Building crisis response and recovery capabilities

COVID-19 has been a reminder that crises do happen. While every crisis is different, there are things you can do now to reduce the risk regardless of what happens.

Larger and more complex organisations need formal crisis management and business continuity plans, procedures, and training.

HOW WE CAN HELP

We can tailor a package to your meet your needs and budget and deliver it online or face-to-face. Our services include:

  • Survival

    Review, evaluate, and advise on your business response and recovery plans.

  • Recovery

    Provide a structure for you to make sense of an uncertain and changing business environment, and prioritise actions to thrive long-term.

  • Collaboration

    Identify ways to help you work together with staff, customers, suppliers, and neighbouring businesses to recover together.

  • Capability Building

    Capture your lessons learned in a crisis to ensure you are ready for future disruptions.

Get in touch to chat about what you need and how we can help.

Get in touch

Give us a call or email us for a free no-obligation chat about your needs and what we can offer.

Tracy Hatton, Resilient Organisations
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Smaller organisations need emergency management plans too.

No matter what size your organisation is, you need to think about your risks and how you can reduce their impact on your business and be prepared to respond. Below are some examples of our work to help SMEs build their crisis preparedness.

Online resources available

Below we have put together some of our key resources to help organisations through the crises, and in particular, the COVID-19 crisis. 

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Business Preparedness App

This free app has been developed by the Global Disaster Preparedness Centre, part of the International Red Cross/Red Crescent network with the tool content developed by Resilient Organisations.

This app is targeted at small and medium enterprises who wish to improve their disaster or crisis readiness.

To access the app, open this email on your phone and click on the following link:

Crisis preparedness for not-for-profit organisations

Recognising the important role of not-for-profit organisations in the community, a NZ local government authority funded ResOrgs to facilititate an interactive 4 hour workshop. The workshop took the organisations through a step-by-step process to prepare an organisational continuity plan. The plans were designed to be size and context specific based on a tailor-made template appropriate for small organisations.

The workshop participants left with a sense of empowerment that disaster readiness is achievable.

"It made an overwhelming task more manageable."

Examples of our work

Capturing and implementing lessons learned

With COVID-19, our team has been busy working with organisations in a range of sectors to conduct response debriefs. We are so impressed by the initiative, adaptability, and overall care for wellbeing shown by the organisations we have been working with.

Our facilitated debrief process involves collecting data from interviews and/or workshops, surveys, and any other data sources. We then provide recommendations to ensure all the lessons 'learnt on the fly' are embedded in all future response processes, with any weaker or more challenging response areas reviewed and developed.

Capturing lessons is not about identifying failures or enacting blame.  It is about learning through battle and sharpening our tactics and strategy for the next encounter. Capturing lessons learned, before they are lost to memories, is a key part of building crisis response capability. 

Reviewing emergency and business continuity plans

We work with medium and large organisations to review existing plans and emergency arrangements. We challenge their emergency planning assumptions and recommend actions to improve future-readiness.

Local Government has a vital role in supporting their community: day to day and through crises and change. They need to be able to navigate challenges and crises to maintain community services and support.  A key tool in preparing to manage disruptions is a robust, adaptive, and engaging approach to business continuity.

We worked with a New Zealand city council to further enhance their business continuity capability. They wanted all staff to be prepared and ready to manage disruption, as a natural extension of their day to day roles. This included a shared understanding of known and potential disruption risks, continuity options and solutions. Staff need to have the skills, tools and drive for the ongoing maintenance and embedding of contingency plans across the diverse activities and services provided by the Council. 

Shut happens
Resilience for small businesses
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This booklet shows you simple steps you can take to help your business ‘get through’ and build your organisation's resilience.
View PDF
Striving through
Managing business in a crisis
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No matter how well prepared you are, this booklet provides quick, practical advice to help guide you through the stages of recovery.
View PDF
Chaos to teamwork
A leader's role in crisis
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Crises often require new ways of interacting, managing and leading. This guide will help you prepare a crisis leadership team.
View PDF
Adaptive resilience
Building an agile organisation
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Learn about four key factors to build your organisation's adaptive resilience to manage disruptions to day-to-day operations.
View PDF
Have you captured your lessons learned from COVID-19?
Have you captured your lessons learned from COVID-19?
Our team has been busy working with organisations in a range of sectors to conduct COVID-19 response debriefs. Capturing lessons learned, before they are lost to memories, is a key part of building crisis response capability. It is not about identifying failures or enacting blame its about learning through battle and sharpening our tactics and strategy for the next encounter. ...
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A board’s role in a crisis
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For many organisations, the role of the board in a crisis like COVID-19 is not clear. Our latest research report is a practical guide for boards members and managers alike. It draws on the combined wisdom of 12 board chairs, directors and chief executives, all of whom have led their organisations through numerous crises. ...
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COVID-19 Resilient Recovery Planning
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Capturing lessons learned
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COVID-19 will be a long-running event that will require constant monitoring and response activities. This means tha there is an opportunity to reflect on and learn from our response to date, so we can do things better from this point forward ...
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Building adaptive business continuity plans
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Consider your recovery like an adventure race: you, your teammates and a distant end point marked on a map. What can we learn from adventure racers that we can apply to our COVID-19 recovery?  Here are some typical adventure racing tips that we think will help you get through ...
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Recovery: Sprint, Marathon or Adventure Race?
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Consider your recovery like an adventure race: you, your teammates and a distant end point marked on a map. What can we learn from adventure racers that we can apply to our COVID-19 recovery?  Here are some typical adventure racing tips that we think will help you get through ...
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Awesome ways for teams to work and play together
Awesome ways for teams to work and play together
For many people, work has a social component; we enjoy the day-to-day interactions with colleagues in the office. When that is taken away it is important to bring your team together not only for work-related meetings but for social interaction as well. Here are some ideas for ways to stay connected with your team and have some fun ...
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Keep looking for the opportunities
Keep looking for the opportunities
When faced with a problem or crisis, there is a natural tendency to make that our sole focus. It can be hard to stand back, be truly creative, and look for the opportunities. Opportunities come in many forms and usually take a deliberate effort to bring to fruition. It may ...
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Maintaining momentum during recovery
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We’re doing well but it’s not over yet. As we progress and adjust to the many places are easing restrictions during the current COVID crisis, some businesses are upping their activity. Whether this is forestry workers restarting or restaurants moving to a takeaway service, every bit helps. But we are ...
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Recovery: playing the long game
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Recovery is the long game of adjusting and re-building your organisation for a new normal and beyond. As we adjust to lockdown, most of us are still thinking response, getting through the short-term actions on our to do list. Over time we will transition from response to recovery. While every ...
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Business continuity planning for COVID-19: Essentials of operation
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Essentials of operation With COVID-19 rapidly evolving, organisations are turning their minds to business continuity. Many businesses are finding they are not well prepared and are seeking guidance or reassurance on how to prepare. This guide is for organisations that do not have a Business Continuity Plan or want to ...
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Business continuity planning for COVID-19
Business continuity planning for COVID-19
Resilient Organisations has prepared this advice to provide a structure for refreshing business continuity plans (BCPs) for COVID-19. If you require further assistance, please get in touch with us. Communication Good communication is essential in all phases of an event, from risk reduction to recovery. We have put communications first ...
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