Post Business Disruption Debriefing
Our Consulting ServicesConducting a Thorough Post-Event Debriefing
You’ve established a solid business continuity plan and are preparing for a disruption to your company. When a disaster does strike, you work through your plan as efficiently as possible and get back to business as usual as quickly as possible. Now what? Now you conduct a thorough post-event debrief. A debrief is important after a disruption as well as after an exercise. Discenza Business Continuity Solutions can help your company establish a thorough event debriefing plan. Check out some tips below.
Why Is Debriefing After a Disaster Event Important?
When disaster strikes it’s important to have a plan ready to put in motion, but no plan is perfect. There’s always room for improvement. It is critical to hold debriefing meetings as soon as possible to determine what worked well and where your business continuity plan needs improvement. Work together with your team to report both successes and failures. Both provide the information you need to revise and strengthen the plan when the next disruption occurs.
How to Conduct a Successful Debriefing
When conducting a debrief you must be as thorough as possible. Gather information immediately after the event, preferably within 48 hours. This way you get initial thoughts and reactions from your team leaders. Next, convene a meeting of team members from all departments and seek their observations and input.
Reconvene within a week to provide a more well-rounded review. Work across business functions to determine what worked and didn’t work. If something did not work, analyze what happened to get at the root cause and design a solution. The event debrief should never be a time to point fingers or assign blame. Unexpected incidents happen. The debrief is all about learning from mistakes, moving forward, and working to make your next more efficient and effective.
Suggested Post-Event Questions
Successful debriefs are most effective when you ask specific questions to create a useful conversation leading to better solutions for the future. Some questions to help evaluate your plan’s performance are:
- How did the event happen?
- Could it have been avoided?
- What went well during the event?
- What mistakes were made?
- How can we avoid these mistakes next time?
- What challenges arose while executing the plan?
- How well did the team communicate during the event??
- Did incidents occur that the continuity plan didn’t cover?
- What were biggest obstacles in returning the business to normal?
- What are the immediate points of execution that failed and need to be addressed?
Moving Forward After a Business Disaster Debriefing
Once a thorough debrief has taken place, it’s important to revise and update your business continuity plan. You have gathered important data from the event. Now it’s time to put that feedback into motion, so that next time you will be better prepared.
As a service to our existing Discenza Business Continuity Solutions customers, we conduct a “pro bono” debrief after an incident occurs. We will work with you to help you determine what performed well in your business continuity plan and we’ll recommend improvements and revisions for a more successful outcome the next time. Contact us today to get your business on the right path in the event of a disruption!
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Discenza Business Continuity Solutions
203-305-1299
Serving the MId-Atlantic Region, including Philadelphia, New York, Washington D.C. Baltimore, Connecticut, and Nationwide