Crisis Management: How to develop a powerful program Paperback – August 16, 2018

I have been in the resilience profession for over 30 years. This is the handbook for crisis management.

This book was exactly what I needed to help our team restructure our crisis management program. It lays out steps in an easy-to-read format - it's straight forward - and provides enough depth and information to allow you to take the ideas and tailor them for your company. I'm constantly referring back to this book - it's a goldmine of a resource.

Crisis Management: How to develop a powerful program is the definitive handbook for PR professionals tasked with building, advancing or protecting their organization’s hard-won reputation in the digital age. Not only does Regina Phelps provide PR practitioners with insight into the theory behind successful crisis communications plans, she also shows them how to develop and execute one on behalf of their respective organizations. Crisis Management is a must read for the novice or experienced crisis management expert.

One of the best and easy to use “how to” crisis management books I have read. Ms. Phelps has laid out an easy to deploy framework for any sized company. As a seasoned crisis management profession, this book is now mandatory reading for my team members.

Excellent book. Highly recommend.

Regina Phelps is well known in Risk Management and Business Continuity circles as an expert on many topics ranging from Crisis Management to Pandemic Planning. Her book, Crisis Management, captures every principle and best practice in the most concise and clear manner that I’ve personally seen, ever. Her extensive experience in Crisis Management is the obvious basis of the practical journey she takes you on. For those who have heard Regina speak, you can hear her voice in every page as she leads you through the wisdom gleaned throughout her career.Regina provides the who, what, when, where, why and how, yet still manages to eliminate unnecessary verbiage. The utilization of lists and bullet points in nearly every chapter, along with many charts, provides easy to use information. For someone who appreciates “just the facts” and the “5 Ws”, the layout of the material is exceptional from those perspectives. I found the flow of the book to be logical as each new chapter builds on the last, as every good book should. The sections make an easy reference point for those who want to skip ahead to a find a specific topic or aspect of building a Crisis Management program.For the novice this is a step by step roadmap. When implemented and practiced, this guidance will bring you into a state of readiness. From there tackling some of the most disruptive types of events would be easier than doing it without the advice of this book. Each chapter lays a solid foundation for program management that touches on key elements of basic concepts, planning, training and on through to exercising and evaluation.For those who are intermediate practitioners, the book will serve well as a guide to improving programs already in place. Two examples are the characteristics to look for in leaders and the clear picture of how an EOC works. For those who have basic plans and are working to improve the program, these have incredible value. The Incident commander checklists is another item that is full of logical but often overlooked tasks to keep recovery running as smoothly as possible.Regina’s discussion of the concept of VOI (Value of Investment) versus the typical ROI conversation is a core concept. If you’ve not heard of VOI before, this chapter is well worth reading. The soft values a well-managed Crisis Management program brings to the table are topics that can be presented with confidence to everyone in the C-suite. The current business climate, where reputation and compliance are at the forefront for many organizations, make the points listed here timely.For those who’ve been through many recovery operations over the years, there were several things I thought were particularly beneficial and would recommend looking over. The section on sustaining an EOC and the battle rhythm that is needed for a long recovery effort was targeted and clear. Her guidance on standing down an EOC is something few of us have practiced regularly, making her advice beneficial. Many of us know the concepts here but don’t have the opportunity (thankfully) to activate on a regular basis, so this section and Regina’s suggestion of exercising EOC operations are important.I appreciate the entire book as a good measure for a plan and Crisis Management Program audit. There are multiple models available, but what I liked about the potential of the book from this aspect is that the checklists and bullet points in each chapter would make an easy outline for those who are looking to identify key components without requiring significant research time or resources.The quotes she selected at the beginning of each chapter add a timeless aspect to the practical concepts she lays out. With the glossary of her terms at the back for easy reference, this book is complete. The amount of information and Regina’s expert guidance make this book well worth a day’s reading. In my opinion, it brings it to the place where it is a outstanding reference for nearly every person who aspires to maintain best practices for their Crisis Management program.

This is my second book by Regina Phelps, the first being "Cyber Breach" which I really enjoyed reading. I got my hands on Crisis Management book the day it came out at DRJ. Overall it's another great piece of information by an industry-recognized expert. Being a task-oriented person, I really like to read the tactical advise versus the broader "you should consider" -type of material. If you are into the broader "Define Crisis Management" topics, than this book is not for you. However, if you want to understand different angles of how to approach Crisis Management and build out the CMT, then this book is for you. Few things that I really like about the book are - the whole topic of Return of Investment (or "ROI"), which is very essential in our Resilience field. In addition, I really enjoyed the section on the Ten Lessons in Crisis Management, with my favorite being on triggering a crisis early (solidifying what I learned throughout my career).Overall Regina goes very specific all the way to actually helping us build the governance model around Crisis Management. The author actually gives you all of the sections required in order to create a top of the line Crisis Management governance model.Regina also covers the topic of Return on Investment (or "ROI"), which is essential in our Resilience field. In addition, I really enjoyed the section on the Ten Lessons in Crisis Management, which actually covers the people/staff degradation over time, risks of waiting to declare a disaster, e.t.c.To summarize: if you are new to Crisis Management and looking to get your hands on an excellent reading material, or if you are an experienced crisis manager, this book has it all!