The document discusses crisis planning in project management, emphasizing the importance of effective crisis response for project managers. It highlights that a great manager anticipates potential crises and assembles a cross-functional team to act decisively when issues arise. Documentation of the crisis management process is also recommended for future reference.

1. PROJECT
MANAGEMENT
CRISIS PLANNING
Annalise McMahan

2. Introduction
■ Josh Gibson, a former MD and medical professional who has been
an executive coach and consultant for more than eight years,
coaches business leaders on key issues.One issue Josh Gibson
provides coaching on is project management.
Sometimes, whether as a result of mistakes or circumstances
beyond a business and its managers' control, a project will enter a
crisis.A key employee may leave the company or die, or a major
supplier may go bankrupt.What separates a good project manager
from a great one is the ability to deal with such a crisis.
Managers need to respond immediately to crises, and create
teams specifically to deal with them before they happen. Ideally, a
manager will have identified warning signs of a potential crisis and
already taken steps by the time it starts to unfold.

3. Crisis Planning
■ The team a project manager pulls together to handle a crisis
should include individuals from across the organization, and be
activated only when necessary.
The actual process of managing the crisis must be both swift and
decisive. Clear decisions need to be made every step of the way,
and those decisions should be based on as much intelligence as is
available.Once made, those decisions need to be quickly
implemented, and a schedule should be set for each step of crisis
management whenever possible. Every element of the crisis and
the business' response to it should also be documented, creating a
record of how the event was handled should a similar situation
arise in the future.