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Event Mapping for managing a crisis

05-04-2021 Covid-19, what does that mean to you? Do you have a crisis to manage now? Stay calm...Use Event Mapping! Quickly and clearly determine and visualize your own situation or your organization's situation. We'll be happy to help you get started.

For one, the Covid-19 crisis will be greater than the other, but the consequences will not pass by to anyone. Besides personal suffering, there are also economic consequences. Of course, some companies benefit from the current situation (home delivery), for most companies the measures are painful or perhaps disastrous (catering, travel, etc.). But how do you handle such a crisis and keep your’n overview? Stay calm and create an Event Map! 


NOTE CRISIS SITUATION

What does this crisis mean? What risks do we run? What should we do first?
Practical questions that are asked daily. And before you know it, premature conclusions are drawn, unnecessary actions are taken and it escalates. CAUSES? Often a lack of overview, structure, a clear approach. To manage the Corona crisis, we already created an Event Map based on our own experience and various sources. This example is certainly not complete, use it as inspiration or as the start of your own Event Map. Click the Event Map for PDF.



EVENT MAPPING

Cothink developed Event Mapping to visualize a problem, incident, or other undesirable situation. More examples can be found at: CoThink Cases. In an Event Map you first make the (potential) consequences clear. If you have an overview of the current and possible consequences, you will first determine the temporary and mitigating measures. That is precisely what makes an Event Map ideal as a method for managing crisis situations. For most people, the cause of Corona infections in the UK is irrelevant, limiting the consequences all the more. That is vital.

VISUAL OVERVIEW & STRUCTURE

See the illustration for a simple example of an Event Map, developed for a (fictitious) restaurant. From the Event “Restaurant closed" ask the following questions: 

  • What are the direct consequences? And what are the consequences or risks of this?
  • What conditions contribute to this?? 
  • What measures have already been taken to reduce the consequences? What is the status of these measures?

  • What other measures can we take to reduce or eliminate the consequences or risks?
  • What barriers can we introduce?
  • Which ones do we choose? How /when will we implement it?
  • Who will do that?

The visualization provides insight into the overall situation, the actions taken and the actions to be taken. If you create an Event Map as a team, you will get consensus and more support for the measures faster.





EVENT MAP TEMPLATES

The template for creating an Event Map is available for free download (see: CoThink-Worksheets). And you already guess: this Event Map template is very suitable for virtual meetings ...


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