Crisis services for organisations

It tests your governance, your decision-making and your leadership team under pressure, often with incomplete information and everyone watching. 

The organisations that come through it best are the ones that prepared their people, not just their paperwork.

I've spent more than 30 years in crisis communication and leadership across mining, government, insurance and the not-for-profit sector. 

I've advised leaders through crises and led the response myself. Second Storm: Crisis Leadership for Organisations draws on that experience.

These services cover before, during and after a crisis. Each one stands on its own.

The Crisis Readiness Review gives you an honest, structured picture of how ready your organisation is to face a crisis based on your risk profile, tolerance and appetite.

Working with your leadership team, Tracy conducts a facilitated assessment across twelve dimensions of crisis preparedness: from risk governance and documentation to team structure, stakeholder readiness and recovery planning. The result is a clear, prioritised picture of your actual versus desired readiness.

An assessment of where you stand in terms of:

• Risk assessment and mitigation controls
• Crisis governance and decision authority
• Documentation, TARPs and crisis management plans
• Incident, crisis and recovery team structure
• Leadership capability and training
• Recovery readiness and transition triggers
• External stakeholder and regulatory notification obligations
• Critical systems, infrastructure and supply chain resilience

• A completed Crisis Readiness Assessment showing your actual and desired scores across all twelve dimensions
• A written summary of your key gaps and recommended priorities
• A facilitated debrief with your leadership team to discuss findings and agree next steps
• Confidence that your assessment reflects your real operating environment, not a generic checklist
• Access to key tools and templates
• A copy of my book, Second Storm: Crisis Leadership for Organisations.

This is a review of your readiness to face a crisis based on your organisation's risk profile, tolerance and appetite. It does not include the work required to fill any gaps identified. 

Leadership teams who want to understand their genuine state of preparedness. Particularly relevant ahead of a known high-risk period, following a near-miss or incident or as part of an annual risk review. Also useful for boards seeking assurance on crisis governance.

Fixed fee: $1,500-$3,000 depending on scope, organisation size and delivery methodology. 

Includes pre-work, facilitated assessment session, written summary, debrief, access to defined Crisis Tools and Templates. Travel and expenses are additional.

This service is included at no additional cost for Crisis Counsel on Call clients.  

 Your Emergency Response Plan handles the physical event. A crisis communication plan sits alongside it, covering how leaders make decisions under pressure, who owns which relationships, and how those decisions reach the people affected. Written down and shared, it holds up when a key person is out of range and the power has gone out at 3am.

I start with what you already have and build a plan that plugs into your existing emergency response and crisis management structures, so leadership decisions and communication move together rather than in separate lanes.

The work runs in three phases. Each has a clear deliverable and a decision point, so you stay in control of scope and pace.

1. Understand what you have. I review your existing plans and policies, hold short confidential conversations with your key leaders, map the relationships a crisis would affect and identify what the plan needs to cover. If you've already done a Crisis Readiness Review, this phase builds on it.
2. Plan development. I draft your crisis communication plan, built around your leaders, your relationships and your realistic risk scenarios.
3. Finalise and handover. I finalise the plan with your feedback and take your leadership team through it in a half-day walkthrough, testing it against one of your priority scenarios.

•  Activation and escalation: when an incident becomes a crisis, and who makes that call
• Leadership roles: who leads, who decides, who fronts and who holds each key relationship, with named back-ups
• Decision-making under pressure: how decisions get made and signed off quickly without cutting corners
• Relationship-first notification: who hears what, when, and from whom, starting with the people who have a right to hear first
• Scenario playbooks: first-hour actions, holding positions and key messages for your priority scenarios
• Your people: looking after and informing your workforce and their families, plus spokesperson, media and social media arrangements
• Recovery: how leaders stay visible and keep their commitments in the months after, when trust is rebuilt

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• A short findings report with prioritised recommendations, presented to your leadership team
• Your crisis communication plan, with scenario playbooks and key messages, formatted for use in the field and the crisis room
• A stakeholder and relationship register, a decision and communication log, and a one-page quick reference card
• A half-day leadership walkthrough
• Recommendations for keeping your leadership team ready through review, training and exercising

The plan covers the leadership and communication side of crisis management. It doesn't replace your Emergency Response Plan, though I'll flag anything that needs to change so the two line up.

Organisations with solid emergency response arrangements that want a matching plan for leadership and communication. Projects moving from construction into operations. Organisations in high-consequence environments facing growing external scrutiny.

Priced based on your individual requirements. Contact Tracy directly.

When a crisis breaks, you need experienced counsel immediately. Immediate Response Advisory involves us immediately stepping in alongside your leadership team in the acute phase of a crisis to provide real-time counsel on decisions, communication, stakeholder management and leadership posture.

