If the cap fits…?

Dennis Thomas offers his insight into the challenges facing BC managers when forming business continuity support teams.

As business continuity professionals, we all know that planning and awareness are keys to our success. Planning must be an ongoing task and neglected at our peril. With the possibility of so many scenarios to plan for and with the potential of the many actions to consider when a plan is invoked, can a business continuity manager really be all things to all people? How can a business continuity manager ensure he/she has the right people placed to support business continuity initiatives and their delivery?

So, what are the characteristics that may help a business continuity manager along the way? One of the most important attributes is rigour. A business continuity manager needs to be rigorous in exploring the eventualities, and possess the insight to stimulate planning for the contingencies within the contingency plans.

The highly tuned business continuity manager also increasingly needs to have stronger commercial knowledge to build a comprehensive business continuity plan and understand the impact that decisions could have on a business operation. He/she cannot be expected to know the nitty-gritty of all the operations or the functionality of all systems, servers and equipment for example, but would do well to possess the all-round knowledge and strength of character to be able to draw attention to the risks that departments are exposed to – and, consequently, the knock-on commercial impacts.

Therefore, it is important that a business continuity manager can engage with the organisation’s executives and experts to construct both comprehensive operational and crisis teams and corresponding plans. The business continuity manager should be able to influence the rules of engagement when a plan is both written and invoked through assessing the risks and, indeed, the people involved.

The business continuity manager is also the person who should act as a co-ordinator to implement the plan best suited to deal with the particular crisis faced – this may even be contrary to the popular belief that he/she should lead the crisis team. Once a business continuity invocation has been declared, business continuity professionals should mediate between key ‘actors’ in the crisis team and position themselves in the ‘crisis command centre’, sometimes called the ‘war room’. From the war room, the business continuity manager and his or her colleagues need to develop a bird’s eye view of the crisis, the actions required and the resulting outcomes.

Those selected for the crisis and operations team need to be prepared to follow the advice and guidance of the business continuity manager and should be familiar with the chosen rules of engagement. They must also be good communicators themselves in order to convey their expertise concisely and help the business continuity manager take decisions about how to deal with technical specifics unique to the crisis.

In the crisis team, the business continuity manager can take on an active monitoring role to ensure that the plan is executed as intended, and can be adjusted as needed. A sound plan will have built-in flexibility to accommodate any change in circumstance, allowing for a quick change of direction and the dissemination of new instructions.

Hands on or off?
The crisis team should work together with the business continuity manager in any crisis invocation, spearheading the recovery plan, making those early decisions, and co-ordinating and ensuring the recording of the events. The operational team should be expected to perform and implement the relevant activities set out in the plan. Depending on the complexity of the situation there may be a more or less diverse operations team, in terms of the business departments represented and the length of the invocation. Invocations that run for any length of time may require relief to ensure the team maintains high standards of business continuity delivery.

Operations team
The operations team should consist of people who know how an individual or set of operations work and are able to recognise the interdependencies and knock-on effects of changes to an environment. Failure to stick to a designated role and the temptation to digress from the plan without a unanimous agreement to do so could be detrimental to success or failure.

The business continuity manager needs to encourage teams made up of people who can exhibit demonstrable leadership skills, and a calming attitude to ensure that team members give their best in the crisis without causing them to lose their head, panic and make too many mistakes. They must also be ready to support quick, effective decision-making under pressure.

The team leader doesn’t necessarily have to be a division or department head - but it needs to be someone who is well equipped for getting the best out of people in a very unusual situation. The team leader may need to work along side a commercial business manager to gain advice on operational impacts for informed decision making.

The best way to test the efficacy of an individual and their ability to work in alien teams is to test the business continuity plan. A rehearsal will also test whether the team is a cohesive unit and identify weaknesses and strengths in its ability to function as the plan dictates.

Test the culture
A business continuity manager should never underestimate the role of culture in the success of a business continuity plan. The fact that members of a business continuity team may never have worked with each other in a commercial setting before will test their ability to get on with the task in hand and test how well interdependent teams can collaborate with each other and the crisis management team. The ability to collaborate at all times is imperative. The business continuity manager should work with department heads and HR to ensure that a positive attitude to working through crises is embodied by the entire organisation. Collaboration and attitudes cannot be skin deep.

Don’t look under your nose
Tests may well result in the unexpected. That’s no bad thing! Don’t be surprised if, for example, the person who should lead a particular team in a crisis environment is not that operation’s day-to-day director. The business continuity manager will need to manage expectations accordingly and find roles for the unlikely operations candidates elsewhere. The crisis team is often where these willing hands can find a home.

One fundamental task, which must be completed by the crisis team during any actual crisis or test, is to record the events as they unfold. A retrospective audit of the crisis will always help improve future planning, identify failings or establish misallocation of resources. This administrative role may also be vital for providing a history of events for insurance and legal claims - an area that is often overlooked in the test and crisis execution. It can also help spot spokespeople who can calmly and consistently deal with the media.

Invest in crisis sensitivities
Together the operations and crisis teams can be coached to co-operate under the guidance of the business continuity manager to ensure that the plan is executed as intended and adjusted as necessary. Analysing what skills a person can bring and asking “Why do I need this person on my team?” should always be the first task to complete when assessing an individual’s attributes.

Working, for example, with HR or the education and training department to ensure the organisation is crisis sensitive will help the business continuity manager identify those willing to take part and not those who are likely to confuse and hinder in a crisis. It seems simple, but if people are given the opportunity to do what they do best, it can make all the difference between invocation success or failure. Knowing one’s role at the time of a crisis is the proven differentiator.

Recipe for success: seven attributes to look for in crisis leaders
* Look for leaders and knowledge
Are they a leader because they know the operations in question or because they have leadership qualities? Don’t assume the leader must be affiliated to the department in day to day working life. Pair up a combination of the two if no single person can contribute it all. But remember, too many leaders can spoil the effectiveness of a plan.

* Look for communicators
Can they get the message across to the team quickly? Can they implement changes quickly by communicating effectively?

* Look for calming yet responsive people
Can they stay calm, think practically and logically in order to problem solve and look at the wider picture? Can they bring out the best in people and encourage them to do the same?

* Look for discipline
Will they stick to the plan and know not to interfere?

* Look for decision makers
Can they be decisive given the facts not the fiction? And can they be relied upon to speak up when they believe adjustments need to be made?

* Look for team players
Can they work in new groups and ‘hit the ground running’? Will they go into crisis auto pilot to get the job done?

* Look for strong administrators
Who will support you without getting under your feet or giving an instruction a second thought and who will record every detail so it can be counted as legal evidence?

Dennis Thomas is director of business continuity at Synstar.
www.synstar.com/services.html

•Date: 27th February 2004 •Region: Worldwide/UK •Type: Article •Topic: BC general
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