The Important Roles War Rooms Play Before And During A Business Crisis
By Edward Segal for Forbes –
News that England’s National Health Service said that it will establish war rooms to help prepare for and respond to the impact of the coming winter underscores the important role the command centers can play in managing crises.
“These centers will be expected to manage demand and capacity across the entire country by constantly tracking beds and attendances,” The Guardian reported. “They will be operated by clinicians and experts who can make quick decisions about emerging challenges in the health service, NHS England said.”
In the corporate world, war rooms can play similarly important roles to help business leaders prepare for, manage and recover from a crisis.
Preparing For Worst-Case Scenarios
“Companies use war rooms to prepare for worst-case scenarios, improve collaboration during events, and help responders adapt and communicate more effectively during crises,” Carla Bevins, an assistant teaching professor of business communication at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business, said via email.
Avoiding Misccommunication
A war room “is a centralized center where information from numerous sources is processed, and open communication creates a clear voice of response,” Bevins observed.
They “are useful when a larger number of people are needed to resolve an incident and when cross-functional involvement is necessary. If teams are working independently on the same issue, this can lead to miscommunication, and it can prolong the issue. War rooms allow all teams to work on a resolution together while communicating openly and adapting quickly. War rooms ensure there are no delays in communicating new and essential information,” she noted. For more, click here.