Blog Post

I’ve moved my courses over to Udemy so if you’re here, it’s likely that you followed an old link. I apologize for the inconvenience but you can find my courses on Udemy here

*Is what people tell me, but here’s why they’re wrong “This will never work.” “People won’t trust something so important to an automated process.” “You can’t develop high-quality, professional materials like this without extensive consultation.” “It can’t be done.” These are the things you hear when you make something that’s only been available via expensive professional consultation into an on-demand service. Except these comments aren’t just about CrisisDojo. This is also what the founders of a small start-up heard back in 2001 when they launched their online legal services firm. ...

I want to share a simple framework for crisis response. But, if you’re a crisis management professional or corporate communicator, you need to take a deep breath before you read this. You’ll want to tell me that you can’t simplify crisis response. You’ll want to tell me, ‘It’s not exactly like the standard’. You’ll want to tell me that this won’t work for your big clients. I understand these concerns, so there’s no need to email me and tell me why I’m wrong. ...

Welcome to the Friday, April 14, 2023 I’m on the road today, so it’s a Dragnet edition: just the key metrics today. If this is your first time receiving this email, greetings! These SITREPS (situation reports) contain updates on critical events and essential metrics for you to use in your decision-making. There’s a guide here and a detailed white paper about the small data approach to risk assessment here. On to the numbers. ...

A great exercise presents participants with a near-real environment that will apply stress to them, their plans, and their processes. Like a good gym session, they’ll finish tired, and a few things might be sore, but they’ll be better, stronger, and faster not long afterward. However, it’s just as easy to put together a training session that leaves everyone hurt, confused, anxious, and feeling less prepared. So how can we deliver a great exercise? One that will make a team much more crisis ready by the end? ...

Welcome to the SITREP for Friday, April 7, 2023. It’s Passover, Easter, and Ramadan this week so a good number of you will be celebrating this weekend. (And if none of those is your thing, today is also National Beer Day. ) Chag Pesach Sameach, Happy Easter, رمَضَان كريم , and cheers (delete as necessary) But before you slack off for the weekend, let’s catch you up on some important goings on. ...

Welcome to the SITREP for March 31, 2023 We’re on a mini-vacation in Europe this week, so it’s a Dragnet edition today: just the facts! By the way, if you haven’t signed up for the CrisisDojo waitlist, you’re already missing out. The waitlist folks already got a sneak peek at the crisis standard builder and got a chance to build a 20-page, formal crisis management standard, just by answering a few simple questions. ...

Exercises are an essential part of skills development and, for things like emergencies and crises, the only way to build these skills outside of an actual event, events that are thankfully few and far between. But creating a successful exercise takes a lot of work and planning – you can’t just throw some problems at a group of people and hope they’ll learn from the experience. So how do you plan a great crisis exercise? ...

There’s still only one big story right now: banks. And rather than being out of the woods, as many are hoping, I think we might have just gotten into the woods. Keep in mind that something the increased rates are designed to do is expose and break weaknesses in the financial system. This is harsh medicine and not something anyone welcomes but, when there’s a build-up of toxicity, this kind of cleanse is necessary. The problem is that you need to see it through, not quit just as it starts to have an effect. My view is that this is why the Fed and others continued with rate increases this week not despite the failure of some banks, but because of the failure of some banks. ...

Image (C) Bloomberg In the last few weeks, US banks Sivergate, Signature, and the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) collapsed, while First Republic Bank required a $30bn bailout from larger Wall Street Firms. Meanwhile, in Europe, the Swiss bank Credit Suisse has been bought by rival UBS. Each of these banks was in a different position, and no single factor caused these banks to get into trouble. However, these recent events provide some essential takeaways for risk and communications managers. Here are four I think are worth thinking about. ...