Business Continuity and Crisis Management Consultants
Coach Liam stood at the edge of the practice field, watching his group of young players run through their warm-ups. The energy and enthusiasm were there, but something was missing. Week after week, he had been running practices, letting the kids scrimmage, giving them a few pointers, and hoping they’d improve through experience. But game …
The Practice Plan: How to Measure Crisis Response Effectiveness in Your ExercisesRead More
Imagine a small software company facing a massive cyberattack. Initial signs were a few reports of unusual system behavior, which seemed insignificant. Leaders hesitated, unsure whether to sound the alarm or wait for more information—perhaps “better” or more definitive information. Hours later, sensitive customer data was compromised, and the damage was irreversible. This scenario underscores …
Why It’s So Hard to Activate a Crisis Management ProcessRead More
In this episode of the Managing Uncertainty Podcast, Bryghtpath Principal & Chief Executive Bryan Strawser talks about recent failures in crisis leadership & incident command. Related Articles & Episodes: Navy Times: Vice Admiral and two dozen others punished for USS Bonhomme Richard fire Texas Tribune: “Systemic failures” in Uvalde shooting went far beyond local police, …
Managing Uncertainty – Episode #156: Someone has to be in chargeRead More
The World I Knew Have you ever looked at your alarm on a Monday morning and dreaded what happens next? Watching my phone change from 6:18 a.m. to 6:19 a.m. to 6:20 a.m. (insert blaring alarm), I knew my countdown to what I considered the start of a normal working week only meant one thing. …
In this episode of the Managing Uncertainty Podcast, Bryghtpath Principal & Chief Executive Bryan Strawser discusses Part 2 of ‘Suiting Up for the Crisis’, focusing on being a part of the Crisis Management Team. This series is dedicated to helping crisis team leaders and crisis management team members prepare for their next crisis. Related Episodes …
Managing Uncertainty Podcast – Episode #131: Suiting Up for a Crisis – Part 2Read More
In this episode of the Managing Uncertainty Podcast, Bryghtpath Principal & Chief Executive Bryan Strawser discusses ‘Suiting up for the Crisis’ as a Crisis Leader. Topics discussed include what it takes to be a good crisis leader, the importance of thinking about crisis management as a team sport, and crisis management frameworks. In addition, Bryan …
Managing Uncertainty Podcast – Episode #130: Suiting up for the Crisis – The Crisis LeaderRead More
In this episode of the Managing Uncertainty Podcast, Bryghtpath Principal & Chief Executive Bryan Strawser discusses corporate citizenship in the midst of economic, social, and political upheaval. With the renewed focus on corporate citizenship over the past two years, as companies have engaged their customers, employees, and communities in the midst of economic, social, and …
Managing Uncertainty Podcast – Episode #129: Corporate Citizenship in the Age of UnrestRead More
A firefighter trains for hundreds of hours before running into a burning building. An emergency medical responder trains for about 60. And to become a crisis management leader? A whopping zero. And yet as your organization’s crisis team leader, although it may not be your everyday job to save human lives, a lot is still …
Suiting Up for a Crisis: The Crisis Leader (drops “Part I”; Part II now redirects here)Read More
In this episode of the Managing Uncertainty Podcast, Bryghtpath Principal & Chief Executive Bryan Strawser discusses what successful crisis management looks like inside of an organization – including some philosophy about how the team at Bryghtpath thinks about leading in a crisis. Related Episodes & Blog Posts Blog Post: How 3 companies have managed the …
You know that feeling. That sinking, pit-in-your stomach feeling that washes over you when you realize your company has said or done something wrong. Maybe something very wrong. You could find out in many ways. Maybe a customer posted something on social media, raised the issue to an employee, or contacted customer service. Maybe the …
In this episode of the Managing Uncertainty Podcast, Bryghtpath Principal & Chief Executive Bryan Strawser discusses strategies and tactics for supporting your crisis management team (and others) during a prolonged crisis such as we’ve seen with the COVID-19 pandemic. Topics discussed include critical incident debriefings and counseling, managing stress, checking in with your team, stress …
Managing Uncertainty Podcast – Episode #104: Supporting the team in a prolonged crisisRead More
In this episode of the Managing Uncertainty Podcast, Bryghtpath Principal & Chief Executive Bryan Strawser, along with Consultant Bray Wheeler, discuss making yourself important as your organization’s security, continuity, resilience, or disaster recovery leader. Related Episodes & Blog Posts Episode #21: I hope you dance Episode #46: Interacting with the C-Suite Episode #84: Making the case …
Managing Uncertainty Podcast – Episode #86: Make yourself importantRead More
