Trusteeship - November/December 2021 - 29

INITIAL
PLAN
VIABILITY
TRAINING &
AWARENESS
Basic Clery Act &
Emergency Response
Plans, crisis response
undocumented, ad hoc
Isolated awareness
RISK SENSING Limited risk-specific
reporting procedures
(i.e. ethics " hotline " ,
Title IX)
GOVERNANCE No clear ownership
INCONSISTENT
" Paper " plans for Crisis
Communications or Crisis
Management, siloed
response
Limited awareness of
plans, responsibilities;
Inconsistently used
and/or tested
Reactive, informal
incident
reporting/escalation
procedures in place
Compliance driven
project-based budget
DEFINED
Clear aligned Crisis
Management,
Comunications &
Emergency Plans
Predictable training cycle
with focus on increasing
familiarity and capability
Reporting & screening
process established,
Preliminary issues
identification &
management
Accountability, policies
defining expectations,
allocated budget
PROACTIVELY
MANAGED
Integrated planning;
response capability
understood & aligned
High familiarity, teams
tested in challenging,
realistic scenarios
Key Risk Indicators
actively used, culture
supports sharing ''bad
news " '
Managed program with
accompanying goals/
metrics supported by
appropriate budget
How to Ensure the Appropriate Board Role:
1. Establish a clearly defined coordination
process between the administration
and the board during a crisis. This
should include:
● Prompt notification any time the
Crisis Management Team (CMT)
has been activated
● Clarity on what information is shared
with the executive committee versus
what is shared with the broader
board membership-confidentiality
is a key consideration particularly in
" self-inflicted " crises
● A focus not just on the facts
as known but the forecasted
impacts and consequences of the
reputational, legal, operational, and
financial risk created by the crisis
● Identification of specific, significant
AGB.ORG
decisions reserved for the board's
Executive Committee
Formalizing this process can help build
confidence among board members that the
crisis is being appropriately managed while
maintaining the administration CMT's
authority to make decisions effectively and
expeditiously.
We know that a strong reputation leads
to high-quality faculty, the recruitment
of a dynamic student body, supportive
and active alumni, a competitive edge in
research and grants, as well as the support
of local communities and government
authorities. As a result, across the country
and around the world boards and administrators
have supported increasingly sophisticated
and expensive branding campaigns
in order to help differentiate their institutions
in a competitive marketplace. Yet all of
OPTIMIZED
Reputational Risk
Management
embedded as part of
organizational culture
* driver of
preparedness,
strategy, and decision
making
* enables rapid
understanding of
complex problems
* Innovative, provides
competitve edge
* fully aligned teams,
a true " capability "
* recognized by Board
as being critical to
stewardship
this work, time, and money spent on brand
building, has the potential to be completely
undone by one major issue or crisis.
In closing, I leave you with a well-known
quote from Warren Buffet, the business
" Sage of Omaha " who reminds us that " It
takes 20 years to build a reputation and 5
minutes to ruin it. If you think about that,
you'll do things differently. "
Simon Barker is the managing partner of
Blue Moon Consulting Group (BMCG), a crisis
management firm that specializes in higher
education. He's supported school leadership in
their response to protests, academic scandal,
sexual assault, natural disasters, data breaches,
and workplace violence along with a range of
social, financial, and ethical issues. Barker's book,
Preventing Crisis at Your University: The Playbook
for Protecting Your Institution's Reputation, is
available from Johns Hopkins University Press.
Email: simon@bluemoonconsultinggroup.com.
NOV.DEC.2021 TRUSTEESHIP 29
http://www.AGB.ORG
Trusteeship - November/December 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Trusteeship - November/December 2021
