
The lecture starts with real work: you take one team or function you run and go through nine checks that have to be answered before a crisis, not during one.
This course is built from six disciplines: human and people risk, troubleshooting, crisis operations, change management, internal communications and leadership.
The map of the course
A simple dictionary for reading lectures from other fields as crisis work
Three questions to ask after every lecture
A short self-diagnostic that shows which sections to watch first
Download the Crisis Readiness Check and fill in one line after each lecture.
Tools in this lecture
Files to download (1)
How decisions create and destroy risk
What the global financial crisis revealed about human risk
What human risks actually are
Current research on risk in people management
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (3)
Models and methods explained (1)
The risk heat map and how to build one
A worked example of risk management
The fraud triangle and the safety triangle
The people-risk thermal imager and the risk triangle
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (5)
Models and methods explained (4)
How decisions are actually made under pressure
Cognitive biases that create risk
Conflict of interest as a structural problem
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (1)
Models and methods explained (1)
Examples of human risks in practice
The 4I model and how to apply it
Incidents as a source of data
Risks at individual, company and industry level
Tools in this lecture
Models and methods explained (1)
Risk management as a discipline
ISO 31000 as the risk management standard
The risk hierarchy and internal versus external risk
Finding, assessing, eliminating, reducing and escalating risk
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (6)
Models and methods explained (1)
Management maturity as a risk factor
Top-management dynamics
The role of the CEO in creating or containing risk
Warning signs you can read early
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (5)
Models and methods explained (1)
Cultural context and how it shapes risk behaviour
Building a risk-aware culture
Company values under pressure
Trust as a risk control
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (7)
Models and methods explained (2)
The three lines of defence model
Practical ways to reduce risk
The high-reliability organisation
Managing risk with the team and auditing culture
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (3)
Models and methods explained (5)
Making the invisible visible
Concrete ways to improve decision making
A decision-making checklist you can use immediately
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (9)
Models and methods explained (1)
Code of conduct as a working instrument
The job description as an accountability tool
Where personal responsibility begins and ends
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (9)
Who a troubleshooter is and how they differ from a crisis manager
Problem versus trouble: when troubleshooting is what is needed
The four basic steps: localise, find the cause, propose, implement
Balancing speed and systems thinking without side effects
The common mistake of treating symptoms
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (8)
Services and apps shown in this lecture (1)
From symptoms to substance using 5W1H
SCQA: packaging a problem into a clear request
Logic tree and MECE so nothing is missed
Checking the boundaries of the task
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (12)
5 Whys as the simplest root extractor
Ishikawa diagram and the 6M categories of causes
Confirming a cause is real rather than plausible
Pitfalls: false roots and stopping too early
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (11)
The 80/20 rule and finding the vital few factors
Pareto chart: where most of the damage sits
Bottlenecks through the Theory of Constraints
Prioritisation by impact against cost
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (14)
Services and apps shown in this lecture (2)
Models and methods explained (2)
Brainstorming done right: rules and anti-rules
SCAMPER and Six Thinking Hats for going beyond the obvious
Barriers to creativity under stress
Fast screening of ideas against criteria
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (12)
The Ideal Final Result and hidden resources
Contradictions: resolving them without compromise
Altshuller's 40 principles with business examples
When TRIZ beats brainstorming
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (10)
Services and apps shown in this lecture (1)
Paradoxical questions for hopeless situations
Psychological inertia and how to break the pattern
Morphological analysis and the focal object method
Building your personal combination of techniques
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (9)
Models and methods explained (1)
Moderating a group without steering it to your answer
Script for a collective session: analysis, ideas, choice, plan
Handling domination, conflict and idle talk
Nominal group technique, Delphi and online whiteboards
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (16)
Models and methods explained (2)
Profitability: breaking down revenue and costs to find the dip
SWOT and 5P for strategy questions
Lean and Six Sigma for speed and defect reduction
McKinsey 7S, ADKAR and Kotter for implementation
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (16)
Models and methods explained (3)
The map of methods from root cause analysis to TRIZ and Lean
Combining techniques instead of looking for one answer
A personal development plan under stress
Reputation, confidentiality and responsibility
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (23)
What a crisis is and how it hits every people process
Recruiting under uncertainty and below market pay
Attracting candidates to a company full of problems
Handling negative employee reviews and using internal resources
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (9)
Services and apps shown in this lecture (2)
Models and methods explained (2)
Methods for reducing payroll
Retaining people without revising salaries
Bonus systems funded from value the employee creates
Reducing benefits with the least damage and justifying them
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (11)
Models and methods explained (5)
Developing a fair training policy when money is gone
Organising internal training at zero cost
Free courses and a corporate library
Starting mentoring and building development plans without budget
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (9)
Models and methods explained (6)
This course contains the use of artificial intelligence.
The crisis does not begin on the day everything breaks. It begins months earlier, in a risk nobody wrote down. Here are 406 tools to see it and lead through it: 304 ready-to-use procedures, templates, checklists and question lists, 90 models and methods, 11 services shown on screen and a crisis readiness check.
Open a lecture, take the risk heatmap, and place your top five risks on it today.
Why crises catch companies unprepared
There is no register of what could go wrong, so trouble arrives as a surprise. Everyone reacts to the loudest symptom, cuts are made under pressure and defended badly, rumours fill the silence, and the people you needed most leave first.
What changes after this course
Risks are written down with owners and controls, the real cause is found before money is spent, the company runs through the hard months on a plan, and people hear the news from you first.
What is inside: 406 tools, counted lecture by lecture
You do not have to take this number on trust. Open any lecture and read its description: every tool inside is listed there by name.
Where the tools are
Risk before the crisis (5 sections, 65 tools). Human risk, heat maps, the 4I model, ISO 31000 and the three lines of defence.
Diagnosis and decisions (3 sections, 140 tools). Root cause, priorities under pressure, options and group decisions.
Operations without budget (2 sections, 69 tools). Hiring, pay, development, performance and downsizing.
Change leadership (2 sections, 32 tools). Urgency, the change team, vision, quick wins and the recovery.
Crisis communication (2 sections, 46 tools). Channels, bad news, employee voice and measuring the result.
Leadership under pressure (2 sections, 74 tools). Styles, motivation, discipline and holding the team together.
Who is teaching
I am Mike, the #1 HR instructor on Udemy, with 1,800,000+ course enrollments from 170,000 students, and the author of about 200 books on Amazon. I built the people system at Preply as it became a unicorn and worked at Wargaming, iDeals and Alfa-Bank across 20 years in HR. I hold PHRi, SHRM-CP and HCI sHRBP certifications and represent HRCI in Eastern Europe. I am also a founder and lead the strategy of my own academy.
At the STB TV channel I was given payroll to manage, and I noticed some leaving employees were paid three to five times their monthly salary. Finance told me these were people who had worked five years and were leaving. I asked HR for the list of vacation balances and found people with six and seven months of unused leave. I started fixing it, because people who never rest work slower, and every exit was paying for a risk nobody had written down.
How to use the course
Start with the risk sections, then move to diagnosis, operations, change, communication and leadership. Section and lecture titles show how many tools are inside, and each lecture description lists them by name.
What is included
Where to start
Write the five risks that would hurt your company most this year, then open the first section. Enrol now and start your first lesson today.