Project managers have become accustomed to managing within a structure such as an enterprise project management methodology. The statement of work had gone through several iterations and was clearly defined. A work break down structure existed and everyone his or her roles and responsibilities as defined in the responsibility assignment matrix (RAM). This is the environment we take for granted; now let’s change the scenario, the president of the company calls you into his office and informs you that several people have just died using one of your company’s products. You are being placed in charge of this crisis project. The lobby of the building is swamped with news media, all of which want to talk to you hear your plan for addressing the crisis; the president informs you that the media knows you have been assigned as the project manager and that a news conference has been setup for one hour from now. The president also asserts that he wants to see your plan for managing the crisis no later than 10:00PM this evening. Where do you begin? What should you do first? This is crisis project management.
Understanding Crisis Management The field of crisis management is generally acknowledged to have started in 1982 when seven people died after ingesting extra-strength Tylenol capsules that were laced with cyanide. Johnson and Johnson the parent of Tylenol handled the situation in such a manner that it became the standard for crisis management.
Today, crises are neither rare nor random. They are part of our everyday lives. Crises cannot always be foreseen or prevented, but when they occur we must do everything possible to manage them swiftly and effectively. We must also identify lessons learned and best practices so that mistakes are not repeated on future crises that will certainly occur.
Some crises are the result of acts of god or natural disasters. The public is generally forgiving when these occur. Crisis management, however deals primarily with manmade crises such as product tampering, fraud and environmental contamination. Unlike natural disasters, these man-made crises are not inevitable; and the general public knows this and is quite unforgiving.
Most companies neither have any processes in place to anticipate these crises even though they do not perform risk management activities, nor do they know how to manage them effectively when they occur. Some people get contented that with risk management processes, these crises can be prevented. While it is tru that looking at the risk triggers can prevent some crisis, not all crises can be prevented. However best practices in crisis management can be developed and implemented such that when crisis occurs, we can prevent a bad situation from going worse. Crisis management requires a head-up approach with a very quick reaction time combined with a concerted effort on that part of possibly all employees. In Crisis Management decisions have to be made quickly, often without partial information and perhaps before the full extent of the damage are known.
Crisis management is now an integral part of training programs on professional responsibilities of the project manager. This encompasses dealing with a multitude of stakeholders, being honest with the news media and the clients and demonstrating a sincere concern for morality and ethics in project management.
