Establish and Maintain Command and Control

Command and Control Stages

Activities

Identify Incident (Once an incident has been identified)

Ready to receive alerts of further developments and additional incidents across the organization.

Validate Incident

Post incidents to a log or journal of all events once it is validated.

Triage Incident

Able to triage the event and activate CM and IM plans or standard operating procedures to respond.

Communicate to Team for Deployment

Able to communicate with the IM response teams to deploy personnel, software, and hardware. Also able to track tasking and performance of IM response teams and alternative supply allocations.

Summarize Tracking for Briefing

Summarize tracking information for briefings to executives or the press concerning the organization’s progress in response and recovery.

Gather and Analyse Data

Gather all data needed and rapidly analyze it. Good information will enable the CCO Team to assess the problem and appropriately assign resources.

Establish Plans and Checklists

Establish CM and IM plans and operating checklists in advance will allow the organization to respond faster and more efficiently.

Manage Information Flow

Develop a mechanism to effectively manage the flow of new, dynamic and spontaneous information.

Display Completed and Outstanding Responses

Display a checklist for response and recovery procedures to track the implementation and completion of the response.

Communicate Accurately

Send and receive incident messages and capture, store, assign, sort, and track them in a way that ensures they get to the right person for initial triage and response.

Review On-going Message List

Able to review message lists as they come in and go out of the Command Centre.

Track Progress and Completion of CM Plans

Store, implement and track CM Plans.

Determine Appropriate Responses

Determine which CM and IM plan to implement and then have a checklist to track the progress and completion of the plan.

Document Steps Taken

Document steps are taken to implement the plan.

Access Data via the Internet

Make this data accessible over the Internet or an Intranet and facilitate rapid reporting.

Track Resources

Track and know where personnel and other resources are deployed at any time.

Check Resource Availability

Provide an easy means for checking the availability of resources and providing for rapid deployment.

Track and Log Deployment

Track and log deployments across the organization.

Summarise Incident Information

Have a quick and vivid summary of aggregate incident information into easy-to-understand reports.

Update Regularly

Provide updates to the public on the organization’s status, and response actions will be regular.

Maintain Diversity

Able to use some communication alternatives. (wire, mobile or satellite telephones, pagers, Internet/ Intranet, LAN/WAN, packet radio and video)

Manage and Maintain Alternatives

(In the event of communications failures)

Able to switch to alternative means (such as satellite phones) to continue to receive and send information.

Goh, M. H. (2016). A Manager’s Guide to Implement Your Crisis Management Plan. Business Continuity Management Specialist Series (1st ed., p. 192). Singapore: GMH Pte Ltd.

Extracted from Chapter 17: Command and Control

This chapter is being edited and revised and will be published as the 2023 edition of this book.