How to make a War Room in a time of crisis?

The effects of CoronaVirus have already shut down many sectors of public life and the economy. For some of you entrepreneurs this has resulted in a huge impact on your company. For others the implications are still difficult to estimate, but what is certain is that something is coming your way.

Nobody can estimate how long this will take and what the overall economical effect will be - both for your stakeholders and for the continuity of your company. However, how you choose to relate to these challenges is key.

Meaning, how you treat your customers, suppliers and employees. And you do this, naturally, based upon strategic choices and on the basis of your values.

1. CEO Eisenhower matrix
2. Make the decision to create a ‘War Room’
3. Decide who the Crisis Team is
4. Determine top priorities
5. Crisis Meeting Rhythm and Communication
6. Create your war room

This article provides a step-by-step guide on how, in our opinion, best to put this into practice and how we’ve done it ourselves! Don’t waste time, act now!

Step 1: CEO Eisenhower matrix

“Put on your own oxygen mask before you help others.” That brings peace of mind. Making lists helps, but they can become too long. What are you going to spend your limited time on? We use the “Eisenhower matrix”, named after the American army commander in chief, during the Second World War, who went on to become president. He made a very clear distinction between urgent and important.

In our opinion, the Eisenhower Matrix is the “bottom up” and “quick and dirty” variation of the Scaling Up methodology, making time for the really important. Most likely, you will have come across him in certain books concerning time management. With this Eisenhower matrix one-pager you gain an overview within fifteen minutes. We also use this to set priorities.

	Urgent	Less urgent
Important	Quadrant 1: Major fires that must be extinguished now • Request WTV • Call biggest clients • Employee safety plan and communication	Quadrant 2: Ensure that there is no need to extinguish a fire next week • Close the financing gap • New meetings with suppliers • …
Less important	Quadrant 3: Small fires, other people’s urgent priorities • Meeting new supplier • Email from demanding customer • …	Quadrant 4: ‘Work evasive behavior’ Very difficult under pressure, stay away! • Corona news • ERP implementation (was in Quadrant 2, but situation has changed)

Tips

• You choose the boundary between Urgent and Less Urgent, for example plan your week 1 week ahead, or plan 1 day ahead, when in real crisis mode
• What is really important? Your safety plus that of loved ones and employees, continuity of your company, etc. Reasoning from both personal and business Core Values.
• Distinguish between “next actions” that can be done at once without preparation (mark with a square, to easily check off) and “projects” (everything that requires more steps, mark with a circle).
• Choose your top priorities and, in addition, fight to make time for 1 or 2 issues from Quadrant 2.
• For top priority “projects” create an initial planning, on another page, taking note of “next actions”.

Use this overview to decide which problems to tackle today or leave until next week. Also work out which problems can be delegated, or where you can acquire help. And, most importantly, decide what you’re not going to do today or even next week! Your Not To Do List!

Step 2: Make the decision to create a ‘War Room’

We are now setting up War Rooms within our own companies and with clients. We (the authors of this article), are familiar with this concept thanks to past experience within management consultancy, whereby it was used in for example merger talks between two companies. It also fits perfectly with our Scaling Up working method. War Rooms are as old as the first wars, won by good and timely decisions based on overview.

What is a War Room?

A physical space in which the crisis team can work together effectively. In The War Room and its Purpose we provide insight into the most important conditions required, a combination of expert advice alongside our own practical tips and lessons learned. We are now also tailoring and optimizing this in light of the Corona crisis.

Really, a physical space, even now with Corona? How can we make this work with the social distancing rules? And what about people who are at high risk? We say, continue to create this space, but just for one person.

We believe a physical space is crucial. Step by step you can fill the walls with all the relevant information. Providing a far greater overview than that seen on a computer screen. In addition, it gives the rest of the organization peace of mind, when they can see you are in control. If the decision has already been taken to all work remotely, make the physical space at the CEO’s home and / or at the project leader’s (Young Potential see below).

Now with the CoronaVirus you will also need to expand and mirror the space online. It’s likely that most, or even all, of the crisis team will be forced to work from home. In this case, extending the physical War Rooms virtually is essential. Do this via Google Drive with google sheets, Trello and Slack. Also share photos of the walls in the War Room.

Step 3: Decide who’s in your crisis team

Over the past week (s), we’ve been engulfed with news about the coronavirus. Everyone within our organization became obsessed, following updates closely. We sat glued to our screens, constantly monitoring news sites, twitter and whatsapp groups. Understandable, however, Corona news is not in our Circle of Influence.

We believe it works well to divide the company into Offence and Defence teams. The Offence team is the Corona Crisis Team, dealing with all urgent crisis actions and projects (more about this later). The Defence team are all other people, otherwise known as the “business as usual” team. We understand that this is difficult, but it is crucial that most people (no matter how good or bad the situation becomes), keep their eye on the ball, ensuring that normal business continues. If everyone gets involved in Corona, you know one thing for sure: no one cares about the customer anymore.

It is crucial for the Defence team to know that there is an Offence team dealing with the crisis. We like demarcation in the Scaling Up method. And this is also the case with a clearly defined Crisis team. Clarity ensures less stress and higher output, especially for the Defence team.

The next step is to determine, with your Leadership Team (MT), who will be on the crisis team. Our first suggestion, not to include the entire MT because we recognize the value of assigning some key players to take charge of the Defence Team, ensuring good customer service continues. (The Main Thing is to Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing). Who then? Our suggestion is as follows:

Who	Role
Head of Company (CEO, founder)	Takes decisions internally and externally in times of crisis.
Young Potential	Depending on the size of the organization 1 or more. It is important that at least 1 person can fully focus on the problem. Preferably tech savvy and good with data. Keeps the War Room up to date, mirrors sharing online and supports the CEO in communication.
CFO / financial	Necessary for cash forecasts and cost optimization.
Human Resources	Has an overview of all employees, their history, and can create an HR risk map.

