Psychology of Incident Command

This one-day workshop will provide a solid foundation of understanding the importance of crisis and emergency management plans, training and exercising, but will also address the fascinating insights into the challenges that our personnel face when trying to get it right as we each strive to be the most resilient organization we can be. We can have the best policies, plans, and procedures in place, but it is our people that bring these elements to life.

The session will be delivered in a discursive, interactive, and enjoyable setting with activities that aim to bring crisis and emergency management theories and concepts to life in a manner which appeals to our audience, regardless of their own levels of knowledge, skills or experience in these areas.

The session builds over the day in crescendo style, starting with a simple, yet always interesting question for discussion – ‘What is crisis management in the workplace?’ We discover that often, this can mean very different things to different people. Together we start to uncover, unravel, and acknowledge and share some of the common challenges and pitfalls which are often experienced by companies.

This session will cover the benefits of embarking upon a journey to achieve crisis maturity through planning, training, and exercising and why each of these concepts is so important, and how they must complement and relate to one another.

This will include the often forgotten need to focus on individual skillsets which may require some development, these skills are known as ‘non-technical skills.’ In this instance, and in direct correlation to crisis management, we will explore the challenges of making effective decisions during situations that are no longer business as usual, and therefore by default, are often ‘cognitively challenging.’ This, coupled with an understanding of situational awareness, crisis communications, leadership, teamwork allow us to prepare our minds to cope with the unique demands of crisis management.

Our session will end with a very interactive, engaging, and enjoyable exercise which serves to act as an overall encapsulation of the session and further cement our learning during our workshop. Our guests will be able to immerse themselves in an enjoyable scenario where skills such as critical decision making is key, where stakeholder engagement is of paramount importance and where we explore how we can thrive and not just survive crisis situations.

About Our Team

This session will be delivered by CHEMTREC’s Crisis Services Delivery Manager Chris Scott and Crisis Consultant Bethany Elliott.

Chris has over 30 years of experience in crisis and emergency management and is a dynamic and engaging instructor of all crisis and emergency response related matters. He has a Master in Crisis Management and Emergency Planning, supported by a degree in Leadership and Management. Chris’ crisis management expertise is underpinned by unique qualifications as an instructor of Human Intelligence (HUMINT), a skillset in understanding how people think, act and feel in high pressure, demanding situations. This helps Chris to create and develop true, bespoke crisis management offerings for our clients.

Chris’ experience in crisis management is wide reaching, spanning the global development and delivery of a wide range of high-level crisis management training, from the European Borders agency in Warsaw, Poland to working with some of the world’s super-majors in the oil and gas industry, coaching and mentoring senior management, including BP, Saudi Aramco, Shell, Chevron and ADNOC. He has also worked with a wide range of chemical manufacturers developing emergency response plans and delivering training, exercising and business continuity. This also extends to crisis leadership & management training and professional mentoring.

Bethany Elliott is a crisis management consultant at CHEMTREC. She has a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and a Master of Professional Studies in Applied Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Her work has been displayed in prominent psychological journals, including the International Journal of Stress Management. She has been working in the hazmat emergency response industry for the last three years, bringing a psychological view to hazmat emergency response through crisis management. Her focus is on helping individuals in high stress occupations manage their stress both during and after work.