Every business faces certain existential risks: a data breach for a tech company; a major malpractice lawsuit for a healthcare provider; the emergence of an aggressive, well-funded competitor; etc. Identifying and training to mitigate those risks is the process of business continuity planning.
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In previous posts, we’ve covered the subject generally and talked about how to identify risks that face your organization. Here, we’ll discuss how to develop mitigation plans to address your identified risks.
What Would Happen If … ?
You’ve already thought about your list of nightmare scenarios. The next step is to simply consider what would happen if each of them came to fruition. How would your staff be impacted? Your customers? Suppliers? Community? Play the situation out to its likely impacts on all of your stakeholders.
What Would You Need to Do to Stay Afloat?
Now, if the worst came to pass, what would your company need to do to recover? Is it PR damage control? Is it moving key infrastructure to a new facility? Is it replacing a key staff member or a key group of staff members?
This is your mitigation method.
Plan to Get There
Come up with a strategy to accomplish the mitigation method. What are the practical means available? What is the desired timeline? Who is involved in executing the plan?
Leverage Employee Experience
In an article for CIO, Kim Lindros and Ed Tittel offer strategies and tips for developing a business continuity plan. One suggestion they offer is simply asking employees for input.
“As you create your plan, consider interviewing key personnel in organizations who have gone through a disaster successfully,” they write. “People generally like to share ‘war stories’ and the steps and techniques (or clever ideas) that saved the day. Their insights could prove incredibly valuable in helping you to craft a solid plan.”
Iterate
Creating a plan and training to that plan are key steps in ensuring business continuity. But your job isn’t done yet. Business continuity planning should be an iterative process. After all, businesses today operate in a continually changing environment—risks change, as well.
As Lindros and Tittel point out, plans can go stale if they aren’t revisited regularly. A good plan is one that is consistently reevaluated and improved.
So far, we’ve looked at the concept of continuity training generally, how to identify key risks facing your industry and organization, and how to develop a mitigation plan for those risks. In our final post, we’ll talk about how to train your staff on that mitigation plan.