May 20th, 2009
As a doctor myself I enjoyed reading this amazing story. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8058771.stm Dr Rob Carson realised he needed to act quickly and step well beyond his comfort zone. And yet by his swift and unconventional intervention, he saved the life of young Nicholas Rossi.
He would have liked more time; he would have preferred to be near a well-equipped hospital; he would have dearly wanted to run some tests and gain more information before he performed his heroic surgery. But these were not options. He had to act with limited information in a make-shift environment.
So it is with the majority of the crises that organisations face. We can’t choose where, when and how they will happen (if only we could!) and yet the very survival of the business will depend on the actions that are taken.
Dr. Carson was able to save the day thanks to the quality and intensity of his medical training. How many business owners take the time to equip themselves with the skills they would need to make life or death decisions when called upon?
Tags: business, crisis, crisis management, docleaf, doctor, incident, organisation
Posted in Crisis management, General interest | No Comments »
May 18th, 2009
A nice blog post from Pamela Cowen, and a timely reminder to companies that even in these times, or maybe ESPECIALLY in the these times, the risk of not planning for a disaster, whether or your own making or not, is potentially devastating.
http://safetyatworkblog.wordpress.com/2009/05/18/crisis-management-fail-to-plan-plan-to-fail/
One thing that we have learnt here is that while a Safety Leader may be an important role to establish in an organisation, there is a real danger that by appointing someone in this role, senior management push the issue of crisis management away from their agenda.
Who talks to the press? who authorises what is said to stakeholders? who stands in front of family members to talk to the loved ones after a fatality? These people (invariably at board level) need to part of the crisis management process from its beginning, through to the regular exercises and reviews. This avoids the situation we have seen where the trained staff go about doing the right thing, while their superiors ignore the plan and work from their gut, often with disastrous results.
Tags: crisis, crisis management, docleaf, fatality, management, safety at work
Posted in Crisis management | No Comments »