Recently, the world witnessed one of the biggest IT outages in history when CrowdStrike, a renowned cybersecurity firm, with a customer base of around 24,000, caused an unprecedented IT outage and Blue Screen of Deaths (BSODs) for Microsoft Windows devices, globally.
It’s astonishing how routine maintenance and a glitch in software can lead to global chaos whereby banks, airlines, train companies, telcos, healthcare providers, supermarkets, TV and radio broadcasters are taken offline, and the cost to fix the damages reaches billions of dollars in total.
But here’s the thing. When massive teams collaborate on common interconnected systems, and have a single point of failure, the vulnerability isn’t just in the code – it’s also in the coordination.
And that’s something business and tech leaders, often miss.
Whether it’s a natural disaster, a cyberattack, or a sudden market shift, the ability to respond swiftly and effectively can mean the difference between recovery and catastrophe, life and death, as well as profits and losses. For CEOs, C-level tech executives, and crisis management teams, being prepared for anything is not just a necessity—it’s a crucial component of organisational resilience.
That’s what this thought leadership blog is about.
In it, I’ll be examining the importance of timeliness in crisis management plus the tools you can use to effectively manage a crisis. I’m partnering with BlackBerry again, and shining a spotlight on BlackBerry® AtHoc®, a Crisis Event Management (CEM) solution that’s been purposely built for real-time collaboration under pressure. Whether you have an IT outage, a cyberattack, domestic attack, an insurrection, or a natural disaster to deal with, BlackBerry® AtHoc® provides secure communication and coordination to enable an effective crisis response.
The Importance of Timeliness in Crisis Management
In a crisis, every second counts. Delays in notifications, updates, or decisions can severely impede response efforts, leaving organisations vulnerable and unprepared. Public and private organisations of all sizes alike face significant challenges in coordinating effective emergency responses. The ability to react and share information quickly, accurately and securely is paramount, especially when lives are at stake.
However, many organisations still rely on poor processes, fragmented systems, incompatible tools, and insecure workarounds that delay responses when speed is critical and don’t hold up in court, forensically. Outdated, inadequate, or piecemeal siloed communication systems can compromise emergency efforts, making it difficult to mobilise resources and make informed decisions quickly. Even the most experienced leaders can make poor decisions if they lack the situational information, processes and tech organisations.
Time to Know (TTK) + Time to React (TTR)
When it comes to a crisis, there are two metrics you need to know – TTK and TTR. First introduced by Dr. Ian Mitroff, renowned disaster management expert, and Professor Emeritus at the USC Marshall School of Business, they refer to the critical time period between when an incident occurs (TTK) and when action is taken (TTR). In crisis scenarios, TTK is the time it takes for organisations to become aware of the situation and gather all necessary information, while TTR is the time it takes to respond effectively. The shorter this period is, the better chance an organisation has at mitigating damage and restoring normal operations.
The Role of CEM Solutions
This is where CEM solutions come into play. Modern CEM solutions streamline urgent communication, coordinate response efforts, and help organisations respond effectively when it matters most. By leveraging advanced technology, CEM solutions expedite decision-making processes, ensuring that resources are mobilised immediately and efficiently.
Key Features of Modern CEM Solutions:
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- Real-time Communication: CEM solutions provide real-time communication channels, ensuring that all stakeholders receive timely and accurate information.
- Integrated Systems: Unlike fragmented systems, modern CEM solutions integrate seamlessly with existing infrastructure, providing a unified platform for crisis management.
- Secure Data Sharing: Security is paramount in a crisis. CEM solutions ensure that all shared data and communications are secure and reliable, giving stakeholders confidence in the information they receive.
- Automated Workflows: Automated workflows streamline the response process, reducing the potential for human error and ensuring consistency in crisis management.
- Accountability and Forensic Capability: Modern CEM solutions enhance accountability by providing detailed logs of communications and actions taken during a crisis. This forensic ability allows organisations to analyse response efforts post-incident, identifying what worked well and areas for improvement, ultimately fostering a culture of continuous enhancement in crisis management practices.
Where to Begin: Preparing for the Unexpected
Preparation is the first step in effective crisis management. Organisations must proactively develop crisis response plans that encompass a wide range of potential scenarios. Here are nine steps you can take to prepare for a crisis:
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- Identify key stakeholders: Determine the individuals or departments that should be included in your crisis response plan, along with their contact numbers, roles and responsibilities. Ensure these are diverse to avoid group think and being blindsided, and that these stakeholders know they are on your list!
