Most crisis plans look solid on paper. But only a few work when it counts.
The dangerous gap between preparedness and performance
When leadership teams say ‘we have a plan’, it often sounds reassuring.
But in a real crisis, that plan is rarely what saves the day.
Instead, we see time and time again:
- Delayed activation because no one knows the starting point
- Confusion around who leads, who decides, and who supports
- Teams reverting to instinct or improvisation – not structure
Why? Because many crisis plans are created in isolation. They live in a document, disconnected from actual performance.
They assume awareness, clarity and confidence – but those qualities aren’t built through paperwork. They’re built through planning as a living process.
And that’s the real problem: we confuse documentation with readiness.
Why most organisations get stuck in the wrong place
A good crisis plan must do more than describe what to do.
It must:
- Support real-world decision-making
- Reflect the organisation’s actual ability to act
- Be usable, under pressure, by the people it is intended for
But most organisations skip a critical step: they never assess their current level of capability before writing the plan.
The result?
- Plans assume a level of understanding that isn’t there
- Supporting tools are missing or untested
- Key roles are unclear, untrained, or overloaded
- The plan is forgotten until it’s too late
As a result, many teams spend time updating documents – when they should be building structures, behaviours and mutual understanding.
What it takes to make planning create real capability
So what does effective planning look like?
It’s not about writing more pages. It’s about ensuring the plan supports people, decisions and coordination – in the moments that it is most needed.
At Murphy, we define plan maturity across four levels:
Level 1: Foundation
Your baseline must include:
- Shared definitions of what constitutes a crisis
- Clear escalation thresholds and routines
- Role allocation: who leads, who supports, who decides
- A basic meeting structure and information flow
This is where most organisations need to start. Without this, nothing else works.
Level 2: Support
The plan must help people do their job by including:
- Role cards and checklists for each key function
- User-friendly content – not legalistic language
- Visual templates for decision-making and reporting
- Clarity on priorities and objectives
Here, we move from having a plan to being able to use it.
Level 3: Strategy
The plan must go beyond reactive steps:
- It becomes part of how the organisation builds resilience
- It supports capability development over time
- It provides a framework for how teams prepare, train and evolve
- It links to business continuity, security and leadership strategy
Planning here drives progression – not just compliance.
Level 4: Integration
At the highest level, planning is part of business governance:
- Plans are updated as the business changes
- Crisis management is embedded in strategy, reporting and leadership
- Planning is linked to organisational culture, values and mission
- The organisation uses crisis as a platform for learning and growth
Here, planning supports not only survival – but transformation.
Start with where you are, not where you hope to be
Where most plans fail is not in intention – but in sequence.
We rush ahead to build complex plans and structures, but skip the foundations.
We assume knowledge. We assume clarity. We assume cohesion.
That’s why our recommendation is simple:
👉 Start by assessing where you are today.
Using the Murphy Crisis Framework, you can:
- Benchmark your current maturity across key areas – including planning
- Identify low-effort improvements that raise readiness fast
- Distinguish what requires development from what only requires maintenance
- Build structured progression across people, plans, tools and leadership
Planning is not a one-off project. It’s a cycle. And it needs ownership, clarity and time.
Turn your plan into performance
Most crisis plans fail because they’re written as documents, not tested as capabilities.
With Murphy’s platform and The Crisis Framework (TCF), you can benchmark your current maturity, spot the gaps, and build the structures that actually work under pressure.
Don’t just update your plan. Transform it into a living system.