Crisis Management Capability Evaluation

Plans and Procedures Don’t Manage a Crisis. People Do

When a serious incident occurs, decisions must be made, priorities established and people coordinated.

Having a crisis management plan is one thing. Delivering an effective response under pressure is another.

How effectively could you turn your crisis management plans into action?

Find Out in Just 4 Minutes

Our free evaluation explores how you approach realistic crisis scenarios, make decisions, manage priorities and coordinate responses.

You’ll receive immediate feedback on your professional capability level, strengths and opportunities for development.

15 Questions | 4 Minutes | Free | Immediate Results

Answer based on what you would realistically do today, not what you believe the ideal response should be.

Welcome to your Crisis Management for Counter Terrorism & Security Practitioner

A serious violent attack has occurred inside the main entrance of a busy shopping centre. Emergency services are responding and reports from staff are incomplete.

What should be your immediate priority?

Activate the response and recovery arrangements, establish communication with key stakeholders and begin coordinating the organisational response.

Gather as much information as possible before making significant decisions to ensure the response is based on confirmed facts.

Immediately begin planning the reopening of unaffected areas to minimise commercial disruption while monitoring the developing incident.

Activate the response and recovery arrangements, account for people, establish command, verify critical information, support emergency services and coordinate strategic decision making.

During the first twenty minutes of an incident, information received from staff, CCTV operators and emergency services is inconsistent.

What is the most appropriate approach?

Continue collecting information from all available sources before deciding on the most appropriate organisational response.

Make proportionate decisions using the most reliable information available while continuing to review and adapt as new information emerges.

Accept that uncertainty is normal, make proportionate decisions using verified information, continually reassess the situation and adapt the response as intelligence develops.

Delay significant decisions until all available information has been confirmed and agreed by every responding organisation.

Your organisation has an incident response plan that has been reviewed annually and approved by senior management.

How can you be most confident that the plan will perform effectively during a real incident?

Exercise the plan periodically, review performance and update the document following identified lessons.

Confirm the document has been approved, distributed and acknowledged by everyone with operational responsibilities.

Validate the plan through realistic commissioning, exercising people, procedures, communications, decision making and resources under operational conditions.

Ensure all managers have received a copy of the latest version and understand where it is stored.

Following a serious incident, inaccurate information is beginning to circulate among employees, social media and external stakeholders

What is the most effective organisational response?

Coordinate communications through an agreed process, providing timely and consistent updates as verified information becomes available.

Issue communications once sufficient information has been gathered to reduce the likelihood of providing inaccurate updates.

Allow department managers to communicate directly with their teams using the information available to them at the time.

Implement a structured message management process that delivers accurate and timely communications and supports coordinated decision making.

Police, ambulance service, local authority and your organisation are responding to the same incident.

What approach is most likely to achieve an effective multi agency response?

Develop interoperability through shared situational awareness and effective communication with clearly defined operational responsibilities.

Arrange regular meetings so each organisation can provide updates and discuss its own priorities throughout the response.

Establish regular information sharing, coordinate activities and work towards common operational objectives throughout the incident.

Allow each organisation to manage its own responsibilities independently while sharing information when requested.

Six months after introducing a new crisis management plan, senior leaders ask whether it has been successfully commissioned.

What provides the strongest evidence?

The organisation has practically validated people, decision making and resources through exercising that demonstrates operational capability.

The plan has been approved, distributed to relevant personnel and stored within the organisation's document management system.

Managers have confirmed they understand the plan and know their individual responsibilities during an incident.

The organisation has completed discussion based exercises and updated the plan to reflect identified improvements.

A coordinated cyber attack has disrupted several business systems while a large scale public event is taking place. Resources are limited.

What should guide your immediate decisions?

Focus on restoring all affected systems before considering any other organisational priorities and procedures.

Prioritise activities that protect critical operations while preparing additional resources if required.

Prioritise critical business functions and operational decision making using a structured and proportionate approach.

Allocate resources equally across all affected departments until the full impact has been determined.

During an unfolding incident, senior leaders begin requesting detailed reports before operational priorities have been addressed.

What is the most appropriate response?

Delay operational activity until senior leaders have received all available information.

Provide concise situation updates while maintaining focus on operational priorities.

Prepare the requested reports before continuing operational activities.

Maintain operational focus, provide timely strategic updates and adapt reporting.

Your organisation is reviewing its crisis management arrangements following a major exercise.

What is the primary purpose of the review?

Capture lessons identified and improve future organisational performance.

Identify administrative changes required within existing documentation.

Confirm that all policies and procedures were followed correctly.

Evaluate capability, identify lessons learned, improve people and procedures.

During a prolonged incident, several stakeholders begin requesting different information at different times.

What is the most effective approach?

Coordinate communications through an agreed organisational process.

Manage information through a structured message management process.

Allow individual departments to communicate directly with their own stakeholders.

Respond to stakeholder requests as they are received.

An exercise identifies weaknesses within your response and recovery arrangements.

What should happen next?

Implement the identified improvements, brief personnel on revised procedures and monitor how effectively the changes are applied.

Implement improvements, validate revised arrangements through further exercising and confirm operational capability.

Update the documented response plans to reflect identified lessons and distribute the revised versions to relevant personnel.

Record the exercise findings, retain them for future reference and consider improvements during the next planned review cycle.

During a developing crisis, multiple partner organisations have different priorities and operating procedures.

What is most likely to improve the overall response?

Coordinate activities through regular communication, agreed responsibilities and shared operational planning between all responding partner organisations wherever possible

Exchange relevant information frequently, encourage cooperation and maintain awareness of each organisation's developing operational priorities throughout the incident

Develop shared situational awareness, establish common objectives, coordinate decision making and align operational activities throughout the evolving multiagency response

Maintain regular communication while allowing each organisation to coordinate its own activities using established procedures and responsibilities independently.

Several important activities require immediate attention, but available resources cannot support them all.

What should determine your priorities?

Prioritise the activities requested by senior management to demonstrate organisational commitment and maintain confidence throughout the developing response.

Allocate available resources evenly across competing activities to ensure every priority receives an appropriate level of organisational attention.

Apply a structured prioritisation process that directs resources towards activities delivering the greatest operational benefit and organisational resilience.

Prioritise activities according to operational urgency, available resources and the developing needs of the incident as circumstances change.

As an incident develops, several activities previously considered lower priority become increasingly important.

What should the Crisis Management Team do?

Continue implementing the agreed response plan unless significant developments require formal approval before changing established operational priorities and activities

Review priorities regularly, adjust activities where appropriate and ensure resources remain aligned with the developing operational requirements throughout.

Continually reassess the operational picture, adapt priorities dynamically and allocate resources according to changing risks, objectives and emerging demands

Review operational priorities after significant developments and introduce changes once sufficient information has been gathered to justify adjustments.

Your organisation has invested heavily in crisis management documentation, training and technology.

Which statement best reflects genuine organisational capability?

Well trained personnel supported by effective procedures and appropriate technology provide confidence that response arrangements can operate successfully.

Comprehensive documentation, appropriate technology and established procedures provide a strong foundation for responding effectively to foreseeable organisational incidents.

Capability depends upon trained personnel, effective plans, regular exercising and continual improvement that strengthens organisational preparedness over time consistently.

Operational capability is demonstrated through validated procedures, coordinated decision making and continual improvement under realistic operational conditions.