the complete iCrisis program description by StratAdviser. more that 10 year of expertise in training key decision makers to strategically steer a crisis war room and the undergoing crisis/disaster

1. NEWSLETTER
ICRISIS

2. Managing crisis has huge consequences because it can lead
to the liability of the company for its action before, during
and after a crisis. Law still applies even in a crisis situation.
Therefore companies have to bear in mind they live in a
regulated environment.
Therefore it is highly recommended that companies be ac-
companied by lawyers specialised in crisis management and
contract with insurance firms because mastering the judi-
cial environment is one of the main key factors of success
in management crisis.
Nevertheless, in real life, key decisions makers of compa-
nies do take many strategic decisions before, during and
after a crisis without advices from their lawyer or insurer
neglecting the negative impact of their own stress on their
decision making process.
However, the negative impact of stress on decision making
process is now well recognised and supported by quite an
abundant literature. Interestingly, stress can lead to disad-
vantageous decision making not only in a complex evolv-
ing environment but even when explicit and stable infor-
mation about outcome contingencies is provided1. From
this standpoint so called “crisis management experts”
recognise three obvious factors —under-preparation, acute
stress, and ambiguous authority — as potentially eliciting
suboptimal decisions in stressful situations2. But this model
implies and only applies to organisations with a clear hier-
archy, with both leaders and team members accustomed to
leadership decision making and operating with clear au-
thority, with leaders trained to take decisions when facing
intense stress as in firefighter departments.
Unfortunately, this approach confuses tactical crisis man-
agement with strategic crisis management.
“Wrong strategic decisions
within Companies’ crisis
war rooms negatively
impact the financial
outcome including Insurer’s
overall loss ratio”
JP Carpentier Attorney at Law
contact@carpentier-avocats.com
1. Starcke, Katrin; Wolf, Oliver T.; Markowitsch, Hans J.; Brand, Matthias. Anticipatory stress influences decision making under explicit risk conditions. Behavioral Neuroscience, Vol
122(6), Dec 2008, 1352-1360.
2. Useem M, Cook JR, Sutton L. Developing leaders for decision making under stress: Wildland firefighters in the South Canyon Fire and its aftermath. Academy of Management Learn-
ing & Education. 2005 Dec 1;4(4):461-85.

3. STRATEGIC
CRISIS HUB
STEERING
PITFALLS
Taking decisions in a strategic crisis hub (the other name of Crisis
war rooms) is quite different since it is a new body of authority
that is elicited by the Crisis, aimed at interacting with unusual
counterparts in unusual ways, because of an unusual situation.
Moreover, Strategic decisions cope not only with immediate sup-
port of Tactical Crisis Intervention Teams but with mid term and
long term social/economic/judiciary (litigation & liability) conse-
quences evaluation and prevention too.
In addition members of a strategic crisis hub are “blind” and
“deaf” for they are located in a remote place with no direct vision
nor hearing of “what’s going on”. They can only base their situa-
tional analysis and their decisions on the information sent to
them.
Relying on tactical case studies to increase awareness of the na-
ture of, the experiences associated with, and the competencies
necessary to deal with crisis is far too simplistic and lead to over-
confidence. The problem of overconfidence in decision making,
comes from believing you have more accurate and complete in-
formation than you actually do.
Whenever key strategic decision makers are plagued with over-
confidence, the consequences for performance can be detrimen-
tal to companies, stockholders, stakeholders, the general public
and sometimes to the local and/or regional authorities and, even-
tually the company’s environment3.
There is no way to escape from the mind’s construction that elicit
overconfidence under stressful conditions. Key strategic decision
makers shouldn’t ignore their personal preferences or subjectivity
when they are engaged in a decision making process. They
should understand that it is difficult to dissociate their attitude
towards risk from their risk assessment, no matter if decision is
made individually or collectively4.
Thus sound Business Continuity and Disaster Preparedness Plan-
ning — beyond complying with the duties within the Civil Con-
tingencies Act 2004 and the associated Contingency Planning
Regulations 2005 — should integrate a specific training for key
strategic decision makers that enable them to experience and
measure how tricky their own mindset can be under stressful
situation thus “Know themselves” better in order to adopt more
relevant behaviours and take sound strategic decisions.
3. Fast NJ, Sivanathan N, Mayer ND, Galinsky AD. Power and overconfident decision-making. Organizational behavior and human decision processes. 2012 Mar 31;117(2):249-60.
4. StPierre J, Pilaeva K, Nomo TS. Influence de la propension au risque des décideurs sur leurs décisions de gestion. Piccola Impresa/Small Business. 2011 Dec 29(3).

