At this critical time for most businesses, any further disruption to the continuity of the business could prove fatal. Before the next stage of the ‘flu pandemic is announced, we and our customers need to have planned how to manage the risks to our people - and our business!
See how Pinpoint Facilitation™ could help you plan more effectively, saving you time, effort - and money!
"What if?" Scenario
We ran our own "Business Continuity Planning" session, to develop a framework Pinpointers could apply. One of our major concerns was the health of one of our associates, who designs and manages our marketing programme (e-commerce web site, product catalogue, Members’ monthly bulletin, etc.).
Our website is key to the business and needs to be up and running at all times. With such an extensive product portfolio, this is quite complex. If he fell ill - or even died (he is now over 70) - we would probably need to start from scratch with new briefings, a new website and all the costs and time involved would leave the company unrepresented on the web for too long.
The action taken was for him to brief one of the web software provider’s technicians of the details, so that they could manage the site at short notice. (This is one of the things that should have been done anyway but, in real life, we are often blind to the risks!).
Another key risk was "What would happen if one of the two principle trainers of the Pinpoint Facilitation™ process fell ill over-night and had a workshop to run the next day?"
The action taken was to keep each other briefed on every workshop planned, with full information of people, place, process and objectives so that the other could turn up in the morning and fulfil the customers’ requirements.
The whole process took less than half an hour. There were two reasons why this was so quick:-
- the Pinpoint carding process avoids repetition and balances the hierarchy – when done properly.
- this is what the company does for a living, it is our own facilitation method and, therefore, it was conducted as one of our normal meetings.
Outline track for Business Continuity Planning
1. Objective
Develop plans to minimise the effect on the business caused by a ‘flu pandemic
First check the Group's understanding of the issue, e.g.:-
- what is the current threat rating?
- what Public Health measures are recommended for reducing risk?
- how far have we actually implemented these?
2. Trailer
| Do nothing - let nature take its course? | < - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - > | Close down everything until a cure is found? |
3. Card Call
| What are the events related to ‘flu that could adversely affect the business? |
(Caution. Here you need to define risks, not consequences . e.g. "All staff & customers will die" is the risk, "Business will go bust" is the consequence) 4. Prioritise Work through each risk with a template:
| What should we do to eliminate this risk, if possible? |
| What should we do to minimise the impact of this risk? |
5. Card Call #2
| What can we each do as a routine to reduce the spread of infection within the premises? |
6. Summarise key actions with responsibilities.
Include liaison with external agencies and services where appropriate.
7. Document and publish.