- Perform a risk assessment: Conduct a thorough risk assessment to identify potential threats, vulnerabilities, and priorities.
- Develop a crisis response plan: Create a simple comprehensive crisis response plan that outlines specific actions that can be taken in various scenarios. Ensure there is a physical copy of it that can also be accessed.
- Establish communication protocols: Define clear communication protocols to ensure that information is shared quickly and accurately. Designate primary and backup communication channels for different scenarios, such as natural disasters, insurrections, terrorism, cyberattacks, and IT outages. Additionally, workarounds for messaging employees when traditional communication systems fail.
- Conduct regular drills: Practice makes perfect, so conduct regular drills – war games and tabletop exercises, with your response team. This enables you to test your plan and the effectiveness of your response team in a safe environment. When you record every decision being made, you can then debrief accurately after the exercise and refine your playbook accordingly.
- Consider tech solutions to bolster communication plans. Ensure your response team can access an out-of-band, encrypted, and trusted means of communication as threat actors will try to infiltrate your email and online collaboration tools like Slack.
- Partnerships: Partner with trusted technology providers who can support your organisation’s specific needs and provide reliable crisis management solutions, such as a CEM solution which will help you streamline your crisis management processes and improve overall response times.
- Review your insurance terms. Some insurers demand that they allocate your incident response help; they also have various requirements about notification.
- Get legal support from a law firm that handles cyber incidents. They can help reduce your liability post-incident, ensure you communicate everything to regulators, and assist with PR.
Real Story: Effective Crisis Communication and Coordination with BlackBerry® AtHoc®
When a crisis hits, the ability to respond quickly and effectively is critical. This is what Grant Durfey, a former Emergency Management Specialist with Niagara Region Emergency Management, experienced when he used the power of BlackBerry® AtHoc® during a significant winter storm on Christmas morning in 2022. The storm had the potential to severely disrupt the region, but the robust capabilities of BlackBerry® AtHoc® ensured that timely and accurate communication was maintained throughout the crisis.
By leveraging real-time information, secure communication channels, and automated workflows Niagara Region was able to promptly mobilise resources and coordinate response efforts with all the relevant stakeholders in real-time, and keep residents informed and safe. This ensured him a unified and consistent response effort across teams and departments.
With both top-down messaging from leadership as well as bottom-up communication from his staff, he had a complete picture of the situation, enabling him to empower all stakeholders to take informed actions.
Having a tool like BlackBerry® AtHoc®, which is auditable and forensically available, provided him with assurance that all communication during his crisis could be tracked and documented, providing evidence for post-incident analysis or potential legal proceedings. He knew this level of transparency and accountability was crucial if he were to build trust with his stakeholders and maintain confidence in Niagara Region Emergency Management crisis response capabilities.
To End
Business today is increasingly complex and unpredictable. Being ready for anything is essential. Coordinating an effective crisis response requires more than just a plan—it requires the effective decision making coupled with the right tools and technologies to execute that plan swiftly and efficiently. Modern CEM solutions provide the capabilities organisations need to prepare, respond, and recover when the unexpected happens.
So, don’t wait for a crisis to strike. Remove future stress by taking proactive steps now to enhance your organisation’s resilience and ensure that you are ready to respond when it matters most.
Now I want to hear from you.
Tell me about your experience with crisis management.
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- How are you preparing for a crisis?
- What challenges are you facing in coordinating emergency efforts?
- And if you’ve already dealt with a crisis, what’s worked for you?
Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments on LinkedIn, and let’s continue the conversation!
Finally, in the spirit of full disclosure, please be aware that I’ve received compensation for promoting this #ad for BlackBerry. Because your success is important to me, I only align myself with brands I believe in, and BlackBerry is one of them.
BlackBerry® AtHoc® provides reliable, out-of-band channels to help you maintain business operations: communication is guaranteed even when primary channels fail. Their crisis communication platform ensures that your messages reach all employees simultaneously across multiple channels. Being one of the most configurable systems on the market and integrating easily with other systems, you can increase:
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- Speed: Activate your full emergency response in less than 10 minutes.
- Certainty: Centralise all communication and operate from one dashboard.
- Accountability: Collect high-value evidence during golden hour and ensure compliance.
To learn more about how to enhance your crisis response capabilities and safeguard your organisation’s future, visit https://bit.ly/BlackBerryAtHocInfo