The Changing Face of Strategic Crisis Management

PREFACE

Recent large-scale natural hazards, terrorist attacks, global pandemics, refugee crises and industrial accidents have demonstrated the diversity and complexity of today’s crises. The increasing interconnectedness of modern societies makes them even also vulnerable to shock events occurring beyond their country, whose socio-economic impacts can rapidly cascade across borders.
Citizens expect effective leadership from their government in planning for and managing crises. This is fundamental for maintaining public trust, which is put at particular test during emergencies. But traditional approaches to crisis management, based on standard operating procedures and built on the history of past events, are no longer sufficient to respond to shock events of unprecedented nature. Close media scrutiny – including on social media – is also putting increasing pressure on governments to be more open, transparent and accountable in crisis situations.
This report proposes a fundamental shift in crisis management to help governments adapt to the new risk landscape through agile systems that can handle the unexpected. It presents practical recommendations on how to develop strategic crisis management capacities in order to minimise the impacts of large-scale shocks, which will help implement the OECD Recommendation on the Governance of critical Risks.
First, governments must set up robust governance frameworks for managing both classic and more complex crises. It is important to engage multiple agencies as well as the private sector in crisis management and to put in place arrangements for co-ordinating among these stakeholders both nationally and internationally.
Second, governments need to establish a network of actors with multi-disciplinary expertise and the capacity to provide digestible information to support leadership decision-making during crises. Unbundling complexities and identifying uncertainties are essential for making sense of what is happening in emergency situations, and for foreseeing similar situations in the future.
Third, governments should develop dedicated crisis communication strategies for social media. The opportunities for two-way communication provided by social media can significantly contribute to improving crisis management.
Finally, governments must design training programmes for professionals and leaders in managing and preparing for complex crises.
This report was co-ordinated by the Secretariat of the OECD High Level Risk Forum, as part of the OECD Public Governance and Territorial Development Directorate. The Forum aims to develop a shared vision of integrated risk management, with strategic crisis management a core component and brings together policy makers from OECD member countries and key partners, practitioners from the private sector and civil society, and experts from think tanks and academia.

This report draws on the discussions held in a series of workshops between 2012 and 2015 on strategic crisis management; organised jointly with the Swiss Federal Chancellery and the International Risk Governance Council. These workshops contributed significantly to the development of the Recommendation of the OECD on the Governance of Critical Risks, adopted in May 2014, which sets an OECD standard to better manage risks and crises. The community of strategic crisis managers engaged in the activities of the OECD High-Level Risk Forum allows countries to share lessons and support international co-operation in crisis management. This constitutes a key contribution to more resilient societies and safer livelihoods through a better response to complex crises.

CONTENTS

Acronyms and abbreviations.......................................................................................................... 9
Executive summary ........................................................................................................................... 11
Chapter 1 Adapting government approaches to a new crisis landscape..................................... 15
Key messages................................................................................................................................... 16
Managing crises: a key responsibility for governments .................................................................. 17
New crises call for new and innovative crisis management responses............................................ 18
How to adapt crisis management to the new risk landscape............................................................ 21
Identifying key cross-cutting issues in strategic crisis management ............................................... 35
Recommendations for government approaches to crisis management............................................ 36
References........................................................................................................................................ 38
Further reading................................................................................................................................. 39

Chapter 2 Understanding and identifying strategic crises through early-warning and sense-
making ................................................................................................................................................ 41

Key messages................................................................................................................................... 42
The concept of sense-making........................................................................................................... 43
The multiple contexts of sense-making and early warning ............................................................. 50
The two sides of information and communications technology (ICT) in strategic crisis
sense-making.................................................................................................................................... 57
Managing expertise, information and knowledge under complex crisis conditions........................ 61
Recommendations for improved crisis sense-making ..................................................................... 65
References........................................................................................................................................ 69
Chapter 3 The use of social media in crisis communication......................................................... 75
Key Messages .................................................................................................................................. 76
Risk and crisis communication strategies are evolving with the emergence of social media ......... 77
Good practice examples of using social media in risk and crisis communication........................... 84
Challenges of using social media..................................................................................................... 93
Developing strategies for the dynamic use of social media............................................................. 98
Key recommendations for social media use in risk and crisis communication ............................. 102
Annex 1 ............................................................................................................................................. 104
References...................................................................................................................................... 105
Additional online sources .............................................................................................................. 108
Chapter 4 Strategic crisis management exercises: Challenges and design tools ....................... 109
Key messages................................................................................................................................. 110
Fundamentals of strategic crisis management exercises................................................................ 111
Training challenges associated with the new crisis landscape....................................................... 115
Exercise design and scenario development.................................................................................... 119

Key recommendations for designing and developing strategic crisis management exercises....... 130
References...................................................................................................................................... 132

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