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Once you have established the structure of your crisis management organization and have a clear understanding of how your crisis team is organized, you need to ensure that crisis team members know what is expected of them. This is especially important because, during a crisis, crisis team members suddenly have to perform tasks that differ from their daily duties. What should they do? And what are they responsible for? A task chart is a useful tool for making that clear to them.
A role description is a summary of the tasks and responsibilities associated with a specific role within the crisis management team—such as that of a chairperson, recorder, or crisis coordinator. A role description outlines everything a person needs to know to effectively fulfill their crisis management role. What should you include?
Consider:
Of course, it’s entirely up to you what exactly you include on a task card. But to help you get started, I’ve created a task card template. You can download it via this link.
Once the task cards for all crisis roles are ready, incorporate them into your crisis training sessions. For example, have crisis team members use the task cards during a drill. And ask for feedback after the training. Task cards are never completely finished and can always be refined. Even after an actual crisis, it’s a good idea to review the task cards and make adjustments where necessary.
Finally: think carefully about how to make the task cards accessible. Of course, you want crisis team members to be able to easily grab their task card whenever they need it. For example, you could print out task cards, laminate them, and place them in the crisis room. Or try making a small, handy card that fits in your wallet. But personally, I’m in favor of making crisis plans and task cards available digitally—preferably in a secure way via smartphones. After all, you always have your phone with you.
Task sheets can also be part of a crisis plan. Interested in a crisis plan template?Click here
