risky business, pandemic style
In the ISO world, a nonconformity is the starting point. Whatever you call them, corrective actions, nonconformances, reviews, TLAs (three letter acronyms), etc, the process needs to start. So start one. You don’t need the answers, you just need to kick start. Once started and you realise you don’t know a lot (or you think you do), escalate the situation and start your task force. Even a task force of one is good position. Need a little more oomph? Look at your strategic risk register. Nothing on pandemics? I bet most strategic risk registers or risk plans have not contemplated such a risk. Let’s not stop there. Get out your strategic plan and your business plan and recommence your SWOT analysis. Things are beginning to get real, right! Get that taskforce into gear, split into action teams and begin coordinating everything through a leadership sponsor. From this point it is fact finding, recognisance, reconnoitre, planning, resourcing and more SWOTs until you have equipped yourselves with the right information to combat the current situation.
Remember to use the tools your quality management system was designed with, preserve the knowledge and the resources and keep making informed decisions.