The Effects of Stress on Incident Management Teams
This week I look at stress and the impact it can have on teams and individuals during incidents. I am busy reading a paper by Mica Endsley titled ‘Towards a Theory of Situational Awareness in Dynamic Systems’, which I have been looking forward to reading for a while! I find the whole process of incident
Building an Incident Team Competency Framework
Charlie outlines his ideas on building an incident team competency framework. This week I thought I would share some ideas I have been developing on incident management. They are not fully solidified yet, so I would welcome any thoughts or comments on what I have written. There are many lessons organisations will learn from COVID-19,
Why we are entering the most dangerous period of coronavirus.
Why, for many organisations, we are entering the most dangerous period of coronavirus. This week Charlie discusses why we are entering the most dangerous period of coronavirus for many businesses. In the first few months of the coronavirus outbreak, everyone was ‘in it together’ and people understood why organisations were not able to deliver their
The Business Continuity Manager’s role in the recovery phase of coronavirus
This week I discuss the role of the Business Continuity Manager in dealing with the recovery phrase of coronavirus. Many of the lockdown restrictions have been lifted and are moving on apace, even in Scotland we are able to do more today and even more on Monday, although I haven’t quite worked out what that is.
COVID-19 – A massive failure of risk management?
This week I look at risk management in response to the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak and Black Lives Matter movement. I wanted to write about risk management and what I perceive is a massive failure of the process and implementation in ensuring that organisations were ready for a pandemic. The continuing momentum of the Black Lives
Dominic Cummings – A crisis management case study
This week I discuss the crisis communications lessons to be learnt from Dominic Cummings’ recent ‘rule-breaking’ incident in lockdown. As the ‘Dominic Cummings Affair’ is coming to an end I thought I would comment on what we can learn about crisis communications from the circus surrounding his visit to Durham, during lockdown. I think it
Marks out of 100 for Easyjet’s Cyber Incident Response
Charlie scores Easyjet’s response to their recent cyber attack out of 100. “Thankfully, we now live in a world where it is accepted that data breaches happen, and organisations are more comfortable disclosing that they have been victim to an attack. However, with this welcome move away from victim blaming, organisations are now being judged
20/20 Vision: Comments on Exercise Cygnus (UK’s pandemic exercise in 2016)
Today Charlie discusses how Exercise Cygnus, the UK’s pandemic exercise in 2016, holds up against the ongoing outbreak of COVID-19. UK the “most prepared country”? The UK government has had a lot of criticism in the press about them being unprepared to respond to COVID-19, despite the 2019 Global Health Security Index Report in which
Crisis Communications – Skype to the rescue
This week Charlie looks at an article from The Times, ‘Welcome to The Skype Pandemic’, which discusses how journalists and experts tuning in to interviews from their homes is affecting our news consumption. A team of Kim, Gillian and I have been teaching the CBCI course this week and I was thinking of talking about
Coronavirus Response: The Peak-End Rule
This week I discuss the psychological heuristic ‘peak-end rule’ and why this is important for planning your company’s recovery from COVID-19. Hope you have all had a nice bank holiday weekend at home! This week I wanted to look at how an incident is managed at the end, and whether it leaves a disproportionate impression
Panic buying toilet roll – lesson identified or learned?
This week I look at panic buying and what lessons we can identify from the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak to help prevent this in the future. When I talk to Jacqui Semple, Head of the EPS and Resilience Lead at Angus Council, about incidents and the lessons learned from them, she always corrects me by saying
Business Continuity and Coronavirus – Marks out of 10
This week I mark the six elements of the business continuity lifecycle out of 10, based on their effectiveness during the COVID-10 outbreak. As coronavirus continues to spread apace and it is announced that schools in the UK will be closed down today, I thought I would do a bit of a review and see how
After coronavirus, what next?
This week I discuss how you can prepare for the recovery and transition back to ‘business as usual’ after the coronavirus. You will have seen in the UK that there has been a change announced and we are moving from ‘containment’ to ‘delay’. It has been made clear that the virus has the potential to
Coronavirus Public Reaction – ‘Keep calm and carry on’ or bystander effect?
This week I look at how the bystander effect and social pressure is affecting the public’s reaction to Coronavirus. I have been onsite with a client in the South of England for the last two days and conversations have all been about coronavirus, what is happening, the day-by-day increase in numbers and the speculation on
Decision Making During a Crisis – Decision Making Models
This week I look at what tools and techniques are available to help those leading incident teams on how to make decisions during a crisis. This week I have spent eight hours in conference calls, working with a dedicated team to go through the suggested amendments on ISO 22361 which is going to replace prTS17091 ‘Crisis management
The Minimum Business Continuity Objective: The Cinderella of the BIA
This week I explain what the minimum business continuity objective (MBCO) is and how to use it. The minimum business continuity objective (MBCO) is, in my opinion, an extremely important component of the business impact analysis (BIA). I have always thought that it is the poor cousin to the MTPD (maximum tolerable period of disruption): not
Case study – Dundee and Angus College’s Cyber attack communications review
Following Dundee and Angus College’s recent cyber attack, Charlie looks at why their response is a good example of how to deal with a cyber incident and what we can learn from it. I thought this week we might take a break from talking about the coronavirus (COVID-19), as every man, woman and consultant seems
Pandemic Planning: What is a Pandemic Operating Regime, and do I need one?
Following the spread of Coronavirus throughout China and surrounding countries, Charlie introduces the idea of a Pandemic Operating Regime and why you should develop one. After returning from Colombia last week and working on the new ISO 22361 standard which will replace ‘PD CEN/TS 17091:2018, Crisis management – Guidance for developing a strategic capability’, I
Pandemic Planning: Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) – Should We Panic?
Pandemic Planning: Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) – Should we panic? This week Charlie looks at the ongoing outbreak of Coronavirus, and what precautions your organisation should take to be prepared. You can’t have missed the outbreak of the flu-like disease, Coronavirus, and the China’s response of shutting down travel from the City of Wuhan, as well as several
Travelex – A Crisis Communications Review
Charlie looks at the recent Travelex incident and what we can learn from their response. Happy New Year to all our readers, I hope you had a great Christmas! The Travelex incident is one I have only just come across; I think over new year I was too busy celebrating on the Isle of Coll