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Crisis Management

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Submitted By mostthirdcoast
Words 1962
Pages 8
Andrew
Walden
Crisis Management
Professor Clark Bailey

Planning for a Crisis

Having a crisis management plan is invaluable when a crisis actually occurs. Whether it be a crisis at home or at work, if you are not prepared with some sort of plan of action, the results could be far worse than the crisis itself. Knowing that crises are inevitable is also a valuable thought. Prevention, communication, leadership and legalistic are all key element that make up a good crisis managemnt plan. I will be discussing many possible crisis that could occur at my home or workplace. When I began analyzing my household in order to determine the possible crises that could occur at my home I realized that my family and I are very ill prepared. As I began trying to compile a list of possible crises I realized that the possibilities were basically endless, so I decided to focus on the most probable crises that may occur. The major crises I came up with are: A house fire, a home invasion, a gas leak, or a chemical leak from a nearby chemical plant. First I will go over my crisis management plan for a fire. As far as prevention is concerned, I would make sure that all of the smoke detectors had batters and were in working condition. Next I would make sure that there were at least two fire extinguishers that are accessible and in working condition. I would also have at least two escape plans. Plan B would be an escape route if someone was trapped upstairs, and plan A would be one used if we could make it downstairs. I live with my younger brother and sister, as well as my parents, so if a fire were to occur communication would be key. Depending on who discovered the fire first it would be very important to notify whoever was upstairs to avoid getting stuck on the second floor. If someone were to get trapped on the second floor they would need to follow escape route B and make their way to my sisters bedroom window that has a long shingled area that is extends close enough to the ground to jump from. If my sisters room was not accessible due to the fire, whoever was stuck upstairs would need to make their way to my room where there is a similar slightly higher shingled area outside of the window. If everyone could make it downstairs they should follow escape plan A. This route would have us go out the front door first, if that is not possible we would escape through the back door or one of the big living room windows. Either my Dad or I would assume the role of the leader in this situation. The leader would need to make sure that they alert everyone about the fire, as well as make sure they go follow the most appropriate escape route to safety. The leader would also be responsible for trying to put out the fire if possible. Responsibility and communication are also very important when it comes to a crisis management plan. In the event of a fire each person would be responsible for grabbing a few important items or keepsakes. My dad or I would be responsible for grabbing our dog Alamo. It would also be very important for everyone to communicate with each other in order to make sure that no one is hurt or stuck somewhere. As soon as everyone makes it out of the house I would take a head count. Next I would call 911 if I had time to grab my cell phone. It would also be necessary to alert the surrounding neighbors in case the fire spreads. In the event of a gas leak my escape plan would be very similar to my fire escape plan for exiting the house downstairs. As far as prevention is concerned I would make sure everyone in the family is able to recognize the smell of gas. Next my plan would require whoever detected the gas first to notify the rest of the family in the house, and then call 911 as soon as possible. The next crisis I will be examining will be a home invasion. There are many things I could do in order to prevent or deture a home invasion. Fist of all I would install an alarm system that alerts the authorities if a door or window is opened after it had been set. I would also make a point to keep the doors locked when possible during the day and check to make sure all of the doors and windows are locked before going to bed. Next I would place some sort of home defense tool such as a baseball bat or golf club in an easily accessible spot . I would consider purchasing a firearm, but would most likely not. I feel that introducing a gun into stressful situations such as home invasion makes dramatically increases the chances of someone getting seriously hurt. Finally I would talk with my family about the possibility of a home invasion and discuss how they should deal with the situation. If someone were to break in my crisis management plan would have my family members to hide if possible and call 911. If hiding was not an option I would instruct them to comply with anything the intruder asked. Compliance would definitely be the best way to handle the situation and would hopefully prevent the situation from escalating. My plan would also require me to make as many mental notes about the intruders appearance as possible in order to help the police track them down. There are many possible crises that I could encounter while at work. I work in sales and setup at a software company in Pearland and can think of plenty of major and minor crises that may happen. My company hosts many servers for online employee management software for about 1500 companies around the world. The Fist major crisis that I could think of at work would be a server failure. Some other possible crises that could happen at my work place include, an active shooter situation, a fire. If we were to experience a server failure hundreds of websites would crash, employees would not be able to clock in or out, and very valuable company information could be lost. About a month into my sales job we almost experienced a server failure when two of our severs reached a critical level. If our severs did crash my crisis management plan would first call for our developers to begib backing up all of the information in the cash reserves for all of the websites. Communicating the severity of the crash t our developers would be critical. They would need to know which servers and what companies websites were most effected. Next it would be best to designate someone to be in charge of tracking the developers progress and reporting it back to the sales team. The sales team would then need to contact the companies with websites that were down and inform them of that we were experiencing technical difficulties and that their websites will be back up as soon as possible. It is critical that we do not inform the companies of the severity of the situation unless we absolutely have to. When working with websites there are constantly problems, some large and some small. Most can be fixed without effecting the user capability of the websites. Most people have no idea about the constant behind the scenes struggle that keeps websites up and running so when they crash people tend to get upset, especially if the crash could negatively effect business. My crisis management plan would put customer service and reassuring the effected business that their websites will be up and running as a top priority. Once the developers have backed up all of the cashed data possible, My plan would have every available employee working to rebuild the servers that had crashed. Each employee is first taught how to build servers when they start working as a preventative measure for just this type of situation. Once the servers were rebuilt, I would compile a list of all of the companies that were effected by the crash, divide it up between the sales team, and have them call to inform them that their websites are back up. In order to make up for any inconvenience that the crash may have caused, I would allow our sales team to give each company a level three add on of their choice free of charge. This gesture would hopefully smooth over any frustration our customers may be feeling. The next possible crisis I will be using is the event of an active shooter situation. It is unlikely that I would experience an active shooter situation like at my lace of work, but it does happen and it is always better to be prepared. As far as prevention is concerned, It would be beneficial to have a some sort of screening or check in process for people entering the building. This could prevent or at least delay someone who wanted to cause any sort of trouble. Next, bolt locks on most doors and key card entree locks for certain areas of the building would also go along way when trying to prevent an active shooter situation. My plan would also include briefing all employees on emergency exit locations and securable areas. My plan A for an active shooter situation would be to find a secure area and stay there until authorities arrive. If hiding and waiting it out is not possible, I would try and get out of the building as quickly and safely as possible. If I were to follow plan A, I would warn everyone in close proximity first, then direct everyone to the closest safest location. I would look for a room or office that had a heavy door and a strong lock. Most of the offices in our office have key card entree locks and have solid wood doors, so that is most likely where I would head. Once inside the office it would be crucial for someone to step up and take on the role as leader. This leader would need to calm everyone down as best as possible. In an active shooter situation the last thing you want is to draw attention to yourself. It would also be critical to turn the light off as soon as possible and take cover in the corner of the room farthest from the door. The next step in my plan would focus on communication. First I would call 911 and give all of the information I could to the authorities. Next I would try and call other people in the building in order to warn them about the situation and tell them to hide in a secure location as soon as possible. Our office phones are all linked together by extensions, so I would call the rooms where there would likely be the most people. I would also make sure made sure whoever I could get a hold of was not the shooter himself, and be sure not to give away any information about my location. Finally I would look try and find anything in the office that could be used as a weapon in case the shooter was able to get into the room somehow. After I had searched the office for a weapon, there would really be nothing more to but stay quiet and wait for help. Once help had arrived I would make the officer or whoever was trying to help us prove they were who they say they are.

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