OSRL's Crisis Management Story: Q&A Session
Crisis Management is not new for OSRL, it’s something we have been delivering for a while. Can you tell us a little more?
The story so far is that we have been delivering crisis management services successfully in APAC and EMEA. We have already worked with numerous large and small energy companies helping them maintain and refresh their crisis preparedness. We also offer a published crisis management training course. Our technical library has a number of crisis management case studies.
Ultimately there is nothing new here. We have been delivering crisis management services since 2002, we have just formalised our offering. Our objective is now to let members and organisations know we can help them and to continue to expand our internal pool of experienced and credible people to deliver.
Most people know about our oil spill response experts, what resources does OSRL have to deliver crisis management services?
More than you would think! When I started calculating, I discovered we collectively have over 300 years of experience. There is a team of 24 people who all passionately believe in helping people to prepare properly for when a crisis hits. And we are continually growing and investing in our crisis management specialists so that team will expand. The skills of the team range from crisis planning and assurance, training, leadership coaching through to crisis communications. It really is impressive when you look at the whole team collectively.
For you, what are the fundamentals for effective crisis management?
For a truly effective crisis management team and functional crisis preparedness system, you need structure, skillset, and mindset. These are the pillars of our crisis management service offering.
Structure: the organisation/framework, operating procedures and policies, processes, decision-making tools, plans, the response room, the flipcharts/boards on the wall or the software platform to manage media and communications
Skillset: the technical understanding and behavioural requirements of a role, whether it be knowledge-based or skills-based, the crisis competencies of a team and individuals, understanding of reputational risks, worst-case scenarios.
Mindset: an appreciation that our ability to perform in a given moment is largely determined by where we are placing our attention and how we are making sense of the situation.
These make up our crisis performance framework. Depending on the needs of an organisation and level of crisis preparedness maturity, we can use the performance framework to support an organisation – using the framework to identify any gaps or areas of improvement.
Which crisis management services are OSRL offering?
We are offering a full range of crisis preparedness services but ultimately can flex and find a solution to your problem:
- crisis management courses
- customised crisis management training
- crisis planning
- crisis response exercises and simulations
- crisis leadership coaching
- crisis role-specific coaching
Why should organisations consider using OSRL for crisis management services?
Crisis management is part of our DNA. Our specialists truly believe in helping others improve their crisis preparedness. Our crisis management practitioners are credible and experienced with decades of collective crisis preparedness and crisis response experience. We are also developing our network of alliances and strategic partners.
This combined gives us a unique and operational perspective to provide holistic, bespoke and integrated crisis preparedness solutions, that ultimately benefit the wider industry. Ultimately, we can act as a one-stop-shop for incident response and crisis management, help you to identify your weak spots and build your resilience for any crisis - whether that be an oil spill or a cyber-attack.
What should someone do if they would like to find out more?
We have a new area on the website dedicated to crisis management – here you will find information on the services we provide, links to relevant case studies, webinars and articles and, most importantly, information on the team along with contact details. We are working on a tool for the website which helps you assess your crisis preparedness level, hopefully launching in Q4. However, we are happy to run through the principles now with any member – free of charge!
For a more in-depth assessment of crisis preparedness, we can analyse your answers to more than 50 questions across five core crisis management framework components. Anyone interested in exploring this or an initial free assessment should get in touch and we would be happy to provide more information.
No organisation is immune to a crisis - are you ready?
Ensure you have an effective Crisis Management Team and functional crisis preparedness system in place with our Crisis Preparedness Services.
