Mats and Craig introduce a new standard for crisis management: The Murphy Standard, which helps when it comes to visualizing an organization’s capacity and getting a hold on the steps needed for improvement. The podcast goes through the five parts of the standard: people, organization, plans, tools and communication. It’s a conversation about flexibility and adaptation, learning and improvement, and whether everyone needs to reach the highest level.
This episode of Mostly Crisis Management introduces a structured framework for understanding and developing organisational crisis management capacity. The episode presents a model designed to help organisations evaluate their current level of readiness, prioritise development areas, and clearly communicate their crisis capabilities to internal stakeholders.
The model is built around five critical capability areas—People, Organisation, Plans, Tools, and Communication—each structured as a four-level maturity pyramid. The framework provides a visual and conceptual guide to assess where an organisation stands, from basic foundational elements to more complex, strategic capabilities. It draws on educational theory to describe how competence evolves, from awareness through to proactive, system-level capability.
A key topic in the episode is the challenge of demonstrating progress in crisis management over time. Many organisations struggle to communicate the impact of their preparedness work to executive leadership, particularly when much of that work is preventive or structural in nature. The framework aims to bridge that gap by offering a common language for both operational and strategic dialogue.
The episode also discusses how organisations can misjudge their maturity—focusing on advanced exercises or tools without securing the underlying foundations. By providing a structured view, the model encourages a balanced approach: starting with essentials like role clarity and awareness, and gradually integrating more complex capabilities like redundancy, inter-organisational coordination, and strategic communication planning.
Overall, the episode emphasises that effective crisis management isn’t just about response—it’s about building long-term capacity across systems, teams, and leadership. The model is intended to be both a diagnostic tool and a development guide, helping organisations grow with clarity and purpose.
Subjects:
- Crisis capability assessment
- Organisational maturity models
- Competence development in crisis management
- Communicating preparedness to leadership
- Prioritising foundational work before advanced strategy
- The role of digital tools in crisis readiness
- Structured models for decision-making and planning
- Capacity-building across crisis functions
Content:
- Introduction of a new crisis capability framework
- Five key areas: People, Organisation, Plans, Tools, Communication
- Four levels of maturity across each area
- Use of learning theory in competence modelling
- Identifying common organisational gaps
- Linking crisis development to strategic planning
- Enhancing clarity and alignment across stakeholders
- Future applications of the model in training and assessment