Picture this: You’re the captain of a ship sailing through uncharted waters. The sea is calm, the crew is relaxed, and everything seems fine. Then, out of nowhere, a storm hits—waves crashing, wind howling, panic setting in. You’ve never trained for this, and neither has your crew. Wouldn’t it have been better if you’d spent the last few years preparing for such a storm? Enter Crisis Management. While business crises aren’t as salty as ocean storms, they can be just as unpredictable and catastrophic. And guess what? You can’t just wing it.
That’s where a multi-year approach to crisis management maturity comes in. By building up your team’s skills through a structured, gradual program of education, training, exercising, and testing, you’ll create a team that’s not just reactive, but proactive—ready to tackle crises head-on. This approach takes time, but the benefits to your business are colossal.
So, here’s the plan: a three-year approach that builds layer by layer. Year one? Basics. Year two? Expanding and refining. Year three? Mastery.
Year One: Laying the Foundations
Education
The first year is all about learning the ropes. Your team needs to know what crisis management is. So, you start with the basics.
- Crisis identification and classification - Not every hiccup is a crisis. Some things need a press release; others need the full team in the war room. Education helps your team understand the difference.
- Risk assessment frameworks - Teaching everyone how to identify potential risks and what could go wrong.
- Introduction to crisis communication - In a crisis, what you say and how you say it can make or break your company’s reputation. Year one focuses on the fundamentals—building solid communication strategies, knowing when to speak, and when not to speak.
The goal in year one is to give your team a solid understanding of what they’re dealing with. You wouldn’t hand a map to someone and send them on a hike without explaining how to read it first, would you?
Training
Training builds on the education piece by giving your team practical skills. Think of it like learning to drive. You’ve read the Highway Code (education), now it’s time to get behind the wheel.
- Task-specific training - In year one, each team member will learn their specific crisis role inside out. The Crisis Coordinator will learn how to manage tasks and people. The CMT Leader will focus on decision-making under pressure. The Log Keeper? They’ll be nailing the art of documenting everything (and I mean everything).
- Communications practice - Your spokesperson will practice speaking on behalf of the company, crafting the right message to the right audience.
The idea is to build confidence. After year one, your team should know *how* to do their job in a crisis, not just *what* their job is.
Exercising
Once your team has been educated and trained, it’s time to stretch their legs. You’ll run through some table-top exercises, mimicking real-life scenarios but without the panic.
- Table-top exercises - These low-pressure crisis simulations will test your team’s understanding. No real-world stakes yet, just a chance to walk through their response in a controlled setting. It’s all about practising decision-making and coordination.
- Role-playing communication - A small crisis communications drill will put your spokesperson on the spot. What do they say to the press? How do they keep the story straight?
By the end of year one, your team should feel comfortable with their roles and responsibilities, able to follow basic crisis protocols and respond to smaller incidents.
Testing
Testing in year one is less about pass or fail and more about measuring what’s been learned.
- Debriefs and feedback loops - After each exercise, debrief the team. What went well? Where did things go a bit pear-shaped? Collect data and insights to improve for next year.
Year one? Done! The team has got a foundation. They can handle smaller crises and know where to turn if the heat gets too much.
Year Two: Refining and Expanding
Education
In year two, you take that solid foundation and start building on it. Now that your team knows the basics, it’s time to expand their horizons.
- Advanced risk management - This goes deeper into specific types of crises. Cyber security breaches? Supply chain meltdowns? Year two focuses on understanding the risks most likely to affect your business.
- Legal and regulatory frameworks - Now that they’ve got a handle on crises, it’s time to dive into the regulatory side of things. What does the SEC require during a crisis? What about GDPR or industry-specific regulations?
By year two, your team should be able to not just spot a crisis but understand how it intersects with the law, company policy, and stakeholder expectations.
Training
- Crisis-specific training - Training shifts focus towards more complex crises. For example, if you’re in tech, you might train the team on how to respond to a large-scale data breach. If you’re in manufacturing, it could be a product recall.
- Scenario-specific communications - More tailored communications practice. Instead of general drills, your spokesperson will practice handling a major reputational crisis or a legal breach.
Year two training makes sure the team is not just crisis-aware but crisis-expert in the areas that matter most to your business.
Exercising
With the basics in place, year two exercises will be a little more intense. You’ll start introducing time pressure and more complex scenarios.
- Simulated incidents - Run a realistic, timed crisis simulation where the team must respond as if it’s happening live. Maybe it’s a social media storm, maybe it’s a product failure, but either way, the clock is ticking.
- Coordination exercises - Practice between departments will become more critical in year two. Make sure everyone, from legal to PR to operations, knows how to work together seamlessly.
By the end of year two, your team should be able to handle medium-to-large crises with confidence and work effectively across departments.
Testing
Testing in year two will be more formal.
- Performance benchmarks - Measure team performance against pre-set benchmarks—timeliness, accuracy, and communication clarity. Use this data to refine future training.
- Real-world stress tests - Where possible, introduce stress tests where the team is asked to manage a crisis alongside normal operations. This gives a more realistic feel of what a live crisis would be like.
Year two? Done! The team is now adept at handling more complex scenarios, and everyone knows their role like the back of their hand.
Year Three: Mastery and Resilience
Education
In the final year, you’re taking your team to expert level. The focus shifts from learning about crises to mastering the art of navigating them.
- Crisis leadership and decision-making under pressure - This is about the human side of crisis management—staying calm, leading confidently, and making sound decisions even when things look bleak.
- Global crises and reputational management - Now that your team can handle domestic crises, it’s time to think globally. If your business operates across borders, understanding global regulations, culture-specific responses, and international media landscapes is critical.
Year three education prepares your team for the most complex, high-stakes crises they could ever face.
Training
- Advanced multi-departmental collaboration - Training in year three will simulate full-blown crises requiring collaboration across multiple departments and even countries. It’s a crash course in inter-departmental and international crisis management.
- Crisis leadership workshops - Leaders will go through intensive workshops on managing teams under pressure, conflict resolution, and decision-making in ambiguous situations.
By now, the team should not only react to crises but anticipate them and manage them with expert precision.
Exercising
The final year is about pushing boundaries. You’ll throw everything at your team, so when the real thing hits, they won’t break a sweat.
- Full-scale live simulations - These exercises are as close to real crises as you can get. Use everything learned in the past two years, but add in real-time stakeholder responses, legal challenges, and media scrutiny.
- Media and stakeholder interaction drills - Put the team on the spot with tough media interviews and simulated stakeholder meetings. By the end, they’ll be pros at handling difficult questions and calming anxious stakeholders.
The goal by the end of year three is to achieve seamless, professional crisis management under the most stressful conditions.
Testing
Testing in year three will focus on crisis resilience.
- Post-crisis evaluations - Run formal post-crisis evaluations to measure how far the team has come since year one. Are they now proactive rather than reactive? Do they anticipate problems before they escalate?
Year three? Done! Your team is a well-oiled crisis management machine, able to handle any disaster that comes their way.
At DCR Partners, we’ve been in the crisis management game for years, and we’ve helped companies of all shapes and sizes navigate the trickiest situations imaginable. What sets us apart? It’s our multi-year approach, our bespoke training programs, and our commitment to real-world readiness. We know that a one-size-fits-all solution doesn’t work for crises, so we tailor our approach to your business.
If you’d like to learn more about how we can support you in all aspects of crisis management, please don't hesitate to get in touch.