anti-workshop series: crisis management

Crisis management is a life skill and a skill that many of our student leaders must learn and continue to build upon. Many times we teach this skill with roll plays or reviewing protocol with our students. I don't think we need to put an end to role playing or reviewing protocol, but to really explore the topic and ignite excitement about it there needs to be a little more training. Here are my "anti-workshop" suggestions.

• Pre-training: There are a few things you can have the students do before the training. I wouldn't do all of the following, but one or two is a good way to start building curiosity about the topic: Have the students write about a time when they felt like they poorly handled a crisis and when they (or someone they worked with previously) successfully handled a crisis.  Have them watch a video from an online news site of a crisis situation, tell them they are the leader in this situation (mayor, president, etc.) and ask them to respond to the following questions. What is the first thing you would do? What questions do you have about the situation that are not answered by the video that you would need answered to help deal with the situation? What does "success" look like in this situation? Lastly, have the students come up with a list of 5-7 questions they have about the topic?
• Training: As with any "anti-workshop" approach, the first thing I think about is who are the experts?

Who better to serve on a panel of experts, or serve as a site visit host than a fire"person", surgeon or trauma doctor, or police"person"? Setting up a site visit is a great opportunity to get the students off campus and into an environment that will challenge their thinking about problem solving and crisis management. Hearing from someone besides their boss or the typical person on campus that deals with crisis will ensure the learning will stick with them longer. The "typical person on campus" might know a whole lot about the topic, but bring them in at a later point. Giving students exposure to experts in the community is a great way to build relationships in the community as well. Provoke reflection. Have them look back at the reactions they originally wrote in the pre-training, and ask them to identify changes they would make now implementing what they learned. These changes can be captured as an assessment of the training.