Keeping critical work going: continuity planning for team leaders

Skills you'll practise

• List a team's activities with the impact if each stops and how soon that impact becomes serious
• Choose which activities to restore first, using impact and timing
• Identify single points of failure in skills, systems, suppliers and information
• Write a workaround and contact arrangements that still work when the usual systems are down
• Run a tabletop exercise and turn its findings into owned plan changes
• Lead recovery: clear the backlog, check manual records and update the plan

Course outline

1. 1.Keeping critical work goingVideo · 2 min
2. 2.What can't stop, and for how longLesson · 15 min
3. 3.Single points of failure and workaroundsLesson · 15 min
4. 4.Testing the plan and recoveringLesson · 15 min
5. 5.Keeping critical work going: continuity planning for team leaders: knowledge checkKnowledge check · 17 questions
6. 6.Final exam11 questions · passing it completes the course, so people who already know the material can test out

Sources it draws on

The lessons and questions are written from these references, so learners can go back to the original.

• Ready.gov: Business Impact Analysis (US example: impacts such as lost sales, increased expenses, regulatory fines, customer dissatisfaction; timing matters; restore the processes with the greatest impact first)
• Ready.gov: Business Continuity Plan (prepare, define objectives, identify risks, develop strategies, define teams and tasks, test the plan)
• General business continuity and team leadership practice