4. “A simulation program
dedicated to key strategic
decision makers to help
them experience and
understand why stress
during crisis changes their
mindset“
ICRISIS
Initiation/simulation to Strategic Steering
of a Crisis War Room
iCrisis contributes to the training and teaching
of students from various Ingineering or
administration Schools
• MinesNancy
• Institut Henri Fayol
• IRA de Metz
For
those who, one day, will
have to enter a War
Room to strategically
Steer/Manage a Crisis/
Disaster of any kind:
▪ Natural
▪ Industrial
▪ Intentional
iCrisis
public :
decentralized State and Territorial
Authorities, Key decison Makers of
public and private Corporations
(including universities) in the areas
of Security, Insurrance, Healthcare,
Sustainable Development and
Solidarity Economy.
Face up - Regulate - Overtake
1 à 2 months1 à 2 months
Initiation
to
key
concepts
Initiation
to
Cindynics
Initiation
to
strategicsteering
RecallofCindynics'
principes
RecallofStrategic
Steering
principes
Simulation
D1 D2 D3 D60 D120 D121
Ci-contre, RETEX de la
dynamique temporelle de
l'information telle qu'elle
apparait à travers le système
informatique de pilotage qui
prend la forme d’une
application web à laquelle les
participants se connectent
pour échanger
Par sa nature, la simulation
iCrisis™ est un dispositif
flexible de mise en situation
qui recrée les caractéristiques
propres à la situation de
crise : l’urgence, les
incertitudes, l’anxiété, ... et
permet de s'y confronter.
Visit
www.icrisis.com
more than
10 years
of expertise

5. StratAdviser iCrisis simulation program is designed to deliver the
required knowledge and knowhow regarding sound strategic cri-
sis hub steering.
After getting lectures on the principles of strategic crisis hub
steering and related common psychologic pitfalls along with an
introduction to the principles of Cindynics two months ahead,
participants will experience uncontrolled switch from their usual
business “telic" mindset (serious-minded, planning oriented,
avoiding arousal) to the “paratelic” mindset (playful, sponta-
neous/intuitive, seeking arousal and immediate pleasure/reward
regardless of mid/long term consequences) thanks to an open
scenario which generates time pressure, communication channel
entanglement, unreliable data management, … between 3 to 5
interacting strategic crisis hubs (one company, one of its client or
provider, the city hall of the town housing the company and/or
the city hall of a town impacted by the company’s crisis, the local
authorities which are responsible for the population hit by the
crisis itself or the consequences of the strategic decisions. During
the morning of this one day simulation seminar, a dedicated
team plays the roles of any Local Resilience Area partners that
would be involved in real life. Representatives of police services,
fire and rescue services, local authorities, ... are invited to partici-
pate to this team. During the afternoon of this one day simula-
tion seminar, StratAdviser rules a feedback session (RETEX) sup-
ported by a comprehensive computer analysis of all the commu-
nication exchanges during the simulation itself. this session high-
lights among other psychological pitfalls the telic/paratelic
switch.
“The insurance industry is
expected to cooperate with
police services, fire and res-
cue services, local authori-
ties, … thus is legitimate to
sponsor iCrisis simulation
program among its clients”
ENHANCING
STRATEGIC
CRISIS HUB
STEERING

6. StratAdviser Ltd
2nd Floor, Berkeley Square House,
London,W1J 6BD UK
Phone: +44 (0) 207 8874510
Fax:+44 (0) 207 8876001
contact@stratadviser.com
Two months later, after a convenient delay for the participant to
mature their experience drawn from the simulation, a new one
to two days seminar delivers lectures revisiting the principles of
strategic crisis hub steering and related common psychologic pit-
falls as well as delivering practical toolboxes derived from Cin-
dynics to optimise strategic crisis hub steering and subsequently
limit the risk of the “paratelic” switch.
From this standpoint participants “know themselves” better re-
garding their strength and weaknesses during strategic crisis hub
steering and they know how to prevent it should it occurs.