Contingency plans are not there to prevent crisis. Instead, they are usually reactive and triggered by events. They can lessen the negative impacts of crises and return situations back to normal quicker.

My 3 steps when needed:

1) Organize a planning team: Some teams are effective in handling complex situation, non routine situations.

2) Assess the scope of the problem: Many minds are better than one, use informal brainstorming sessions to identify key issues.

3) Develop a plan (Stick by it), test and update the plan

Be systematic and a lessons learned closedown should be part of your crisis management process.