An untested crisis plan is like unmarked homework !

Many risk executives can show you their crisis plan. Fewer can actually recall the last time their team ran a test of it. Maybe there’s a quiet assumption out there, that once the crisis plan is written, the job is done?

Except it isn’t: We know that a well-formatted crisis document is clearly not a trained crisis team.

And the gap between those two things is where organisations get hurt.

We’ve seen this repeatedly: plans commissioned, approved, weighed and then filed - yet never pressure-tested. Then reality arrives. And crisis response bods either respond out of raw instinct or lose time scouring the document, desperately hoping it helps to crystallise their decision-making quality.

Roles look clear on paper, yet can collide in practice. Escalation pathways exist, but can be over-run by big personalities, self-serving interest or even stall under the weight of indecision. Contrast that with what happens when well-drilled client teams rehearse their ability using a software like The Drill:

“A valuable tool to update our plans.”  Mark R

“We rehearsed our processes and found insights to improve our crisis comms capabilities.” John R

If your crisis plans haven’t been run through the ringer recently, it isn’t readiness. It’s unmarked homework.

And untested paperwork doesn’t respond in a crisis. People do !