Lead your Organization through any business crisis—and emerge stronger than ever Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management provides the basic skills and knowledge you need to deal with the crises that inevitably occur in any business or organization. Covering every aspect of the topic—from defining crisis management and policies to training for and responding to crises—it helps you fully grasp any situation that threatens business, careers, and even lives. Lead through any crisis smoothly and with minimal ramifications by mastering the most effective tactics, including: Planning for and training staff in crisis management Anticipating and preventing crises before they occur Managing the company’s online reputation Addressing crises that affect multicultural stakeholders Creating effective crisis-related messaging Knowing when to bring in a specialist About the Briefcase Books series: Briefcase Books, written specifically for today’s busy manager, feature eye-catching icons, checklists, and sidebars to guide managers step-by-step through everyday workplace situations. Look for these innovative design features to help you navigate through each page: Key Terms: Clear definitions of key terms and concepts Smart Managing: Tactics and strategies for managing crises Tricks of the Trade: Tips for executing the tactics in the book Mistake Proofing: Practical advice for minimizing the possibility of error Caution: Warning signs for when things are about to go wrong For Example: Examples of successful crisis management Tools: Specific planning procedures, tactics, and hands-on techniques

Uniquely two-books-in-one, this 2nd Edition of Blindsided covers both Crisis Response and Crisis Preparedness and interweaves the principles of Crisis Leadership through every phase. Intensely experiential, the book lands you in the middle of a fast-breaking crisis and uses riveting case studies/examples to demonstrate what a top-notch leader would say and do at every turn. Then, based on this eye-opening simulation, the author uses his 30 years of global crisis experience to show you how to write and implement a real-world crisis management plan. Blythe has divided Blindsided into two operational sections: Crisis Response and Crisis Preparedness. His emphasis throughout is on the often-neglected human side of crisis management, going beyond protecting tangible assets and instilling principled concern for human well-being into every decision. Part 1. Crisis Response: Using the technique of focused imagery, Blythe places you in a dramatic and realistic scenario. You're now an unprepared manager blindsided by the reality of an active shooter loose in your building. Some workers may already be injured or dead. What's your next move? How do you make sure everybody is safe? How do you set up teams, command centers, crisis containment, and effective communication? How do you protect your corporate reputation? Can you rebuild the spirit, cohesion, and productivity of employees in the post-crisis "new normal"? At the start of the book, before you faced the sudden crisis in this simulation, a crisis response plan may have been a project for 'someday', now it's a priority. Part 2. Crisis Preparedness: Now you embark on building a crisis response plan – or enhancing the one you have. Blythe guides you and your teams to analyze foreseeable risks, evaluate existing controls, add new ones, test and re-evaluate the plan. Analyzing the behavior of national and world leaders, you distinguish clearly the two kinds of leaders who emerge in a crisis: the "crisis whisperer" who becomes a calm center in the storm, and the one in the "crisis red zone," worsening the situation with every word and every decision. You learn to employ the Be-Know-Do leadership model (adapted from military) that has been implemented by senior management teams throughout the world. Blindsided includes practical forms, checklists, case studies, real-life examples, glossary, index, discussion questions, and other take-and-use tools, including: Quick Use Response Guide: Each chapter ends with a summary checklist, all 15 can form a ready-reference pocket guide. Incident Checklists for 9 Major Crises: Practical checklists for accidental deaths, aircraft crash, chemical/toxic exposure, civil unrest, earthquake, explosion/fire, flood, kidnap ransom, shooting, plus 20 other foreseeable risks. 20-Page Guide for Addressing Families of the Injured: What to say/do to help families of fatalities or seriously injured with medical/financial assistance, emotional support and training teams assigned to work with them. Your next crisis will happen when least expected, but with Blythe's guidance, you'll never again be blindsided!

Drawing on a survey of Fortune 1,000 companies as well as interviews with over 500 managers with crisis management experience, this book gives managers--at all levels and in every department--the practical, hands-on tools they need to determine where their organization is vulnerable and where they are prepared, who will be affected, and what strategies will work best for managing a crisis when it occurs.

Publisher Fact Sheet Shows executives & managers how to overcome an "it can't happen to us mentality" & prepare for crises, both large & small, before they happen.

Social media has fundamentally changed the contract between institutions and the public. Today, people expect a conversation, not a one-way diatribe. That, combined with the speed of the Internet, changes the game for many companies in anticipating, managing, and ultimately avoiding an “instant crisis”—an instant crisis example is when Verizon added a $2 charge for all their customers; one hour later 100,000 signatures appeared on a Twitter petition, and soon Verizon was in the middle of a huge public relations crisis. Inside this book, you’ll learn just how to manage this type of situation and meet the challenges of social media. Each chapter includes a description of a crisis, the timeliness of a good response, the effectiveness of this response, and an assessment of what works and what doesn’t. Some examples of social media crises include Apple Computer, Netflix, JetBlue, Bank of America, Fed Ex, and public figures such as Anthony Weiner, Ashton Kutcher, and Jon Bon Jovi.

