Introduction to Crisis Management

Most organisations have some kind of crisis management arrangements in place. Fewer have teams that truly understand what those arrangements are asking them to do — or why the decisions they make in the first hour matter so much more than the decisions they make later.

This course is a practical introduction to crisis management: what crises are, how they develop, and what effective response looks like. It's written for people who are part of, or are likely to become part of, a crisis or incident management team — as well as anyone who wants to understand how their organisation would respond if something went seriously wrong.

The content is aligned with ISO 22361, the international guidelines for crisis management, and ISO 22301's requirements around incident response — but you don't need to know either standard. The course focuses on understanding and awareness, not compliance documentation.

What you'll cover?

The course works through the nature of crises and why they behave differently from everyday problems, the basics of crisis planning and what good preparation looks like, how organisations structure their response and coordinate across teams, and how training and exercises build the kind of capability that holds up under pressure. Each section uses realistic scenarios to make the concepts tangible.

Who's it for?

This course works well for new members of a crisis or incident management team, staff involved in continuity or emergency planning, managers who want to understand crisis response without going through a full training programme, and organisations building ISO 22301 or ISO 22361 alignment. It's also a natural starting point before our more specialist courses on crisis communications and decision making under pressure.

What will I get from this?

• Understand how crises develop and why early decisions matter so much
• Learn what effective crisis management looks like — from team structure to decision-making under pressure
• Practical awareness training for anyone who might find themselves part of a crisis response

Format

Short video modules, each followed by a knowledge check quiz, with a final assessment to confirm understanding. The course takes around 20 minutes to complete. A certificate of completion is provided on successful completion.