Lead Crisis Manager flashcards

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

Crisis definition test

A crisis requires three simultaneous conditions: a triggering event, high uncertainty about cause or consequence, and serious threat to core objectives under compressed decision time. Missing any one means it is an incident or problem instead.

Incident versus crisis

An incident is contained by routine response within normal authority. A crisis threatens organizational viability or reputation and requires executive authority. A disaster overwhelms local response capacity and draws external agencies.

Crisis lifecycle stages

Four stages: pre-crisis, covering signal detection and prevention; acute, covering damage limitation; chronic, covering recovery and investigation; and resolution, covering learning and return to normal operations.

Risk versus vulnerability

Risk equals likelihood multiplied by impact. Vulnerability equals exposure multiplied by susceptibility, minus adaptive capacity. Crisis management concentrates on low-likelihood, high-impact events that risk registers systematically underweight.

Normalization of deviance

Repeated minor deviations that produce no consequence gradually shift what a workforce accepts as normal, silently eroding safety margins. Crisis programs must treat recurring near-misses as leading indicators rather than background noise.

Crisis manager role boundary

The crisis manager owns process, tempo, and cross-functional integration. Subject-matter experts own technical decisions within their discipline. The accountable executive alone accepts residual risk and authorizes major trade-offs.

Decision log purpose

A timestamped record of each decision, the decision owner, the information available at the time, and the rationale. It supports continuity across shift changes and provides defensible evidence in later investigations and reviews.

Time-pressure decision degradation

As information completeness falls and stakes rise, decision quality deteriorates. Crisis process compensates with pre-delegated authority, fixed battle-rhythm cycles, and structured decision templates rather than relying on individual judgment.

Program charter essentials

The charter must state covered event types, entities and geographies, delegated authority thresholds, objective escalation triggers, and the named accountable executive. Ambiguity in any element causes escalation delay in the first hour.

Three-tier crisis governance

Strategic tier: board or executive committee sets risk appetite and external posture. Tactical tier: crisis management team coordinates and allocates resources. Operational tier: incident response teams contain and restore. Each tier has distinct authority.

Crisis management team structure

Standard units: crisis lead, situation unit for information, operations unit for action, planning unit for forward look, logistics unit for resources, liaison for external parties, and scribe for the decision log.

Escalation matrix design

Escalation triggers must be objective and pre-agreed, such as fatalities, data loss above a threshold, a media inquiry, regulatory contact, or outage beyond a set duration, so escalation never depends on judgment under stress.

Policy hierarchy for crisis

Board-approved crisis policy states principles. The crisis management plan defines framework and roles. Function annexes cover cyber, recall, and evacuation. Playbooks and checklists give step-level task guidance at the point of use.

Program assurance cycle

Annual full exercise, semiannual tabletop, quarterly plan review, and post-incident audit. Every activity produces tracked corrective actions with a named owner, a due date, and verified closure.

Program health metrics

Track corrective-action closure rate, mean time to escalate, mean time to first external statement, percentage of plans current, and percentage of critical suppliers with tested continuity arrangements. These measure readiness, not activity volume.

Shortest clock rule

Among all applicable regulatory, statutory, and contractual notification deadlines, the shortest one sets the response tempo. Map every clock in advance and design the response sequence to satisfy the earliest deadline.

Business impact analysis ranking

Rank processes by maximum tolerable downtime and recovery point objective. Recovery sequencing follows that ranking, not the seniority or volume of the requesting business unit. Revalidate the analysis at least annually.

Early warning indicator categories

Operational signals include defect rates and capacity saturation. Financial signals include liquidity ratios and receivables aging. People signals include attrition spikes. External signals include supplier distress, regulatory consultations, social sentiment, and geopolitical shifts.

Three-band indicator thresholds

Each indicator carries green, watch, and act bands. Every band names an owner and a predefined action. An indicator without an action owner and defined response is monitoring without effect.

Horizon scanning cadence

Daily automated feeds for operational and social signals, weekly analyst review, and monthly executive briefing on slow-burn risks. Slow-onset crises are missed when review cadence is slower than the rate of signal drift.

Exercise design ladder

Progression: orientation walkthrough, tabletop, functional drill, full-scale simulation, then unannounced no-notice exercise. Each level adds realism and cost; sequence by the criticality of the function being tested.

Exercise quality criteria

Stated objectives, injected events unknown to participants, one trained evaluator per objective, a hot-wash within 24 hours, and a written after-action report within two weeks with owned corrective actions.

Crisis go-kit contents

Contact trees with alternates, authority delegation letters, pre-approved statement templates, site maps and access credentials, cash and credit authority, and offline copies of plans. Assume primary systems and networks are unavailable.

Crisis team redundancy

Name alternates two deep for every critical crisis role, designate a secondary command location, and maintain a communication channel independent of the corporate network so team activation survives the failure that caused the crisis.

First-hour response sequence

Confirm and classify the event, activate the plan and convene the team, open the decision log, secure life safety and containment, issue an initial holding statement, and set the next battle-rhythm checkpoint.

Battle rhythm definition

Fixed scheduled situation reports, typically every two to four hours in the acute phase, with a standing agenda: known facts, unknown facts, decisions required, actions with owners, and external communication posture.

Situation report standard

Separate verified fact from assessment from rumor. Timestamp every entry. State confidence level. Unverified items must never enter an external statement, even under pressure to fill a communication vacuum.

Crisis communication principle

Be first, be right, be credible. Speed establishes voice; accuracy preserves it. Acknowledge uncertainty explicitly rather than speculating, and always commit to a specific time for the next update.

Stakeholder sequencing rule

Sequence by duty of care and legal obligation, not publicity pressure: affected people and families, then employees, then regulators and authorities, then customers and partners, then media and the public.

Message architecture stages

Holding statement acknowledges the event and expresses care. Interim updates give verified facts, actions taken, and next update time. Resolution statement covers root cause summary, remediation commitments, and accountability.

Crisis to recovery transition

A formal decision with explicit criteria: situation stabilized, response costs contained, and investigation scope defined. Recovery then runs as a program under a single accountable lead with its own plan and budget.