ISO 22361 – Consolidation of crisis management

After the new DIN ISO 22361 “Crisis Management” was published in February 2023,
the reactions on the market have shown that many companies are very interested in this standard. In our view, this involves the following points:

Auditing: Companies are asked by their customers about the quality of their business continuity and crisis management system. It is actually about saving time and
money. This is based on the observation that an increasing number of manufacturing companies are being
your customers on the quality of the business continuity and crisis management system
be asked. The question is: “Can you fulfill your delivery obligations under all possible circumstances?” The time and effort required for an audit by a customer is high and blocks a
considerable human and financial resources over a longer period of time. This effort can be
BCM can be reduced by referring to certification in accordance with ISO 22301. Certification in accordance with ISO 22361 is not currently planned for crisis management. The particular
advantage of auditing in accordance with ISO 22361 is that the audit standard is applied by a
globally applicable standard. We would be happy to submit an
offer for such an audit with the following five steps:

Guideline for the implementation of ISO 22361: A “Crisis Management” working group of the Risk Management & Rating Association e.V
headed by Dr. Klaus Bockslaff,
is working on a guideline for its implementation. Three levels of requirements were
defined for organizations with different levels of crisis management requirements:
Basic requirements, higher and highest requirements. For each element of the standard,
the working group described how these requirements can be met. The
writing of the texts in the subgroups is largely complete. The entire text
is now merged. We expect the guide to appear in the RMA publication series
in the fall. We will continue to report.
Another guideline was published in June 2022 by the Association for the Promotion of German Fire Protection (vfdb) entitled “Crisis management for authorities and companies”
. An accompanying text by Benno Fritzen, the head of the German delegation to the responsible ISO working group,
puts these guidelines in context.

Personal and professional requirements: As we reported in the INFOBrief of March 2023, the new ISO 22361 contains a list of the various requirements for
leadership in crisis teams in chapter 6.1.1 on page 30. Appropriate leadership is the decisive success factor in crisis management. Self-reflection and knowing your own behavioral patterns in critical situations are important skills for surviving a crisis.
Under the title “Crisis management for managers”, we offer a two-day seminar
with GemaSim® that focuses on the behavior of participants in a stressful
situation. GemaSim® is a training and group assessment tool for the ‘soft factors’.

The software simulates an easy-to-use cockpit of a spaceship and the environment of the X-578 galaxy. The cockpit consists of two different stations with different displays and controls. Two astronauts operate the left-hand station and two the right-hand station.

In addition to deepening the theoretical foundations and exchanging experiences with experienced
coaches, you will learn how to use this computer-based simulation to shape the processes of leadership
and decision-making and to train under pressure.

Article on DIN ISO 22361: The latest issue of KES contains an article by Dr. Klaus
Bockslaff on crisis management in accordance with DIN ISO 22361. The full text of
the article can be found in KES 2023, issue 2.

Overall, we are convinced that the new ISO 22361 can make a significant contribution to
the further development of crisis management. The experiences of the last few months have
shown what significance the “black swans” can have. It is essential to be
prepared for such high-impact events with a very low probability of occurrence.

We would be happy to make a contribution to this together with you, be it through a corresponding
consulting project or our proven seminar program at our Verismo Academy or
as an in-house event at your premises.

We would be very pleased to hear from you.
Your Verismo Team