CRISIS MANAGEMENT 1: Strategic Perspectives
Crisis as a test and driver of governance
Crisis tests an organization’s ability to act according to its values when benchmarks falter.
It reveals the strengths and weaknesses of governance: the clarity of roles, the quality of dialogue, and the consistency between stated principles and decisions made.
However, it can also become a driver of transformation.
This training helps decision-makers interpret crises, anticipate their effects, and draw lessons from them to strengthen their organization’s resilience, trust, and collective capacity for action.
Objectives
This training is intended for executives and managers responsible for anticipating, analyzing, or coordinating the organizational response to crises.
Upon completion of the training, participants will be able to:
• Analyze crisis as a systemic and ethical phenomenon, revealing tensions between values, power, and legitimacy.
• Identify organizational vulnerabilities and weak signals that herald or amplify crises.
• Evaluate the relevance of classic management models and integrate issues of integrity, trust, and responsibility into strategic governance.
• Introduce the principles of care as a complement to procedural rationality, to strengthen institutional cohesion and coordination.
Requirements
• Target Audience: public sector executives; compliance officers; NGO leaders; private sector managers and in multilateral organizations.
• Prerequisites: none
• Equipment: PC | Smartphone
• Duration: 3 hours
• Accessibility: for all, see the ‘Training accessibility’ sheet
• Deliverable: educational booklet containing:
1) A strategic and ethical analysis framework for interpreting crises and structuring decision-making.
2) An organizational vulnerability detection tool (weak signals, blind spots, value misalignments).
3) A crisis governance model, articulating anticipation, decision, communication, and collective learning.
Teaching methods
The training is based on a participatory pedagogy, rooted in practice:
• Conceptual Input: decision rationalities, crisis models, and their limits.
• Strategic Case Study: analysis of a reputational and institutional crisis
• Self-diagnosis Exercise: identification of organizational vulnerabilities and weak signals.
• Strategic Arbitration Workshop: simulation of a management board reconciling efficiency, legitimacy, and value consistency.
• Reflective Discussions: guided exchanges on tensions between governance, integrity, and collective responsibility.
Training schedule
|
Timing |
Description |
|
15 min |
Introduction : — Discussion on needs and context – Contextualization: crisis as a moral and political indicator. |
|
35 min |
Conceptual and Theoretical Frameworks: – Presentation of crisis management models and their limits. – Distinction between operational management and strategic governance. |
|
40 min |
Case Study: – Analysis of a reputational and institutional crisis. – Identification of root causes and governance failures |
|
45 min |
Practical Workshop: – Simulation of a management committee: decision-making in a context of uncertainty, balancing efficiency, transparency, and equity. |
|
30 min |
Group discussion: – What conditions are required for trustworthy governance? – Introduction to the concept of “organizational care”. |
|
15 min |
Assessment and validation: – Application exercise; collective feedback – Conclusions |
Assessment and validation 🎓
Assessment is based on interactive teaching methods, combining:
• A test at the end of the course for each participant, related to the course and the participant’s professional context. This skills assessment identifies what has been learned and areas for improvement.
• Collective feedback to consolidate learning.
• A certificate of participation certified by Ethicor, issued after validation.
Ethicor ensures the traceability and monitoring of assessments in accordance with confidentiality rules.
Trainer
Dr. Guillaume Nicaise
Guillaume has been working for over ten years on corruption prevention, risk management and the establishment of organisational cultures based on trust.
He has worked for the U4 Anti-Corruption Centre, supporting ministries and development agencies in eight different countries, as well as for GIZ and other international organisations such as NATO.
He now assists international organisations in strengthening their whistleblowing systems, incorporating an inclusive approach.
Accessibility of training courses
Ethicor is committed to making its training courses accessible to all.
Our modules are designed to be taken online, remotely, from any connected device (computer, tablet or smartphone).
If specific accommodations are required (assisted reading, subtitling, adjusted pace, cognitive or sensory accessibility), participants are invited to contact our accessibility advisor before the start of the training course: contact@ethicor.org
Training materials are available in adaptable digital formats (accessible PDF, optimised contrast, legible font).
Particular attention is paid to inclusive language, fair gender representation and diversity in professional situations in the educational examples.
Ethicor provides personalised follow-up on adaptation requests to ensure fair access to training.
