Business Crisis Worksheets

The Institute for Crisis Management offers its Sudden and Smoldering Crisis Worksheets and other related response materials to help your organization manage both kinds of disruptive crisis situations. These 4 - page worksheets were developed and refined over a five-year period. They have been used in actual crisis conditions by the Institute for Crisis Management's staff and by many of our clients whose crisis response plans were created by ICM.

Sudden Crisis Worksheets

The "Yellow Sheets"

Sample headers from 4 -page worksheets:

The Yellow Sheets are not intended to supersede any response plans your organization has to deal with no-warning crisis situations. On the contrary. They are designed to take the pressure off the emergency responders. The Yellow Sheet, for a specific type of crisis, will allow those who are responding to obtain and then provide verified information quickly to anyone, including the news media, who will be desperately trying to find out what has happened.

Worksheets are provided for these types of sudden crisis situations:

• Major accident or natural disaster
• Sudden death or incapacitation of a senior-executive
• Fatality or life-threatening illness/injury of and employee, customer or visitor
• Illegal or unethical action by an employee
• Work stoppage or sudden labor disruption
• Threatened or actual workplace violence
• Partial/complete shutdown of a computer system or network

The goal for the Yellow Sheets is to have verified information and a brief statement ready within 60 minutes so your organization can respond to any inquiries. If the sudden crisis has resulted in a "911" call from your facility, you may have less time than that before the public finds out via a radio or TV news bulletin and your switchboard is flooded by concerned callers.

Smoldering Crisis Worksheets

The "Orange sheets"

Sample headers from 4 page worksheets:

The ICM research clearly indicates that most crisis events are smoldering -- the organization's management is aware of the situation before it reaches the point where is is likely to erupt and go "public". Assessing serious problems within your business that may, at some point, go "public" and become a crisis. Any negative news story being developed about your organization that could have a major impact on your customers, investors, employees and other key audiences when it is broadcast or published.

Useful materials that can be used by members of your crisis response team are included in the kit.

• Hourly crisis response goals
• Initial response checklist
• Crisis activity logsheets
• Crisis response contact sheet
• Media briefing tips
• Guidelines for the news media

We've invested a great deal of time and effort in developing the worksheets and other materials. Many organizations have crisis plans in which the ICM Crisis Worksheets and other materials would allow them to improve their communications response. Yours may be one of them.

We hope you will never have to use these worksheets. However, we wouldn't have needed to develop them if that were the case. From our own experience, we know they will help you detect and prevent smoldering crises from going "public" or minimize the damage when a sudden crisis erupts.

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