We have never had a crisis — should we prepare?
We have never had a crisis — should we still prepare? This is the closing question of the set and the answer is clear: preparation is cheaper than a crisis. 🛡️
A crisis plan is not a thick file. It is one page, a few names and a few ready texts.
Short answer: five parts — roles, thresholds, ready texts, an access list, a drill. All of it is built in a day. 📋
The five parts
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- Roles
- Thresholds
- Ready texts
- The access list
Gathered on one page. 🧱
Roles
Monitor, decider, speaker and their deputies; the structure sits in the who protects the brand guide. 👤
Thresholds
What brings you in and what keeps you waiting; the criteria sit in the silence decision guide. 🎚️
Ready texts
The four-part template with blanks; the structure sits in the crisis statement guide. 📝
The access list
Which account sits with whom, where the passwords are, whose name the domain is in. The most commonly skipped part. 🔑
Write the scenarios
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- Product or service failure
- A customer incident
- An internal incident
- Digital security
Four is enough. 🎬
Product or service failure
An undelivered order, a faulty product, an outage. The most frequent type. 📦
A customer incident
A complaint or argument taken public; the handling sits in the review wave guide. 💬
An internal incident
A post or behaviour coming from inside; the split is between incident and person. 👥
Digital security
Account takeover, fake accounts, a data breach. Here time is critical. 🔐
How is a drill run?
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- Give a scenario
- Time it
- Note where it snagged
- Repeat twice a year
Half an hour, around a table. 🎬
Give a scenario
“It is 9pm and this post has gone up.” The team proceeds as if it were real. 📜
Time it
From noticing to the first statement, how many minutes? That number is the plan’s real measure. ⏱️
Note where it snagged
Password not found, approval delayed, no text ready. A snag becomes the plan. 📓
Repeat twice a year
Teams change, accounts change. A plan left unrefreshed goes stale. 🔄
Keeping the plan alive
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- One page, one place
- Current names
- Numbers ready
- An annual review
Not a file but a working page. 🔄
One page, one place
In the shared space everyone can reach, and openable from a phone. 📱
Current names
If someone who has left is still in the plan, the plan does not work. 👤
Numbers ready
Lawyer, agency, technical support. On a crisis night you do not look up numbers. 📞
An annual review
Roles, thresholds, scenarios and texts; one meeting suffices. ✅
Why not postpone it?
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- The first hours decide
- Crises do not arrive conveniently
- The cost is low
- There is a side benefit
Three concrete reasons. ⏳
The first hours decide
The narrative forms in the first few hours; an unprepared business spends them writing text. ⏱️
Crises do not arrive conveniently
Evening, holiday or peak season. The plan tells you who does what at that moment. 🌙
The cost is low
A day of preparation sits far below the time and trust lost in a single crisis. 💰
There is a side benefit
Building the plan also tidies your access and asset records. 🧹
What should I do today?
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- Step 1: fill in the one page
- Step 2: build the access list
- Step 3: run a half-hour drill
- If you want help
Three steps, one day. 🪜
Step 1: fill in the one page
Roles, thresholds, numbers. It can be done today. 📋
Step 2: build the access list
Accounts, domains, who holds what? The most critical document. 🔑
Step 3: run a half-hour drill
One scenario, timed. Where it snags is the plan itself. 🎬
If you want help
Let us build your crisis plan: use the consult your expert form. For your digital assets see the brand digital audit; the whole sits on the brand consulting page. 🎯
Related reading from the archive: how to start brand consulting · brand digital audit.
📝 Notes From the Field
A team ran a half-hour tabletop drill. The scenario was simple but three things surfaced: the password could not be found, the approver was unreachable, there was no ready text. All three were fixed that week. Six months later, in a real incident, the first statement went out in twenty-five minutes.
📖 Short Glossary
Threshold: the pre-written condition requiring you to act. Template with blanks: the ready statement filled in during a crisis. Tabletop drill: a rehearsal run on a scenario without real intervention. Access list: the document showing account and domain ownership.
⚡ Quick Summary
A crisis plan is one page: roles, thresholds, ready texts, an access list and a drill. 🛡️ Four scenarios suffice. The drill takes half an hour and the plan’s real measure is the time to the first statement. The plan is kept alive: current names, ready numbers, an annual review.
🎯 Next Step
Let us build your crisis plan: use the consult your expert form. The recovery side sits in the recovery guide; for an asset sweep see the brand digital audit.
Frequently Asked Questions
Sık Sorulan Sorular
No, because in a small business a crisis grows faster: few people, one channel and limited time. The one-page plan is designed precisely for that scale.
Some agencies support it, but the decision and the spokesperson role must stay with the brand. A decision delegated to an agency is the most common cause of delay in a crisis.
The one page and the access list come out in a day. Ready texts and scenarios can spread over a week; the drill is a half-hour meeting.