Strength through crisis training
Your expert for questions
Jens Greiner
Director, Forensic Services at PwC Germany
Tel.: +49 69 9585-5831
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Creating muscle memory for your crisis response
While the coronavirus pandemic led to significant disruptions for many organisations, for others the global crisis was a growth driver: 20 percent of the organisations surveyed in our current Global Crisis Survey indicated that they had been well prepared for the crisis and found themselves in a better place after the crisis. For these 20 percent, the pandemic served as a catalyst for growth, spurring competitive advantage and the opportunity to emerge stronger.
Those who take advantage of peace time to equip themselves for disruptive events will have all assets on hand to overcome the next crisis.
Crisis response training builds the foundation for an organisation’s ability to act quickly in the face of an unplanned event. To further strengthen your organisational resilience in disruptive events, before the next crisis strikes, you should regularly train with your crisis plan across relevant crisis scenarios. As the saying goes: Practice makes perfect. And while “perfect” may have new meaning after a year like 2020, training can certainly make a difference between chaos and emerging stronger from the next crisis.
Prepare for the unexpected
Crisis response training helps your team prepare for the unexpected – and react to a crisis swiftly, with a cohesive, consistent response across your organisation. Every member of your team will know their role and responsibility should a crisis hit. They’ll be prepared for multiple scenarios and the challenges and nuances of each. And they’ll be empowered to take action with confidence and clarity in your company’s shared objectives.
Crisis response training gives your team the opportunity to:
- Test, reassess, improve: The opportunity to practice, evaluate your actions and enhance your response.
- Identify gaps and strengths: What pain points need to be addressed? What do you do well and how can you capitalise on that advantage?
- Build muscle memory: Responding swiftly and effectively becomes second nature.
A tailored training approach
Crisis response training solutions encompass a range of exercises, workshops and learning opportunities. We’ll collaborate with you to design a customised, structured approach to train your team. Examples of PwC’s solutions in crisis response training include role-based training, awareness campaign strategy, crisis leadership and decision-making, simulations, and train-the-trainer.
Crisis training with PwC
- Role-based training
- Awareness campaigns
- Crisis leadership and decision-making
- Simulations and exercises
- Train-the-trainer
Role-based training
This approach is tailored for each person’s and functional team’s responsibilities in the crisis response. During the training program you will prepare your team members for various crisis scenarios and the associated measures and challenges. The outcome is that all actors will develop a precise understanding of the details of their role. In this way, you will take the fear out of unplanned and often daunting situations and your crisis task force will learn important skills that can give your organisation a decisive advantage when a crisis strikes.
Awareness campaigns
This approach promotes clarity throughout your organisation on messaging and expectations.Targeted crisis communication is critical to creating an awareness on crisis preparedness throughout an organisation and providing a consistent message. We support you with awareness campaigns that will adopt clear messages to convey the value of crisis preparedness to your employees in a way that is easy for them to understand and digest. We believe that proactively addressing the status quo and commitment to continuous improvement such as conducting crisis training in peace time, provides confidence and certainty to your employees and minimises risks.
Crisis leadership and decision-making
This approach provides a framework for structure and actions during a crisis. We helped the leadership of countless organisations respond to various crises. You will benefit from the strategic experience of our experts and gain clarity and control when a crisis strikes.
Simulations and exercises
This approach helps you familiarise your team with a variety of potential crisis situations and how to respond most effectively. Simulations and exercises help you identify gaps, strengths and potential outcomes and thinking through how to emerge stronger in each scenario helps you create a tactical and strategic roadmap to drive decision-making in a crisis situation. This brings organisations as a whole confidence and certainty.
Train-the-trainer
This approach provides your leadership with specialised guidance so that they can take ownership of your crisis training and management approach. Our experienced crisis experts will be delighted to pass on our guidance to your leadership and management as trainers on how to consistently conduct professional crisis training.
How PwC will support your crisis training
Our experts in the area of crisis management have extensive experience in preparing for, responding to, and overcoming crises and have been working side by side with our clients for many years – both during acute crises and for crisis prevention.
Crisis training for your employees plays a significant role as part of a holistic crisis preparedness system. It will give your organisation the capacity to act that is needed when a crisis strikes. We will work with you to determine the training, simulations and exercises that your team needs and will design a tailored training program. In doing so, we will place an emphasis on effective communication and a common understanding of terms, processes, roles and responsibilities.
Why is crisis training important
The spectre of the unknown can add extra anxiety to a business community that’s already apprehensive, given the COVID-19 pandemic and the massive upheaval it’s caused worldwide. Although the size, scope and impacts of the next major disruption are unknown and may present quite differently from the pandemic, crisis planning and response training eases the trepidation. With the knowledge and skill to react appropriately, your team will gain confidence that they can handle whatever comes down the pike – and your organisation will benefit.
Preparation provides certainty: even at the psychological level. Crisis training in peace time pays off and is part of the continuous improvement cycle that should be the foundation of your crisis planning.
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