Jawsmith Training

Free tool

Crisis readiness check

15 questions across plan, people, process, channels and practice. About five minutes. You get a score, the gaps that matter most, and what to do about each one.

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Plan

1. We have a written crisis communications plan that has been reviewed in the last twelve months.
2. The plan names who leads on communications in a crisis, and who deputises.
3. We have identified our most likely crisis scenarios and drafted holding statements for them.

People

4. Our likely spokespeople have had media training in the last two years.
5. Senior leaders know what they can and cannot say before legal or regulatory sign-off.
6. We can reach the crisis team out of hours, including at weekends and on holiday.

Process

7. A statement can be signed off in under an hour, including outside office hours.
8. We know which regulators we would have to notify, and the deadlines (for example, 72 hours for a notifiable data breach).
9. We keep a single log of facts, decisions and times during an incident.

Channels

10. We can update our website quickly without waiting for a developer or an agency.
11. We monitor news and social media, and would know within the hour if a story about us broke.
12. We can brief all our staff quickly, before or alongside a public statement.

Practice

13. We have run a crisis exercise or simulation in the last twelve months.
14. Lessons from past incidents or exercises have been written down and acted on.
15. Our board or trustees know their role in a crisis.
0 of 15 answered

How the score works

Each “yes” scores two points and each “partly” one. “No” and “not sure” score nothing: in a crisis, not knowing whether something is in place is the same as it not being there. The five areas carry equal weight. The recommendations are listed in the order of the questionnaire, so the basics (a plan, a lead, a holding statement) come first.

This is a quick self-assessment, not an audit. The most reliable way to find out how ready you are is to rehearse: a crisis simulation tests the plan, the people and the sign-off chain under realistic pressure. Our guide to running a crisis simulation exercise shows how to set one up, and for what to do on the day of a real incident, read the first hours of a crisis.

Keep going

Guide

How to run a crisis simulation exercise

Rehearse a crisis before it happens: objectives, a credible scenario, injects that test the right things, who does what on the day, and a debrief that changes something.

Read the guide

Guide

The first hours of a crisis

A communications checklist for the moment it goes wrong: the holding statement, the regulatory clocks that start ticking, and how to keep one version of the facts.

Read the guide

Free tool

Tough question drill

Fifty awkward questions from interviews, crises and committee rooms, against the clock. Answer out loud, then see what the question was trying to do.

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