How do you build a rockstar team to drive your resiliency initiatives? Or your cross-functional crisis management team? In this episode of the Managing Uncertainty Podcast, Bryghtpath Principal & Chief Executive Bryan Strawser, along with Consultant Bray Wheeler, take on these questions, using the New England Patriots as an example of how to build a …
Managing Uncertainty Podcast – Episode #80: The New England Patriots and Rockstar TeamsRead More
What does strong crisis leadership look like? What makes a strong crisis leader? How do you develop a strong crisis management team? What role does emotional intelligence play in crisis leadership? In this episode of the Managing Uncertainty Podcast, Bryghtpath Principal & CEO Bryan Strawser, along with Sr. Consultant Jenn Otremba and Consultant Bray Wheeler …
Managing Uncertainty Podcast – Episode #55: Crisis Leadership RoundtableRead More
In this week’s episode of the Managing Uncertainty Podcast, Bryghtpath Principal & CEO discusses a number of reputation management and crisis communications topics that arose during a recent day he spent at the Carlson School of Management, part of the University of Minnesota. Topics discussed during this episode include the Boeing 737-MAX crisis, the Starbucks …
Managing Uncertainty Podcast – Episode #48: Reputational Grab BagRead More
A crisis management team within an organization has to be a team that is action-oriented, able to consume and triage a significant amount of information and make decisions and recommendations that move the incident or crisis situation forward – how decision making in a crisis is structured is important. In this episode of the Managing …
In this episode of the Managing Uncertainty Podcast, Bryghtpath Principal & CEO Bryan Strawser discusses what a successful incident or crisis management process looks like when you’re inside of an organization. Topics discussed include: crisis management frameworks, leading in an incident or crisis situation, crisis management teams, executive crisis teams, global security operations centers, and …
Managing Uncertainty Podcast – Episode #44: Successful Crisis CharacteristicsRead More
How do you take care of the crisis team when you’re in the middle of a crisis? That’s the topic that Bryghtpath Principal & CEO Bryan Strawser tackles in this week’s episode. Topics discussed include emotional intelligence, maintaining balance in the middle of the critical moment, Harvard’s National Preparedness Leadership Initiative, and crisis leadership. Episode …
Managing Uncertainty – Episode #37: Taking care of the team during a crisisRead More
As the 2017 Hurricane season has wrapped up, we’ve spoken with several clients and prospects who call asking about building crisis management plans for the next round of hurricanes in 2018. We always steer the conversation back to “Plans are great, but a framework is the real starting point so that no matter the threat …
Managing Uncertainty Podcast: Episode #23 – Crisis Management is not a Pickup GameRead More
The last several weeks have been dominated by stories of executives, entertainment moguls, news hosts, and politicians of all stripes being credibly accused of sexual harassment – and in some cases, assault. We all agree that this sort of behavior is disgusting and has no place in our workplace, the halls of Congress, or at …
Managing Uncertainty Podcast: Episode #22 – When sexual harassment comes to the C-SuiteRead More
When a reputational crisis hits, everything comes at your organization at once. Social media, the mainstream media, the alternative media, local and national news outlets. Things will move more quickly than you can imagine. You’re in the race. In this episode of the Managing Uncertainty Podcast, Bryghtpath Principal & CEO Bryan Strawser and Senior Consultant Jennifer Otremba talk through reputational …
Managing Uncertainty Podcast: Episode #18 – The RaceRead More
How the bleep did we wind up here? We were working through our checklists and things were going so well, and now we’re just lost… things are coming at us from every direction and we’re not sure what’s actually happening now. How did that happen, anyways? In this episode of the Managing Uncertainty Podcast, Bryghtpath …
Managing Uncertainty Podcast: Episode #11 – What the $@#!Read More
The crisis situation is underway, you’ve activated your crisis process and assembled your crisis team in your emergency operations center. What do you see around the table? In this episode of the Managing Uncertainty Podcast, Bryghtpath Principal & CEO Bryan Strawser and Senior Consultant Jennifer Otremba discuss the need for diversity in education, experience, personalities, …
Managing Uncertainty Podcast: Episode #10 – Everyone thinks like meRead More
Activist campaigns aimed at companies are becoming more commonplace than even a few years ago, as activists use direct pressure tactics in order to force changes in business, community, or labor practices. Other protests, aimed at broader political change, also have an impact on organizations as they disrupt the supply chain, the workforce, or even …
Managing Uncertainty Podcast: Episode #8 – ProtestsRead More
