What are the best practices for escalating and resolving major incidents quickly and effectively?

We setup clear and well defined set of severity level that categorize incident based on impact, urgency and priority Critical- Severe impact on business operation, revenue or customer experience need immediate attention Major- Disruption of service, affect multiple user or system Moderate- Moderate impact on operation or performance Minor- Minimal disruption or impact We define criteria threshold for each severity based on number of user impacted, downtime, financial implication, regulatory compliance. communicating the definition, criteria and expectation Set up clear escalation procedures Implementing automation alert notification when major incident is triggered, activate incident response war rooms to prioritize response and recovery

Definindo as prioridades de cada atendimento, ex: P1,P2,P3 e assim vai, incidentes como P1 SLA de atendimento e resolu??o de 1 HR e assim vai aumentando para os outros atendimentos conforme a necessidade do cliente.

Make sure you have an incident response policy drafted and in place in conjunction with both IT and legal teams, along with any other implicated parts of your organization. Number of people affected, type of people (consumers v business), level of data sensitivity and type should all be considered in creating your policy. Dedicated persons responsible for reaction should be listed as the response team.

It is really interesting for me to read how people of different areas of work all have the same issues to contend with. I work in the transportation market hauling gas, diesel, jet fuel, propane and anhydrous ammonia to various customers. The threats that I have to deal with are far different from most but equally challenging. Severity levels that we deal with is as follows. If one of our vehicles is involved in an incident, 1. Is it loaded or empty. 2. The product we are hauling 3. Location of the incident ( rural or downtown) 4. Do we have a compartment that is compromised and leaking. 5 What resources are available and how long before they can be on sight? 6. Am I going and do I need to pack a big suitcase?

Within our organization, we have multiple personnel that respond to hazardous events. All are qualified to handle any emergency that arises, but we all do tend to have our specialties or interests. One manager will concentrate on obtaining all resources required for the cleanup while another will concentrate on scene safety. Roles change depending on who is on site. There are many things that are required depending on the severity and duration of the situation.

The question is missing a few steps so be sure your policy uses best practices to cover them all. For example, be sure to document evidence of all steps in a way instructed by your legal team so that your organization has the proper proof of having handled the matter promptly and in line with your policy and so that you have the information you need to go after the bad actors and protect your organization.

So much of what we do in an emergency situation is the same, there are areas that do tend to make the operation a bit more intense. The detection for us usually will come from a dispatch call saying we have a unit on it's side. At this time, resources are dispatched to the area. Once the first person arrives on scene, he begins the size up of the situation. He begins to establish a plan of what needs to happen and when. Once the resources begin to arrive and the plans are discussed and agreed upon, we would move to the recovery phase where we remove the fuel from the overturned vehicle and pumped into a second vehicle. Once all the fuel is pumped, we can call the scene safe and move on to the next challenge which is vehicle recovery.

We have been very lucky that all of our incidents are very low profile. Not a lot of people are effected. We understand the risk and would work with the PIO from the local jurisdiction if such an incident were to arise.

We take many pictures of every incident that we respond to. We use them to plan for the next big event. A lot of our planning revolves around what tools could we require. Early in our journey, we had a vehicle roll over and we needed to drill 4 inch holes in the trailer to vacuum the fuel. We did not have a bit or drill that was able to do that. Now, every manager and responding vehicle carries a 4 1/2 inch bit in it. We may not have the power drill, but we do have the bit. Most of the fire departments that respond do have the drill, just not the bit. Lessons learned.

Define Critical Incidents: Clearly categorize and define what constitutes a major incident. Establish an Escalation Path: Create a structured escalation path with defined roles and responsibilities. Use a Communication Plan: Implement a robust communication strategy for internal and external updates. Activate Incident Response Team: Mobilize a specialized team to manage and resolve incidents. Prioritize Tasks: Focus on high-impact tasks that will quickly restore service. Document and Track: Keep detailed records of incident actions and decisions. Conduct Root Cause Analysis: Identify and address the root cause to prevent recurrence. Review and Improve: Post-incident, review performance and update processes for future improvements.

In a critical system outage at my workplace, we quickly saw the value of clear escalation and resolution processes. Pre-defined severity levels helped prioritize the issue, and roles were clearly assigned: the incident commander led the response, while others focused on technical fixes and communication. We followed a structured four-phase process—detection, response, recovery, and review—working together in a dedicated war room. Using tools like incident timelines and automated alerts, we streamlined our response. Afterward, a post-mortem identified improvements, like faster communication triggers. Continuous learning and adaptability made the incident response more effective over time.