CRIS flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Crisis

A low-probability, high-impact event that threatens an organization's viability or strategic objectives and forces rapid decisions under high uncertainty and compressed time.

Incident versus crisis

An incident is contained with routine resources and standard procedures; a crisis exceeds normal capacity, threatens strategic objectives, and requires extraordinary mobilization and senior authority.

Span of control

The number of subordinates one supervisor can effectively direct. In incident command it is typically held between three and seven, with five as the common working target.

Crisis lifecycle phases

Three sequential phases: pre-crisis, covering signal detection and prevention; crisis, covering containment and response; and post-crisis, covering recovery and learning.

Weak signal

An early, ambiguous indicator of a developing threat that is easily overlooked or rationalized unless the organization actively scans for and escalates anomalies.

Time compression in crises

Decision windows shrink as an event unfolds, so pre-authorized decisions, checklists, and delegated authority thresholds replace deliberation and reduce response latency.

Risk score

A hazard ranking calculated as likelihood multiplied by consequence; the resulting product orders risks for mitigation, planning, and exercise prioritization.

Business impact analysis

A structured process that identifies time-critical functions, their dependencies, and their maximum tolerable period of disruption, which in turn sets recovery objectives.

Maximum tolerable period of disruption

The longest time a critical activity can be unavailable before unacceptable stakeholder, financial, legal, or reputational harm occurs; recovery time objectives must not exceed it.

Exercise fidelity ladder

A progression of exercise realism: orientation and workshop, tabletop discussion, drill, functional exercise, and full-scale simulation involving multiple sites and agencies.

After-action report

A structured document recording exercise or incident observations, root causes, and corrective actions, each assigned to a named owner with a due date.

Crisis management team roles

A baseline staffing model covering crisis leader, operations, communications, liaison, legal, human resources, finance and administration, plus a scribe logging decisions and timestamps.

Plan review triggers

Plans are reviewed on a scheduled annual cycle and additionally after restructuring, new critical dependencies, an exercise, or an actual incident.

Holding statement

A brief initial external message issued before facts are confirmed that acknowledges the event, expresses concern for those affected, and commits to a stated next update.

Single source of truth

One approved message set and one designated spokesperson per topic, preventing contradictory statements that destroy credibility across channels during a crisis.

Situational crisis communication theory

Coombs's framework matching response strategy to crisis cluster: victim crises favor denial or diminishment, accidental crises favor diminishment or rebuilding, preventable crises require rebuilding and apology.

Stakeholder prioritization matrix

A ranking of audiences by degree of impact from the event and capacity to influence outcomes, which determines who is informed first and how often.

Update cadence rule

Publish information at fixed, announced intervals even when nothing new is confirmed, because prolonged silence is filled by rumour and erodes public trust.

Empathy before information

Crisis messages lead with acknowledgment of harm and concern for affected people before technical explanation, because audiences judge care before competence.

Redundant communication channels

Independent paths such as mass notification, email, intranet, hotline, and social media, used together so one channel failure cannot isolate a stakeholder group.

Recovery horizons

Immediate recovery restores safety and critical services within days; short-term recovery resumes business within weeks; long-term recovery covers restoration and learning over months or years.

Hot wash

A facilitated debrief held immediately after or within a few days of an incident or exercise to capture observations while participants' recall is still fresh.

Build-back-better principle

The recovery principle that restoration should reduce future vulnerability rather than simply reproduce the pre-event state of the organization or community.

Demobilization criteria

Predefined, documented conditions that mark the formal transition of control from the crisis team back to normal governance and line management.

Psychological first aid

Post-event support emphasizing safety, stabilization, connection to support networks, and practical information, without requiring detailed emotional debriefing of those affected.

Loss documentation

Recording damage, extra costs, and disruption hours from the first hour of an event, supporting insurance claims, business interruption recovery, and later resilience investment cases.

Resilience capacities

Absorptive capacity withstands disruption and maintains function; adaptive capacity adjusts operations during the event; transformative capacity reconfigures the organization for the post-event environment.

Recovery time objective

The target time within which a function or system must be restored after disruption, set at or below the maximum tolerable period of disruption.

Recovery point objective

The maximum acceptable data loss expressed as elapsed time before a disruption, which determines the required backup and replication frequency.

Continuity strategy families

The main continuity options are redundancy of capacity, diversification of suppliers or sites, relocation, absorption through buffers and workarounds, and risk transfer such as insurance.

ISO 22301

The international standard specifying requirements for a business continuity management system, structured around the plan–do–check–act continual improvement cycle.

Third-party continuity assurance

Contractual provisions that specify supplier recovery commitments, right-to-audit clauses, and pre-identified alternates for every critical external dependency.