outside help. On the other hand, you may decide anyone in the organization has the authority to activate the plan. This decision is yours to make based on the size of your organization and level of staff experience.

On the point of sounding the alarm, it is my opinion that “code words” should be avoided. Many locations use elaborate codes so only “insiders” know what is happening. For example, a large U.S. retail chain uses the name “Adam Walsh” to alert employees of a possible child abduction event and to activate their response plan. The rationale behind this is so the “bad guy” doesn’t know we’re on to him as well as to prevent panic. The problem with this is you exclude some from receiving the alarm. If your location has volunteers, visitors, parents or a congregation in a church setting; you risk denying them the opportunity to be responsible for their own safety. Instead, I recommend the use of clear, calm and concise language for your alarms. The federal government also recommends “plain language” instead of jargon or codes to ensure all responding resources can effectively communicate.

The last phase our plan will address is recovery. Ironically, many forget this part. We spend great efforts in stocking supplies, conducting drills, and organizing evacuation procedures but omit the one thing that is going to allow us to resume our daily lives. Recovery won’t just happen and without a plan, it will likely be a long and painful process.

While planning our recovery, we are going to consider the obvious, such as physical repairs but shouldn’t forget our human repairs. This is where our crisis counselors are such an important asset. Effort should also be made in establishing memorials, plaques or areas of remembrance. A note should be made here when dealing with suicide events. Great care should be taken as to not glamorize these losses.

On the long term scale, our recovery should remember anniversaries. For some, these may mean nothing while for others they may help dramatically with the recovery and healing process. Effort is also recommended in monitoring your staff, students or other affected members as these times can bring back painful memories. Watch for signs of unusual or abnormal grieving. These may be symptoms of more serious emotional distress requiring intense and professional assistance.

This leads us to the last portion of recovery which is time. Everyone recovers differently and at their own pace. Professional counselors tell us there is no set time for recovery. In fact, the time it takes to recover is the appropriate time; whatever that time is.

Remember we are talking about a crisis; a cataclysmic, life changing tragedy that you never imagined would happen but now, has happened to you. When planning for these, imagine the worst and multiply that by ten. Try to place yourself in those moments by removing “if” from your vocabulary and replacing it with “when”. “When this happens, I will do this!”

Finally, understand having a plan in place, conducting drills, stocking supplies and so on doesn’t prevent crisis. Many times, people are looking for guarantees and in this business there is only one guarantee. You can do everything right, all day and every day but In spite of your best efforts, crisis will still find you. Remember, this is crisis management not crisis prevention.

Incident Command Structure http://www.fema.gov/emergency/nims/

National Incident Management System http://www.fema.gov/emergency/nims/

William Byrd The Troas Group, Inc. 2010