Several countries and lots of agencies use something called the Incident Command System (ICS). They use it to coordinate multi-agency response to things like ex

Several countries and lots of agencies use something called the Incident Command System (ICS). They use it to coordinate multi-agency response to things like explosions, toxic spills, massive wildfires, large-scale searches for missing persons, and more, all the way down to small and localized incidents. ICS courses are free to anyone who wants them. You can get started with ICS-700 here: https://training.fema.gov/is/courseoverview.aspx?code=IS-700.b https://training.fema.gov/is/courseoverview.aspx?code=IS-700... There are a few basic principles of ICS that should be useful to company incident response: 1. ICS defines specific roles and their responsibilities. In ICS, there is Planning, Logistics, Operations, Management and/or Coordinator, and Finance, among others. Each of these roles are defined ahead of time, and disaster response teams practice these roles regularly. Each role has defined ways of handing the role off to another person during a shift change and often includes specific forms that need to be filled out. This data collection is integral to being able to review the incident while it's happening, as well as after the fact for improving training. 2. ICS is scalable. For a very small incident, one person may be responsible for all roles. For a very large incident, response may be further subdivided into branches and divisions. This flexibility is an extremely important part of ICS, and it only works because everyone understands the different roles involved. 3. Under ICS, everyone has exactly one boss, supervisor, etc. that they report to. Any of you who have had to try to go spelunking through logs while multiple suits keep contacting you for updates already understands how important this is. This structure also helps to minimize miscommunication during an incident. 4. In the planning section specifically, there's a process called the "Planning P" that describes a lifecycle of information gathering, decision-making, and communication. It's pretty straightforward and it resolves a lot of common issues in incident response. This is covered in ICS-201: https://training.fema.gov/is/courseoverview.aspx?code=is-201 https://training.fema.gov/is/courseoverview.aspx?code=is-201 Companies developing their own incident response strategies will want to customize forms, data collection, roles, &etc., but the basic principles of ICS are an effective framework that should be adaptable to a wide variety of situations. Most companies on their worst day aren't dealing with an actual or potential loss of life; experienced ICS people can sleep-walk through a company's worst incident.