Establish and Maintain Command and Control

Written by Moh Heng Goh | Jun 28, 2021 6:52:48 AM

Command and Control Process

In establishing the command and control process, the” ISO 22320 Societal Security — Emergency Management — Requirements” (ISO 22301, 2012) highlighted the following activities to be executed:

Observation;
Information gathering, processing, and sharing;
Assessment of the situation, including forecast;
Planning;
Decision-making and sharing;
Implementing the decision; and
Feedback gathering and control measures.

Command and Control

Manage the Event

To manage a disaster or crisis event confidently, an organization should:

Help widely distributed incident managers triage problems; and
Track the deployment of resources, response teams, and other response capabilities according to the plan to resolve any incidents arising from a disaster.

Activities for Managing an Event

These are the activities to be executed during the Command and Control stage:

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.

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