The Conference Board’s “Crisis Management in the Era of ‘No Normal’: Seven Suggestions for Boards and Their CEOs” suggests prudent, practical steps organizations should consider to be well-positioned for a going-forward environment that may be characterized, at least in part, by multiple, concurrent significant uncertainties, disruptions, and crises.
Potentially applicable to all types of organizations, the excellent suggestions (detailed in the post) are worth near-term consideration on the board agenda:
- Be prepared for multiple crises to occur at the same time—for a long time—and to address risks as issues that intersect, not as episodic issues or events.
- In vetting new directors, specifically consider their capacity to deal with crises.
- Reassess both current and new directors’ ability to devote time to a crisis in view of other responsibilities.
- Schedule time to regularly reflect on the board’s performance during and after a crisis.
- In recruiting a new CEO, pay particular attention to candidates’ ability to inspire trust with multiple stakeholders, e.g., stockholders, customers, employees, business partners, regulators, and communities.
- Boards should ensure that there are emergency succession plans in place for the entire leadership team, not just the CEO.
- Consider expanding the crisis management team to include additional areas of expertise, e.g., human resources, risk management.
See our prior reports: “Crisis Management: Board Oversight Guidance” and “Crisis Oversight: Board Practices” and additional resources on our Crisis Management page.
This post first appeared in the weekly Society Alert!