Program Overview

From public health emergencies and natural disasters to infrastructure failures and technology disruptions, various crises arise that challenge leadership daily. These are the kinds of extraordinary challenges that leaders like you face every day.  Are you confident in your crisis leadership skills to manage these complex events and lead your organization through them successfully?

Leadership in Crises is a five-day executive program designed to prepare you to successfully manage, survive, and recover from the unexpected. During the on-campus program, you will learn how to build the expertise needed to ensure a more successful crisis management process. The program also provides tools to effectively collect crucial information, swiftly adapt to evolving situations, and prioritize decisions under pressure.

Led by faculty chairs Herman B. (Dutch) Leonard and Arnold Howitt, the curriculum explores how to build bridges across boundaries—presenting perspectives on planning, training and implementing—so that senior managers like you can have systems in place in advance of a critical event. 

PROGRAM CURRICULUM

The on-campus program features intensive, interactive discussions using the Harvard case-study method, supplemented by lectures with faculty, and group exercises.

Through the use of case studies, Leadership in Crises will task you with tackling real-world issues. Together with a global cohort in the classroom, you will work through possible approaches and solutions to problems that actual managers have confronted. Case-based learning offers dynamic engagement, revealing the strengths of diverse viewpoints and fostering open, lively discussions.

Samples of cases used during Leadership in Crises include:

  • The Triple Catastrophe: Japan’s Earthquake, Tsunami, and Nuclear Crisis
  • Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa’s Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado
  • The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill: The Politics of Crisis Response
  • Columbia’s Final Mission

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Leadership in Crises will provide you a with a greater understanding of:

  • The critical dynamics of crisis situations and how they differ from routine emergencies.
  • The role leadership plays in crafting and executing appropriate responses and preparing organizations in advance of a crisis.
  • Multiple dimensions of situational awareness in crisis management.
  • Essential crisis leadership skills for making decisive actions during emergencies, while ensuring your team stays motivated and focused.
  • Critical coordination demands of large-scale crises that engage multiple response organizations from many jurisdictions and levels of government
  • Tensions that frequently arise between senior emergency management professionals and political leaders and how they can work together effectively

Application Information

Leadership in Crises is designed for experienced professionals, which fosters a spirit of lively and informed conversation.

Recommended applicants include:

  • Local, state, and federal officials in departments including but not limited to public works, public health, emergency medicine, transportation, homeland security, and education
  • Elected officials who oversee emergency preparedness or participate in crisis response
  • Senior leaders of first-response agencies
  • Foreign Service, State Department, and other federal officials who craft or carry out responses to international humanitarian and diplomatic crises
  • Active-duty military, Coast Guard, National Guard, or reserves who play roles in planning for or responding to disasters
  • Executives in the corporate and nonprofit sectors with responsibility for disaster planning, management, or recovery, or those who oversee large public events

Immerse yourself with a cohort of fellow emerging leaders on Harvard’s historic campus. View the draft program schedule. Note that module titles, speakers, and sequence may change.

WHAT PARTICIPANTS ARE SAYING

“This program led me to reevaluate many of my current practices and views. I left with a renewed understanding and will return to my job reinvigorated.”
JIM FEATHERSTONE, GEN. MANAGER, EMER. MGMT. DPT., CITY OF LA
Arrow Down

Hear From the Faculty Chair

What have we learned since 9/11 about organizing responses to large-scale and novel attacks and other large-scale emergencies? Faculty Chair Dutch Leonard and co-authors reflect on the topic in this short essay.

Faculty & Research

Herman B. (Dutch) Leonard Photo

Herman B. (Dutch) Leonard

George F. Baker, Jr. Professor of Public Management, HKS; Eliot I. Snider and Family Professor of Business Administration, HBS
617-495-1117
Arnold Howitt Photo

Arnold Howitt

Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy

Chris Combs

Chris Combs


Juliette Kayyem Photo

Juliette Kayyem

Belfer Senior Lecturer in International Security

Deval Patrick Photo

Deval Patrick

David R. Gergen Professor of the Practice of Public Leadership
617-496-0556
Joseph Pfeifer

Joseph Pfeifer


James Schwartz

James Schwartz


Jim Waldo Photo

Jim Waldo

Professor of the Practice of Public Policy, HKS; Gordon McKay Professor of the Practice of Computer Science, SEAS

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