How Crisis Management Training Can Prepare You for the?Worst
Just like you don’t build an airplane when it already flies, it’s a bad idea to learn to handle a crisis only when the crisis?strikes.
“This is Network Operations Center alerting the Emergency Response Organization. We received intelligence that our flight CR461 had an accident. We fear complete loss of aircraft and/or fatalities.”
Whoever was a member of an airline emergency response organization knows that these are the most feared words the computer-generated voice of the alerting system can spit out.
Once such a crisis strikes, there is no way back. You will have to handle it together with your crisis response team.
And just like you don’t build an airplane when it already flies, it’s a bad idea to learn to handle a crisis only when the crisis strikes.
Where Did I Learn Crisis Management?
The simple answer is: In the military. I am a fierce supporter of Switzerland’s active reserve system and have been serving as an active reserve officer for more than 20 years.
The longer answer is: In the military, and because I am in the military.
When I was 26 and doing my annual military duty, I was thrown into the first real-life emergency when a rafting accident in our battalion claimed five lives. A young lieutenant at the time, my task was to lead the search-and-rescue efforts with our helicopters. Already back then, I used the planning and leadership processes as instructed in the Swiss Armed Forces.
Because of my military experience, I was later asked to join the emergency response organization at Swiss International Air Lines, the airline I used to work for in the 2010s. The majority of the members of the emergency response organization had a military background?—?because it helps tremendously when you are in a crisis, and everybody shares the same planning and leadership methods and uses the same terminology.
And to close the circle, in 2022, I was asked to join the teacher pool of the Leadership Command of the Swiss Armed Forces, which instructs civilian management teams and Executive MBA students in crisis management. The planning and leadership processes are taken from the military, the scenario is taken from the airline industry. The circle closes.
What You Can Learn in Crisis Training Delivered by the?Military
At the Swiss Armed Forces, we just have one single process framework for planning and leadership. But it works. It is called 5+2, and it works irrespective of the size and nature of the problem at hand. You can go through the 5+2 steps in 3 minutes if you need to assess the situation before evacuating an injured person, or you can take 3 months before you present your wartime logistics concept to the Chief of Defense. Same process, same terminology, same thinking.
We use 5+2 in all leadership courses of the Swiss Armed Forces, beginning with basic officer training, and ending with further training for generals. This creates a common language and common understanding amongst all officers of how to solve a problem.
Needless to say that such a framework is an excellent foundation for a crisis management team.
Also needless to say that using such a framework requires continuous and regular training of all the involved parties.
In the crisis management courses for civilian management teams and Executive MBA students, the Swiss Armed Forces provide an environment to learn the 5+2 process framework and use it over and over again in an evolving crisis scenario borrowed from the airline industry. In this way, we can focus the training on the methods, which is something most people can learn with enough training.
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Furthermore, the Swiss Armed Forces can provide an added value that no other institution can: we can apply pressure on the participants beyond what’s allowed under the labor laws: less-than-ideal training facilities, very little sleep, very high uncertainty of what will come next. That’s pretty realistic for a crisis?—?you don’t know what will be next, you’ll have to work with what you have, and it will tire you. Plus, you get to know yourself better, especially regarding your limits. Will you at some point just fall asleep, or will you become grumpy and unstructured when tired beyond imagination? Will you at some point be frustrated with your teammates just because you’re tired, or will you trip over the open rear hatch of that infantry fighting vehicle that stands in your crisis room?
Last but not least, the exercise includes intense media training, delivered by active reserve officers who work for various media outlets. Trainees learn about how to convey their core messages to their audience through journalists. And as usual for training in a military setting, those journalists show up at the worst possible time?—?they enter your crisis room when you just trapped over that open rear hatch, or when you are trying to brush your teeth in front of the operations board because you are caught off-guard by the developing crisis.
What You Cannot Learn in Crisis?Training
Even with the advantages of using a military setting for crisis training, you can’t train for certain situations.
I think that I am a pretty resilient and unemotional guy, but certain situations I have met in real-life crises have knocked me off and left permanent scars.
It’s when people you know get injured or die during a crisis. And that’s what can happen in crises, unfortunately?—?both in the military and in the airline industry.
I never forget my reactions when I got to know that a close comrade had died in a helicopter crash:
A video from inside that helicopter leaked and somehow reached my smartphone. It took me a few years to get those pictures out of my head.
Whenever you have to handle a severe crisis, taking care of survivors, comforting relatives of victims, and bringing all remaining people back home safely is your utmost priority.
And monitor your crisis staff members, it might be that they need some comfort now and then, too.
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