# Lead the executive response in the first 72 hours of a crisis

A structured crisis response plan covering facts, decisions, stakeholders, and communications for a CEO in the first three days.

- Topic: Leadership & Management
- Framework: Few-Shot
- Level: Standard
- Tags: Sales, Legal, HR & Hiring, Fill-in Template
- Source: https://www.thinkwithprompt.com/prompts/lead-the-executive-response-in-the-first-72-hours-of-a-crisis

## Prompt

```text
Help me lead my company through the first 72 hours of a crisis.

**What happened:** [e.g. "data breach", "product safety issue", "executive misconduct allegation", "major outage", "loss of key funding"]
**What we know for sure vs. suspect:** [FACTS / UNKNOWNS]
**Who is affected:** [customers, employees, partners, public]
**Who already knows:** [internally and externally, including media or social]
**Possible legal or regulatory exposure:** [e.g. notification laws, contracts, safety regulators]
**Resources available:** [crisis team, counsel, PR, insurers]

Build:
1. Crisis team: roles (decision lead, facts lead, legal, comms, customer, employee) and who fills each.
2. Hour-by-hour priorities for the first 24 hours, then day 2 and day 3.
3. Decision log template: Time | Decision | Information available | Owner. Decisions made under pressure need a record.
4. Stakeholder map: who must hear from us, in what order, through which channel, and who delivers it, including the board, insurers, and regulators.
5. Holding statements for employees, customers, and the public that acknowledge what we know without speculating.
6. Things the company must not do: speculate on cause, assign blame, destroy records, or make promises we can't keep.
7. Triggers that escalate the response, and how to decide when to move from crisis mode to recovery.

Get legal counsel involved immediately for any regulatory, notification, or liability question. Where anyone's safety is at risk, contact emergency services first.
```

## What to fill in

- FACTS / UNKNOWNS
- customers, employees, partners, public
- internally and externally, including media or social
- e.g. notification laws, contracts, safety regulators
- crisis team, counsel, PR, insurers

Free to copy and use. From ThinkWithPrompt (https://www.thinkwithprompt.com/), a library of 2,663 curated AI prompts.