Campus Crisis: the first summer school on crisis management, for businesses and professionals

[Press release] - Published on April 11, 2023 in Press Room

Supported by its ecosystem of experts, ESEQ (Faculty of Law and Political Science) and the University of Montpellier's continuing education department (SFC-UM), which is responsible for professional training, are combining their efforts. The first summer school on crisis management is scheduled to take place from Tuesday, June 6 to Friday, June 9, 2023, at UM's Richter campus.

Crise Campus is an intensive, multidisciplinary training program that allows seasoned and novice professionals alike to broaden their perspectives, strengthen their skills, and share their experiences with renowned national and international experts in their fields. It also provides participants with an opportunity to share best practices with colleagues from all walks of life who face the same challenges. Professionals have until May 15, 2023, to register.

Highlights of this first Summer University

Seven workshops focusing on key issues: organization, human factors, and communication

1. Decision-making in crisis management: resources for understanding, resources for action
   In stressful and urgent situations, decision-making can be complex when individuals are faced with potentially major challenges. In this workshop, participants will have the opportunity to experiment with structured team decision-making using the FOR-DEC model.
2. Before, during, and after the crisis: what can communications do?
   When should you communicate? When should you wait? How can you prepare for the aftermath? Far from the usual clichés, how can you avoid setting the wrong goals and align your communications actions with the real challenges facing your company?
3. Leadership in a crisis: how to maintain control of the crisis management team?
   While collective decision-making can protect against expert errors, it can also lead to mistakes and dysfunction in situations that require responsiveness and relevance. When emotions, panic, and mistrust arise, how can leadership be maintained to guide the group out of the crisis?
4. Media: long live the crisis! The crisis, seen from the other side of the camera
   Epidemics, purchasing power, pollution, security, governance, among other things, these everyday crises fuel the media but overshadow other deeper crises related to climate, energy, and resources. How do the media define their priorities? How can we better understand their expectations in order to manage them more effectively?
5. Crisis management plans, Rex, PCA. Beyond plans, principles, and implementation of organizational reliability, for business robustness and resilience...
   If having plans were enough, no company would ever suffer the consequences of a poorly prepared/poorly managed crisis. Beyond procedures and ready-made solutions, what approaches can we borrow from research on organizational reliability?
6. Media training: preparing yourself or your spokesperson for an interview
   Interviews are a delicate communication exercise, but they also represent an opportunity for companies involved in a crisis situation, regardless of their responsibility for the event. How can you prepare for this exercise?
7. Identifying weak signals: monitoring approaches and tools for detecting the early signs of a crisis before it erupts
   When a crisis occurs, it is necessary to react quickly and "as best as possible." There is no time to look for someone to blame or definitively trace its origin. "War is won in peacetime," so how can we organize ourselves to identify weak signals that could potentially be precursors to a crisis situation?

Role-playing for an experiential approach

Role-playing exercises place participants in operational training situations to teach them how to cope with pressure and immediate challenges.

1. What to do in the event of a cyberattack?
   What are the first steps to take? What should be avoided? The exercise simulates a cyberattack and lists the "dos and don'ts" that the expert shares based on his extensive operational experience.
2. How to manage media pressure
   Participants are placed in a situation of media pressure during a crisis. How can you manage the media in addition to the crisis affecting the company's organization, and how can you manage the pressure and impact of information on stakeholders? This scenario allows you to take stock of the tools and methods available.
3. Knowing how to negotiate in the face of threats, blackmail, and aggression
   In this exercise, participants learn to adopt the right mindset and behaviors when faced with highly emotionally charged situations where managing the human factor and interpersonal skills are key.

Three conferences to gain perspective and prepare for the future

• Tuesday, June 6: Transform with enthusiasm! How to "turn a crisis around" by focusing on human capital
  Pierre Moorkens is an expert in neurocognitive and behavioral analysis, creator of some fifteen companies, and founder of INC Brussels. How to turn a crisis situation into an opportunity for development by involving the people who are experiencing it is the surprising and hopeful leitmotif drawn from the very concrete experience of an entrepreneur who is anything but a dreamer. Pierre Moorkens will provide the keys to "transforming with enthusiasm."
• Wednesday, June 7: Special forces in business: useful lessons for people management
  Pascal Broquard is a former special forces negotiator and expert in human factors who shares his experiences and approaches to people management in crisis situations. Drawing on his latest book, "From Special Forces to Business," he will discuss the lessons he has learned from 20 years of operational interventions and training in the French army and will highlight possible bridges with the business world.
• Friday, June 9: A century of cascading crises? Welcome to the 21st century...
  Bettina Laville is an Honorary State Councilor, Founder and Honorary President of Comité 21, President of the Paris Institute for Advanced Studies, and Editor-in-Chief of the magazine Vraiment Durable. Despite numerous warning signs (the Brundtland Report in 1987, the creation of the IPCC in 1988, the first COP in 1995, the Rio and Kyoto conferences in 1992 and 1997, respectively), world leaders have failed to provide effective responses. Climate, water, agriculture, energy, among others, crises are linked and herald others. We must prepare for them and continue to try to mitigate them. This is possible, provided we stop wasting time and accept the immense efforts that will have consequences for economic activity, wealth creation, and incomes.

A visit to companies in the Hérault region with extensive experience in risk management

Promoting its region and its unique characteristics, ESEQ is organizing an afternoon of behind-the-scenes visits and discussions with managers responsible for safety, prevention, and the management of complex situations in Hérault-based companies. Thanks to its popularity in the summer and its quality of life, the Hérault region and its coastline attract large numbers of people every year. The region is home to successful companies that operate there all year round, with significant challenges in terms of public safety, environmental protection, and image. Between industrial and recreational ports, tourist and leisure facilities, the visit will provide an opportunity to discuss risk and crisis management policies and resources in order to share best practices.

From special forces to neurocognitive science, eight experts come together for the first time

In its pursuit of multidisciplinarity, Crise campus brings together these eight experts for the first time in a single program.

• Pierre Moorkens.Expert in Neurocognitive and Behavioral Analysis, founder of INC Brussels, serial entrepreneur, humanist, and efficient.
• Bettina Laville.Honorary State Councilor, Founder and Honorary President of Comité 21, Publishing Director of the magazine Vraiment Durable. 
• Pascal Broquard. Former Special Forces negotiator, expert in human factor management, author of the book "From Special Forces to Business."
• Eric Petiot. Air France pilot and instructor, expert in Organizational and Human Factors.
• Ludovic Pinganaud. Managing Director in charge of Development at ATRISC, former lieutenant colonel in the professional fire service, former coordinator of the Interministerial Crisis Unit at the Ministry of the Interior, crisis consultant for BFM and LCI.
• Jean-Louis Caffier. Journalist who has worked for France 3, France Info, LCI, and BFM. Climate and energy specialist, co-founder with Jean-Marc Jancovici of the Entretiens de Combloux, member of the Innovation 2030 Commission chaired by Anne Lauvergeon.
• Léo Gonzalès.Cybersecurity expert, co-founder of Devensys. 
• Patrice Heintz. Expert in sensitive communications, crisis management, and human factor management.