Scaling Up works with the FACe tool to create role clarity, accountability and definition of success. Which is why we have created a Functional Accountability in Crisis Teams tool (FACT) for this specific team. This tool clarifies who is responsible for what in the team, areas that require attention and individual output. Detailed instructions on how to fill this in can be found in the enclosed Functional Accountability in Crisis Teams.

Step 4: Determine top-priorities

Use the Eisenhower Matrix with the team. You will notice that not everyone automatically comes up with the same top priorities. You may have overlooked something yourself. Some team members may want to work on 10 or 20 “priorities”, simultaneously. Creating a “Not to do list” alongside the Eisenhower Matrix works very well for us.

If you use the Scaling Up method, implementing Annual and Quarterly plans with Rocks (priorities), then also include them. Which ones can shift to the “Not to do list”? Which are more important than ever?

How many top priorities make it on the list? Make difficult choices, be clear which 3-5 are really top. What do you do with the rest? Which ones can be relegated to the “Not to do list”, at least for now? Which ones can you delegate, which belong to the Defence team, classified as “regular business”?

Step 5: Crisis Meeting Rhythm & Communication

Meeting Rhythms is one of the Execution disciplines within the Scaling Up method. The crisis team also has its own Meeting Rhythm. A crisis requires more consultation: you commence with a ‘day-start’ in the morning, then an afternoon check in and finish with a message to the crisis team at the end of the afternoon. But before you execute the rhythm, allow each team member half a day to get up and running, utilising the methodology in Step 4: Make a first hit a top priority.

Daily Huddles

Day start (crisis team)	Afternoon check in (crisis team)	End of day message (CEO)
One word open	Share individual progress	Summary of what’s been achieved
Everyone’s top priority for the day (Eisenhower)	Information that everyone should know	Urgent matters (evening work?)
Information that everyone should know	Stuck? Share your sticking points	Team motivation
Help requests	Log decisions	Points that need to be communicated across the company

Weekly Meeting

Our suggestion would be to end the week with the weekly meeting, so as not to delay getting started on a Monday morning. This way the crisis team can take some time out over the weekend, knowing a plan is in place for the coming week.

Weekly Crisis team Meeting

1. Present all parts of the War Room 1 by 1 (see Step 6). The emphasis being on exchanging new information and completed actions; no discussions; 6 x 5 min.
2. Repeat Step 4: Eisenhower Matrix. Prioritize this matrix with new weekly insights; 10 min.
3. Ask everyone to present their weekly plan. Each 3 min x 4 team members = 12 min.
4. Review the action and decision list (WhoWhatWhen); 8 min.
5. One word close

Times of crisis require a slightly more direct management style. Important for both the daily and the weekly meetings is ‘Disagree and commit’, a concept in which the CEO gives everyone enough room to express his opinion in exchange for a commitment to the final decision (which you make on the basis of a majority, with a veto from the CEO).

Communication with the rest of the company

In times of crisis communication is key! If you delay communication, your employees will speculate and fill in the gaps themselves. So communicate as soon as possible. if you don’t know the answer, then share that too (this is also a response and better than silence).

It works well for the CEO to send a weekly message detailing the crisis. In our opinion, these points are worth considering:

• What have you achieved
• Weekly insights
• What are next week’s goals
• What are your sticking points

Step 6: Setting up the War Room

The War Room should be as visual as possible. Dedicate a piece of wall per subject. Show overviews, for example, Risk mapping in one part, and illustrate using graphs, tables and action lists.

We have used the Business Model Canvas, as a reference and listed the following components that should be taken into account. The first exercise is based on the one-pager Check list War Room parts to determine what elements you find important to focus on as a crisis team.

Cash prognosis

• Bottom up cash forecast (coming weeks and quarterly, where faster, saving)
• Cash budget top down (year, where to save, how to close a financing gap)
• Power of One Planning (plan for profitability: costs down, or maintain sales, etc)

Team

• Safety
• Moral and communication
• Productivity
• Employee list with information relevant to Corona (e.g. home, symptoms, sick, etc.)

Key activities, core process

• Risk mapping and mitigation
• Manage your KPIs
• Different for every company

Key Partners & Supply Chain

• Risk mapping and mitigation (e.g. insourcing, stocks)
• Communication

Revenue & Customers

• Risk mapping and mitigation
• Customer insights (check any assumptions regarding your customers, call or, email them)
• Customer health & revenue outlook
• Proposition and Marketing (Do they require other services and products now?)

Other resources Differs enormously per company and business model e.g. office, production facilities, stocks.

Create additional categories if necessary Tailor this for your own business. A marketing agency has a completely different set up than a retailer or production company.

For each War Room segment we have a support checklist.

About the authors

Eddie van Breukelen is a passionate entrepreneur, his two main activities are Beterschappen (nutrition and lifestyle for kidney patients) and De Kleine Strateeg (advice and coaching). In 2006, as co-founder of ISIS, - Innovative Solutions In Space - Eddie transformed the company into a 50 strong team. He worked from 2014-2016, with McKinsey & Company as a consultant for large corporations.

Mirik Castro has been using his entrepreneurial skills since 2005, (Holland turnaround, KMA Textiles, Johns Phone) and started a Biogas company for farmers in East Africa in 2009. Together with his brother he lived in Tanzania for 6 years and expanded the company, with 140 employees. Mirik began his career in 2000 at the Boston Consulting Group and moved to Stork NV in 2002. Mirik is an active member of the Entrepreneurs Organization where he also trains many accelerators in the Scaling Up method.