Avoid being “blindsided” by an unexpected emergency or crisis in the workplace – violence, natural disaster, or worse! Bruce Blythe’s The Manager’s Guide to Quick Response in a Crisis: Effective Action in an Emergency offers the time-tested skills that prepare you to act effectively – on behalf of yourself and your co-workers – in the face of threat and chaos. Blythe uses real-world case studies, examples, and checklists to help you be the top-notch leader the situation requires. “Hope for the best and prepare for the worst” sums up Blythe’s philosophy. This short book is the essence of the basic practical counseling that he would give if he were sitting next to you at your desk. To help you figure out what to do next, he offers real-world examples of what has worked – and not worked – in his 30+ years of experience with companies just like yours. With Blythe’s advice, you can act fast to: *Find out the accurate facts you need to strategize and implement a response. *Compile a checklist of immediate action items.

No matter where we work or what we do, there is no stopping the fact that, at some point in our lives, we will encounter a crisis. How an individual responsible for dealing with these types of situations reacts is ultimately the deciding factor as to whether or not they come out safely on the other side. Crisis Management: The Art of Success and Failure focuses on different types of crises, symptoms, and models that recurrently threaten business and political environments. Pulling from no better teacher than history itself, Crisis Management is broken into 30 case studies that provide analysis and theoretical approaches that explore both successful and unsuccessful examples of management in the midst of crisis. While focusing primarily on business and politics, Crisis Management is a powerful tool for all readers who wish to understand how to better tackle crises when they arise. Learning how to remain calm and deal with critical situations is a skill that can be learned and mastered.

The Definitive Guide to Communicating in Any Crisis “When facing an already difficult crisis, the last thing a company needs is to make it worse through its own communications – or lack thereof. As one who has lived through a number of [business] crises and served as an independent investigator of the crises of others, I consider Steven Fink’s book to be an excellent guide to avoiding collecting scar tissue of your own by learning from the scar tissue painfully collected by others.”—Norman R. Augustine, former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Lockheed Martin There are few guarantees in business today. Unfortunately, one of them is the inevitability of a crisis having a potentially major effect on your business and your reputation. When your company finds itself in the midst of a crisis, the ripple effects can disrupt lives and business for the foreseeable future if public opinion is not properly shaped and managed. Skillfully managing the perception of the crisis determines the difference between a company’s life or death. Because in the pitched battle between perception and reality, perception always wins. Fortunately, there is a solution. Crisis communications and crisis management legend Steven Fink gives you everything you need to prepare for the inevitable—whether it’s in the form of human error, industrial accidents, criminal behavior, or natural disasters. In this groundbreaking guide, Fink provides a complete toolkit for ensuring smooth communications and lasting business success through any crisis. Crisis Communications offers proactive and preventive methods for preempting potential crises. The book reveals proven strategies for recognizing and averting damaging crisis communications issues before it’s too late. The book also offers ways to deal with mainstream and social media, use them to your advantage, and neutralize and turn around a hostile media environment Steven Fink uses his decades of expertise and experience in crisis communications to help you: UNDERSTAND AND MANAGE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PUBLIC PERCEPTION AND REALITY CHOOSE THE BEST SPOKESPERSON FOR THE CRISIS PROTECT YOUR BRAND AND REPUTATION THROUGH CRISES LARGE AND SMALL MAKE WISE, VIGILANT, AND DEFENSIBLE DECISIONS UNDER EXTREME CRISIS-INDUCED STRESS TELL THE TRUTH NO MATTER HOW TEMPTING IT MAY BE TO MISLEAD USE SOCIAL MEDIA OUTLETS TO COMMUNICATE DIRECTLY TO THE PUBLIC ABOUT A CRISIS The explosion of the Internet and, especially, social media, has added a new layer to the business leader’s skill set: the ability to handle a crisis quickly and professionally within moments of its occurrence. Livelihoods depend upon it. With in-depth case studies of Toyota, BP, and Penn State, Crisis Communications provides everything you need to successfully lead your company through today’s rocky landscape of business—where crises large and small loom around every corner, and the lives of businesses and management teams hang in the balance. PRAISE FOR STEVEN FINK’S CRISIS MANAGEMENT “Every major executive in America ought to read at least one book on crisis management. In this way, he or she might be better prepared to deal with the disasters striking organizations at an ever-increasing rate ... The question is: ‘Is Steven Fink’s book one that busy executives ought to read?’ The answer is a resounding yes.”—LOS ANGELES TIMES, FRONT PAGE SUNDAY BOOK REVIEW

The world-renowned crisis consultant offers a comprehensive blueprint to guiding a company through the aftermath of a disaster The tragic events of September 11, 2001, put businesses nationwide on alert: They now know they need to prepare for catastrophes. Bruce T. Blythe, a leading consultant on corporate crises, offers managers a step-by-step guide to a subject that has intimidated all too many managers, causing them to postpone such preparation indefinitely. Blythe guides the reader through a series of worst-case scenarios, from a shooting rampage to a flash flood to a terrorist attack, offering handy checklists and field-proven action tests for quick results. He instructs managers and corporate executives on how best to prepare their teams for a crisis and how to deal with customers, employees, and the media in its aftermath. He explains tactics and preemptive measures that ensure: * a quick return to work * effective press management * better morale * fewer lawsuits down the line "Blindsided" does more than secure the structure of a business. It shows you how to rebuild the spirit of your employees, so that your business can come back stronger than before.