Customer Reviews

Crisis Leadership Now: A Real-World Guide to Preparing for Threats, Disaster, Sabotage, and Scandal

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Most businesses, schools, city halls, warehouses, etc. will never have someone walk in with an automatic rifle or a bomb and threaten to kill everyone inside, but over 8,000 TIMES A DAY an assault takes place in the workplace. What I think is even worse than physical confrontation is the employee who scares everyone else on a daily basis and management feels incapable of taking action "because he hasn't REALLY done anything, YET."

I have been involved in Dr. Barton's seminars and I am very pleased with his new book. In addition to his seminars, Dr. Barton is a key advisor to companies big and small who helps them assess and appropriately act on threats to the company and its' employees. He has real world, real time experience that is matched by few people in the world and his book shares his vast knowledge and expertise.

Sadly, when it comes to mental health the social landscape has changed. In the past people who were unhappy, unstable, or both would deal with his/her situation privately and sometimes tragically. Today, the unhappy and/or unstable person feels that others should know of his/her anguish and they seek attention and resolution simultaneously. If Arthur Miller were writing Death of a Salesman today it would be Death of a Salesman, His Boss, His Co-Workers, and Anyone Else Around.

A CEO who reads this book will have critical information and an understanding about managing a crisis that even his/her most experienced HR, Risk Management, Security, or IT department heads won't.

But even managers and supervisors will find a gold mine of ideas and concepts that will help them see a larger picture of his/her employee's environment that will allow them to act before issues become a crisis.

For employees, this book may be frustrating if you're in a company that is blissfully ignorant of this information. It may just confirm your fears that your employer is not adequately prepared for business in the 21st century. Unfortunately, there are real consequences to this type of ignorance and it is measured in dollars and lives.

Dr. Barton has a unique approach in helping others understand today's workplace and this book is the reality check that every organization needs to avoid the unthinkable.

I have worked with Dr. Barton and this is an update on his work with real-wrold situations and clients. Useful information when developing a comprehensive Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery BC/DR program to include HR, Product Management, Executive Leadership, and not just the security and/or technology folks.

Useful stories about real events.

Larry Barton has written an authentic insight into crisis management.

He has that rare gift of offering important information in a way that is easy to assimilate. It takes a truly brilliant individual to offer important information in such a way that the reader will not be bored after a page or two of reading.

I shall look forward to more of his books in the future.

During the past decade or so, this nation has endured some significant crises. Whether you're talking about Hurricane Katrina; the 9-11 attacks; Hurricane Hugo or the Oklahoma City bombings each crisis has left its mark on our country. However, the responses to those events were different and some were handled better than others. Experts agree that two critical components are necessary for successful crisis management, and those are leadership and planning. Author and renowned crisis management consultant, Laurence Barton points out that leaders with an existing action plan are much more likely to get their organizations through a high-level crisis compared to those that don't. In his book Crisis Leadership Now, Barton weaves together a safety net of procedure, HR practices and security to help mitigate crises from occurring while simultaneously helping devise workable plans that can withstand virtually any flavor of disaster. Soundview recommends this book because many organizations take disaster planning for granted. The reality of a major crisis impacting any given organization is not merely a question of "if it will happen" but rather "when it will happen." This book can help your organization think through your options and responses before the unthinkable occurs.

We are in the midst of a great crisis in our capital markets. The loss of confidence in our banking system has frozen the credit markets for most people and resulted in multi trillion dollar losses in investment portfolios.

This crisis in confidence requires strong, intelligent leadership to resolve the very complex issues that have put the significant liquidity available around the world on strike!

Larry's new book describes numerous crisis situations that have been resolved over the many years he has been one of the foremost authorities in the nation on Crisis Management. It should be required reading for our nations leaders at this critical time!

Dickson C. Buxton, Chartered Financial Consultant
Senior Managing Director, Private Capital Corporation
10-12-08

If I were to face a profound organizational crisis, Larry Barton is the person I would want by my side. His practical and effective insights into averting crises - and successfully confronting unavoidable crises - could be the difference between organizational survival or demise.

In this newest volume, Larry uses numerous, fascinating case studies based on real companies and real people to form a framework for building crisis management thinking into a strategic role in your organization. His 40-page crisis management plan is a valuable bonus, especially as it demonstrates that putting a crisis management program to work doesn't have to be an overwhelming challenge.

I have only one minor criticism of this book: I found it so fascinating that I found myself reading it cover to cover, late into the night, almost forgetting that I was learning from the Master of Crisis Leadership along the way. I don't care what your organization does, or what role you play in that organization - read this book!

I'd say Barton's book is by far the best one available to managers. He tells it like it is. Tons of cases- I was impressed how he brings it right up to the moment including incidents in the last few months. We'll use his sample Crisis Plan in our plants because we have nothing like that in place right now.

Nothing new, cutting edge, or ground breaking in this book. Simply a rehash of the same old tired and stale information that is available on Wikipedia.
One would have expected something better with this person's alleged credentials. I wonder if the author was ever personally involved in a corporate, war, or community crisis situation or if he only researched and read about them.
Some people who write about crisis leadership/management never experienced a greater crisis than changing a tire in the rain.

Dr. Barton's book is a very engaging and fast read. His history at Motorola and his broad experience as an executive consultant add a lot of gravitas to his conclusions for aggressive, early management of crises and more importantly the prevention of crises. Great book, well written, relevant case studies, concrete conclusions and implementable recommendations. An ounce of prevention costs a lot less than a gallon of cure!

Managing an organization is an awesome challenge during the best of times, but far harder in the worst of times. Every process and problem becomes infinitely more difficult when a disaster strikes, be it an act of terrorism, an industrial emergency, fire, flood, earthquake, hurricane, corporate crime, scandal, epidemic, mass murder - you name it. Alas, the old saw that anything that can go wrong will go wrong is often true. Is your organization prepared? Studying this book by crisis expert Laurence Barton is a good way to get ready. He details practical, time-tested responses to disasters of all types. Most crises arrive without warning, so solid preparation is vital, and denial will get you nowhere fast. If you are a CEO, a communications professional or a senior executive, getAbstract advocates reading this very practical book - before the deluge.