How can you lead a team through a crisis in Live Events?

Unfortunately, if you work in live events it's pretty much a guarantee that you're going to run into a crisis at one point. The scale will vary. Sometimes it's a logistical crisis, sometimes it's a safety issue or outright danger. The first thing is to try to keep a cool head and assess what is actually going on. Planning ahead for potential issues is often key to doing this well, but at the end of the day new things will always come up. If you're in charge, it's your job to get a clear view of the situation quickly and then act decisively.

Again thank you all so very much. As said, a crisis is bound to happen when we have live events. We are unable to predict what may happen. I know this as I have worked in live television. Don’t rule any member of your team out as to having a suggestion/idea that could be used to get out of the crisis . Don’t assume that somebody just because they have a certain position or role in your team don’t know what they’re talking about . Each of us in our lives have dealt with a crisis so therefore we are equipped and we are ready to stand up and do what needs to be done when the moment comes.. Trust your team, trust those around you, trust the people you work with that they want the best outcome too. Many in body, 1 in mind.

It is key that once there is a crisis - everyone on your team understands what success means "now" and how (if at all) that has changed in light of how things unfold. Crisis in live events can be anything from a technical glitch to life endangering problems. As your priorities shift - you need to know and communicate what success looks like.

Leading a team through a crisis in live events can be challenging, but there are a few key strategies that can help. First, clear and open communication is essential. Keep your team informed about the situation, any changes, and the steps being taken to address the crisis. It's important to listen to their concerns and provide support. Second, remain calm and composed. Your team will look to you for guidance, so it's important to project confidence and stability. Third, prioritize safety. Ensure that all necessary precautions are taken to protect the well-being of your team and attendees. Lastly, be flexible and adaptable. Crisis situations often require quick decision-making and adjustments to plans.

Plan the event well and stick to timelines, this will help have time in hand and bandwidth to handle crisis as it’s inevitable in Live events…

As a former client used to say, "Calm is contagious." So is panic, stupidity, and anger. It's always important to plan for the worst case scenario, but recognizing that a jump to panic never improves a situation and that no problem is insurmountable. Some of the best business relationships I have, were cemented when we encountered a significant problem and were forced into the trenches together, and came out the other side stronger for what we achieved.

Many heads together is better than just one. The key is to have a team of like minded, solution focused professionals who are all working towards the same goal - you can focus on what led to the crisis point in the debrief. Think unflappable and swan-like!

Become the North Star. In a TRUE crisis or emergency, many people will panic or freeze. Be the (calm) voice of reason. Be intentional with your words, your demeanor, and your body language. People will feed off of your calm.

In life great communication is important and in a crisis it can save lives! Being clear and speaking with intention will help establish order as you intelligently delegate response protocols to the helpers around you that look to you for guidance. Use peoples names in a crisis, use clear and precise instructions Don't generalize. Give short and simple instructions. If you have to talk them thru a complicated process you must break it down in to manageable steps in accordance with their skill and control. This can be hard to tell if you are around a new team but it's one of the many reasons why it's important to get to know your team on a deep level. In a crisis this deeper level can help you lean into their strengths.

I currently manage Live Music events at a club in Cape Town. I once had a musician who did not arrive and did not answer his phone. With a 2 hour gig it is important to be on time but things happen sometimes, keep your cool. In this case communication is important. Let the audience know what is happening and how you are trying to remedy this. Always communicate a few days before with the musician, to remind him of his booking. Keep trying to call the musician, thankfully his father managed to get hold of him. Have a back up plan, arrange a musician who lives nearby who is willing to step in at last minute. Thankfully in this case the musician arrived about an hour late and played a longer set. All's well that ends well.

Don't get tunnel vision. If you only see one way out of a situation, that means there is only one way out. Lead by example, and be ready to have a Plan B, C, and D in case something goes sideways. These days, you can assume nothing. Plan for a perfect event, but be ready for anything.

This is very crucial for any live events, even with SOP's in place the issue occurs may vary and differ than usual. For that we must adapt 'thinking outside of the box' to rectify and recover quickly and accordingly.

FEMA's ICS (Incident Command System) is a good guideline for commanding and coordinating dangerous or chaotic situations with multiple agencies or stakeholders, be it a planned event or a disaster of any sort. Live events often don't feel like the disaster can be and often are behind the scenes. There's a reason that bigger events, like professional sports matches or concerts will have several teams of paramedics and police officers on standby. There's a lot of commonality between a concert and a terror attack and a lot of commonality between touring for music and deployments in the military. Both are the same sort of high-stress, high-stimulus, hectic, fast-paced environment.

As in all of life being able to adapt quickly can almost feel like having a super power. To adapt you must first be aware. It's important to pay attention so as things change you can quickly make decisions and change reactions accordingly. This partnered with preparation can save lives. It's why we do fire drills because they work. Your chance of survival goes way up if you have practiced your response to a crisis before hand. Know your venues evac routes or as zombie land puts it "know your exits". Be ready to improvise. Improvisation keeps your mind open and allows for the creativity in problem solving to flow freely. This is a balancing act between your practice\ drills and being able to adjust your drill to the actual situation.

Knowing what is important to each of your stakeholders. Because once you know the priority of your next steps - it gives you the ability to task everyone with the task closest in alignment to what their priority is - and ups your chances of people succeeding in their tasks.

Always be calm towards your team and listen carefully to their opinions and emotions. Often when bad news comes, people will be the first to react with negative emotions. Therefore, it is crucial that you always remain calm and composed. If you can do this, your team will eventually become calm as well. In addition, if you can radiate this, it ensures that people can trust you and rely on you. "Be a beacon of light in dark times."

Again, FEMA ICS is the best general structure available for incident management and is a free certification that you should take advantage of. Make sure that you know your chain of command and your duties in an incident. If you are a leader, make sure that you have communication connectivity with all the people you may need to, in an emergency, and make sure that you know who to contact in any given circumstance.

Use your team! By giving them responsibility you empower them to focus and possibly stop their mind from tail spinning. Just have them focus on the task right in front of them as you take in the whole of the situation. Pay attention as they complete one thing be quick about touching base with them do a mental check up and if they are holding it together reassign them to the next problem to be solved. The more intense the situation the less instruction during the crisis should be given you will need them to rely on training and conditioning, hopefully you have done them both. This right here is our industries weakness our open lack of affordable, accessible training leaves us scattered and without a common verbiage in a time of crisis.

Never waste a mistake! It's easy to just brush it off and say, I'll do better next time, but if you debrief yourself following a problem to understand how it happened, how it could have been avoided, and how you can prevent it from happening again, you'll truly use the mistake to your advantage down the road.

Be a forever student and learn from every moment that you can. I often say take all the free education you can get and there is no better education than living through it! So after the storm take time. Take enough time to fully process and learn from what you went through and be honest with yourself about what worked and what needs to be better. Then practice it! create a drill and when you return to your team share it with them!

When doing events, you’re going to run into a crisis at some point. Could be something relatively small like tech issues, or something major like a missing person, security concern, or safety concern. It is wise to expect the unexpected and put your plans and measures in place before you even run your event. Make sure you have your communications plan in place, safety measures present, medical staff and volunteers on deck, for large events coordinating with police, fire, and EMS and even better having them present at your event. Have backup equipment for everything. Have a backup plan for everything. Now when something inevitably goes wrong, you’ve already thought it through, your team is briefed, and you’re much more prepared to respond.