Crisis management is a delicate, highly responsible job that requires extensive technical and practical knowledge. When we talk about crisis management in the Information Technology (IT) area, this task becomes much more complex — yet even more essential.
In this text, we will didactically define what crises are, why crisis management planning is necessary, and explain how this management should work in practice. Shall we?
What is a crisis?
A crisis within a company is any unexpected event that can compromise the smooth operation of an organization, affecting customers, employees, and/or suppliers.
In every institution and across all sectors, there are conflicting and problematic situations that are referred to as “crisis moments.”
In the IT sector, crises can be related, for example, to data loss, file intrusion by an external source, internal maintenance problems, and/or the use of equipment and systems, among others.
Where do crises come from?
Crisis situations can be caused by various factors — natural disasters, accidents, and failures are the most common.
They can come accompanied by interruptions that congest production, directly interfere with work and productivity, and cause damage at various levels. Therefore, they deserve our attention and care.
What is a crisis management plan?
It refers to the ability to act during the most delicate moments efficiently, analyzing the signs that something is wrong as soon as possible and taking, from the beginning, all possible measures to mitigate its consequences and resolve the situation as quickly as possible.
Crisis management requires certain characteristics to function simultaneously:
- agility, to solve the problem;
- calmness, so that the unfavorable situation is not resolved in an impulsive and incorrect way, thus causing an even greater crisis;
- versatility, to adapt the team and resources to the needs imposed by the crisis moment without compromising productivity and the delivery of results;
- the ability to learn from one’s own mistakes, to resolve all the bottlenecks that caused the crisis once and for all, preventing it from repeating.
What is the importance of crisis management planning?
The crisis management plan, as the name reveals, must exist even before the crisis happens. It is important because it helps you and your team follow strategies that were thought out at appropriate times, with analyses and studies carried out far from the climate of chaos and urgency that crises carry with them.
A good crisis management plan identifies and lists potential threats, considering the probability of their occurrence, the impact they would cause on the organization, and the most suitable measures to minimize the consequences of each.
Of course, each moment has its specificities, and knowing how to improvise and make instant decisions are fundamental characteristics of any good manager. But if crisis planning can anticipate and help with this task, why not prepare it?
How to make this planning work?
Adverse situations that cause crises are not always identified in time before becoming major problems. But there are some attitudes that, if taken beforehand, help resolve these situations more quickly and efficiently. Check out some of them:
Train the entire team
Training the team to use the system correctly is also a way to prevent crises. More than training for correct use, it is important to update the team by providing information with every system change. After all, assuming that employees will understand changes intuitively is opening the door for a crisis to set in.
It is also important to instruct employees on the correct use of equipment, systems, and networks, internet usage, and inappropriate practices that can pose risks to the organization.
Take advantage of training sessions to run small simulations, preparing employees so that, in the event of crises, they know exactly how to act and who to turn to. Remember that inappropriate behavior can aggravate a problem that could have been solved without major setbacks.
Create a crisis script
Outlining a script can help resolve a conflicting situation with greater organization and agility. In your script, list some questions and answer them before taking any action:
- What could have caused the crisis?
- What measures should be taken in the first few hours so that it does not intensify?
- What is the quickest and most viable resolution?
- Who will be part of the strategic crisis resolution team?
- What is each team member’s role in this strategy?
- What is the timeline for solving the problem?
- What kind of responses/guidelines will we give to the public involved?
- What means will we use to provide these responses/guidelines?
By answering these questions, you and your team will have direction to regularize the situation. In addition, this type of script helps increase the team’s security and confidence in the work to be performed, making tasks more efficient and consistent with the expected results for each action.
You and your IT team can create a customized script according to the daily needs of your sector and thus make the most of this practice.
Make backup copies
For both external and internal factors, backups will provide greater peace of mind so that the problem is resolved properly and as soon as possible. It is important to remember that there must be more than one copy and in different types of storage — offline, online, and in the cloud — and locations. After all, natural disasters and accidents are also on the list of factors that can cause a crisis.
Know the company’s structure
It is important to know the people in the company, their departments, and roles. This will be very useful in times of crisis, as you will know exactly who to contact for each situation.
In addition, you should always keep a list with names and phone numbers of the managers and/or representatives of each department of the organization close by. This list will assist in communication if it is necessary to pass on urgent guidelines that need to be propagated quickly within the team.
Ask for support from the communication team
In high-tension situations, as is generally common in times of crisis, it is important to keep the team and those involved in sync so that information is passed on clearly.
This work is also delicate, since distorted communication can aggravate a crisis. Therefore, it is important to rely on the company’s communication team to help transmit accurate, fast, and objective information.
Even if there is no definitive verdict on the problem yet, it is important to establish initial guidelines for the team, reassuring them and instructing them on the next steps.
Let everyone involved know that, despite the crisis, everything is under control and you and your IT team are working to resolve the problem as quickly and efficiently as possible.
We hope this article has helped you define the first steps for building a crisis management program, or perhaps helped you deal with an already ongoing crisis.
Share with us in the comments any additional tips to further enrich this topic!
