The seven roles and their boundaries
The roles
| Role | Mission | What it does not do |
|---|---|---|
| Crisis director | Arbitrates, commits the organisation, approves communication | Does not speak to the press, does not intervene technically |
| Secretary | Keeps the log, calls out deadlines | Holds no operational responsibility |
| Operations coordinator | Drives technical and business teams | Does not decide external commitments |
| Communications | Drafts, publishes, monitors the media field | Does not decide binding content alone |
| Legal and compliance | Qualifies obligations, prepares notifications | Does not block action, it informs it |
| Human resources | Affected people, support, relief | — |
| Anticipation | Works at 24–72 h, prepares degradation scenarios | Handles nothing in the current hour |
The anticipation role
It is the most frequently absent, and it is what separates a team that steers from one that is carried.
While everyone handles the coming hour, one person works exclusively on the next 24 to 72 hours: what if this lasts until Monday? which resources will be missing tomorrow? which decision must be prepared tonight so it can be taken tomorrow morning?
Without that role, the team discovers every problem at the moment it becomes urgent.
The battle rhythm
The rhythm must be imposed and announced, otherwise the team is interrupted continuously and produces no decisions.
A rhythm that works for a multi-day crisis:
- Situation point every hour in the acute phase, then every two to four hours;
- Fixed 15-minute duration, timed;
- Invariable agenda: new facts, pending decisions, overdue actions, blocking points;
- Between points, the team is not convened: everybody works, and only a qualified emergency interrupts.
The invariability of the agenda is what lets somebody arrive at the sixth hour and follow immediately.
Relief
A crisis lasting beyond twelve hours requires organised relief. Three rules:
- Plan relief from the second hour, not the tenth. By the tenth, everyone is too tired to organise anything.
- Formal fifteen-minute handover, log in hand, with the three pending decisions explicitly transferred.
- Prohibit stacking: nobody stays beyond twelve hours. Decision quality after twelve hours awake under stress is comparable to that observed under mild alcohol influence — it is documented, and willpower does not correct it.
Relief is not a comfort. It is a decision-quality control.
Key takeaways
- The crisis director neither talks to the press nor writes code
- The "anticipation" role is the most frequently missing
- A team beyond nine people stops deciding