Swimming to the strategic vision: lessons from triumphing over adversity to managing cyber crises

This chapter presents lessons for those preparing themselves or others for having the assured capability and capacity to ensure achievement of strategic delivery in crisis management. The kind of situation that – for example, characterises the unfolding and aftermath phases of a cyber-attack. The demands of such situations on the physical, emotional, psychological and other systems of employees will be intense. Sustaining effort will not be easy – and preparation needs to occur well in advance of an actual incident. By drawing on my experience of preparing for (and succeeding at) swimming the English Channel, I demonstrate the critical role played in resilience by culture and just how important it is that emotional and other support is available at key moments to those charged with delivering strategic main effort. Consequently, readers are invited to consider how they will enable and protect the holistic well-being of those charged with incident management.