Crisis management systems fail organisations for a number of reasons. And in almost every case, when you look back at it, the failure was predictable. The conditions that cause a system to break down under pressure are usually visible in how the system performs on a normal day. Most organisations just aren’t looking for them until they’ve already experienced the failure.
They Fail Because of Challenges of Use
When you meet a crisis — a low-frequency, high-risk occurrence — the process you need to follow differs from what you deal with on a day-to-day basis. People aren’t used to it. They’re not familiar with the workflow in the way they’d need to be to move through it confidently under pressure. And so they can’t meet it, can’t adjust to it, can’t ensure it’s at the standard that’s needed.
People always revert to what they think is easiest in times of crisis. When your system isn’t easy or straightforward to use, people go back to what they’re familiar with — spreadsheets, paper, other informal processes. And the whole point of having a crisis management system is lost exactly when it matters most.
They Fail Because Communication Is Limited
People aren’t told about the crisis as it’s occurring. They don’t have the right information at hand to make the decisions they need to make. And the information that exists isn’t shareable to wider stakeholders — internal or external — at the time it’s most needed.
That’s a fundamental failure of what a crisis management system is supposed to do. If it can’t create a shared picture in real time, it’s not managing the crisis. It’s just recording it.
They Fail Because the Process Is Too Rigid
The challenges that organisations face create situations where the process is just too hard to adjust to. And that’s where a system that gives you a consistent outcome in each flow becomes important — one that prompts you through the same initial questions, but then moves into different workflows depending on the nature of the incident.
These low-frequency, high-risk crises — it might be the first or maybe second time at best that someone in the room has dealt with one. Being able to give them the steps they need to follow, the workflows they need to move through, the questions they need to answer, the resource documents that are available to them — that’s what lets them move through it. It reduces the cognitive load for the person driving the incident, and it reduces the burden and stress for the wider organisation responding around them.
The Fix Is in the Design
Crisis management system failures aren’t random. They’re the product of systems that are too complex, too rigid, or too disconnected to serve people under pressure. The organisations that get this right have built — or chosen — systems that are intuitive enough to use without practice, that keep information flowing in real time, and that adapt their workflows to the nature of what’s actually happening.
If your current crisis management system hasn’t been tested under real pressure recently, now is the time to find out whether it would hold up. Book a demo with the Chronosoft team to see how Chronicle is designed to perform when it matters most.