Tracy has not only advised leaders through crises but led the response herself. That experience changes the quality of counsel available in the room. She knows what it feels like to make high-stakes decisions with incomplete information and she knows where leaders are most likely to go wrong.

• Immediate clarity on leadership posture and what the situation actually requires
• Counsel on what to say, what not to say, and how to sequence stakeholder communication
• Support in structuring the response including governance, decision authority, team roles and rhythms
• A calm, disciplined presence that helps leaders slow down and make better decisions under pressure
• Direct experience across fatalities, natural disasters, environmental incidents, infrastructure failures, cultural heritage crises, cyber events, conduct matters and reputational emergencies

As early as possible. The first hours of a crisis are when the most consequential decisions are made, often with the least information and the most pressure. Calling Tracy early does not commit you to a lengthy engagement. It gives you an experienced perspective at the moment it matters most.

Do not wait for normal business hours if the situation is urgent.

Activated on a day rate basis. A minimum commitment applies to account for mobilisation and the intensity of the acute phase. Travel and expenses are additional. Contact Tracy directly.

Once the immediate crisis has passed, most organisations move quickly back to business as usual. While investigations to find the root cause of the incident or event are common, questions about how the crisis was handled are generally not asked.

The Post-Crisis Independent Review looks at how your organisation led through the crisis: the decisions made, the posture adopted, the communication managed and the team structures that did and did not work. It is not a legal investigation, but an objective, experienced external lens from someone who has both led crises and advised on them.

• How and when crisis governance was activated and whether authority was clearly understood
• Leadership posture and decision-making quality across the phases of the crisis
• Stakeholder communication, including what was said, when and how it was received
• Team structure and functioning under pressure
• The transition from response to recovery
• What the organisation learned and whether that learning has been embedded

• A structured written report with findings and prioritised recommendations
• A confidential debrief with the CEO or GM
• A presentation to the board or leadership team, if required
• Practical recommendations that can be embedded into plans, governance frameworks and training

Organisations that have been through a significant crisis and want an objective external view of how they performed. Boards seeking assurance on crisis governance. Organisations where insurers or regulators have recommended an independent review. Leaders who responded well and want to embed the learning before they forget it.

Investment

Fixed-scope project which will take two to three weeks to complete, depending on complexity. Deliverables, timeline and access arrangements are agreed at the outset. 

Priced as a project fee. Contact Tracy to discuss scope.

Fixed-scope project which will take two to three weeks to complete, depending on complexity. Deliverables, timeline and access arrangements are agreed at the outset. 

Priced as a project fee. Contact Tracy to discuss scope.

If you suddenly find yourself in the middle of a crisis and you're not sure what to do, you call someone. By the time they understand your business, your people and your risk environment well enough to give you genuinely useful counsel, the moment has often passed.

Crisis Counsel on Call works differently. Over a minimum four-month engagement, Tracy develops a deep understanding of your organisation, your leadership team and the landscape you operate in. 

She knows your context before the call comes. When something escalates at 3 in the morning, she's already across the situation.

The engagement begins with a full review of your crisis readiness, hot issues and key risks, giving Tracy and your leadership team a shared, honest picture of where your organisation stands before anything happens. From there, the arrangement includes:

• Minimum twice-monthly catch-ups with you and, where relevant, your senior leadership team. They can be more frequent if the situation warrants it, less if things are settled
• The ability to send documents, communications, decisions and draft statements to Tracy for review and comment at any point
• Immediate access when something is escalating. Just call, message or email to have a conversation immediately the situation demands
• Counsel across the full cycle of a crisis from preparation through active response to recovery
• Full membership access to the complete R2R Crisis Leadership Toolkit. Every tool and template, available immediately and updated as the suite grows
• A relationship that deepens over time, so the advice improves the longer you work together

• A structured written report with findings and prioritised recommendations
• A confidential debrief with the CEO or GM
• A presentation to the board or leadership team, if required
• Practical recommendations that can be embedded into plans, governance frameworks and training

 CEOs and General Managers of organisations operating in high-consequence environments, such as resources, infrastructure, essential services or government, where the cost of a crisis mismanaged is measured not just in dollars but in lives, licences and reputation.

It is also for leaders who have been through a crisis before and know what it costs to navigate one without the right person in your corner.

From $5,000 per month. Minimum four-month commitment. The Crisis Readiness Review and full toolkit access are included at no additional cost. Tracy holds only a small number of Crisis Counsel on Call clients at any one time.

Contact Tracy directly to discuss whether this arrangement is right for your situation.