What is the PECB Certified Lead Crisis Manager?
The PECB Certified Lead Crisis Manager is the certification built on ISO 22361:2022, the international guidelines for crisis management. It teaches you to design and develop an organisation’s strategic crisis management capability — the layer above continuity plans and incident runbooks, where the facts are contested, the decision window is short, and reputation is at stake alongside operations.
The course works through the full ISO 22361 capability, not just the response phase:
- Fundamental concepts and principles — what distinguishes a crisis from an incident or a disruption, and the principles a crisis capability is built on.
- The crisis management framework — leadership, organisational structure, culture, and competence: four elements that are organisational rather than procedural.
- Crisis communications — introduced on day one because it runs through every decision that follows, not bolted on at the end.
- Anticipation, assessment, prevention, and preparedness — four distinct activities that reduce the chance of a crisis and sharpen the response when one arrives anyway.
- Response, recovery, and learning — leading through the event, recovering from it, and improving the capability afterwards.
By the end you should be able to establish, maintain, and continually improve a crisis management framework, anticipate and assess crises before they escalate, and lead the response and recovery when one lands. One thing to be clear about: ISO 22361 is a guidelines standard, so there is no organisational certification against it — the credential attaches to you, not your employer. If your organisation needs a certifiable management system for disruption, that is ISO 22301 business continuity.
Why crisis management matters in Australia
Australia’s recent history makes the case better than any standard can. High-profile ransomware and data-breach events have shown that the technical response is only half the job — the other half is a board-level crisis, run under media scrutiny, with disclosure, customer, and regulator decisions arriving faster than the facts do. Several forces are driving demand for trained crisis leadership:
- Cyber crises now escalate to the board — a major ransomware or data-breach event forces decisions about ransom posture, disclosure to the OAIC, customer notification, and regulator engagement while the technical team is still establishing what happened. Those decisions benefit from assigned roles and exercises before an event.
- APRA CPS 230 — regulated entities must manage operational risk against severe-but-plausible scenarios and keep critical operations running through disruption. Crisis capability is the leadership layer that makes those obligations real when a scenario stops being hypothetical.
- The SOCI Act — critical-infrastructure operators face incident-reporting clocks and public expectations that turn operational disruptions into public events within hours. A trained capability determines whether the response is led or merely reactive.
- A disaster-prone operating environment — bushfires, floods, and cyclones can create material continuity and crisis risks in Australia. Emergency management handles the event; crisis management handles the organisation.
- Crisis communications expectations — stakeholders, media, and government now expect timely, honest, coordinated communication from the first hours. ISO 22361 treats communications as a core capability, not an afterthought.
Crisis management sits above, not instead of, your technical response. If your interest is the hands-on side — containment, forensics, recovery — see the incident response certification guide. The two credentials cover opposite ends of the same bad day.
Who should take this course
- Individuals responsible for delivering a crisis management capability in an organisation
- Individuals responsible for implementing a plan and structure for crisis management
- Crisis leaders and members of crisis management teams — including executives and communications leads who sit on the team without having been trained for it
- Resilience, business continuity, and emergency management professionals adding the strategic crisis layer
- Individuals starting or advancing a career in crisis management
- Consultants and advisers wanting in-depth knowledge of the ISO 22361 guidelines
Before attending, understand the core crisis-management concepts, framework and process. Experience in business continuity or incident response can support the learning activities.
What you learn — the 5-day agenda
The course follows a 5-day structure — four days of training plus the certification exam — delivered as flexible self-study you work through in 35–45 hours at your own pace:
Standards and crisis management models, the fundamental concepts and principles of crisis management, what a crisis management capability consists of, and crisis communications — placed first because it shapes everything that follows.
Leadership, organisational structure, organisational culture, and competence — the four elements the whole framework rests on: who decides, how the team is constituted, whether the culture surfaces bad news early, and whether the people involved have practised.
Anticipation of crises, assessment of crises, prevention and mitigation, and preparedness — four distinct activities, and the exam tests the boundaries between them.
Response to crises, recovery from crises, and continual improvement — including learning from crises so the capability is stronger after each event than before it.
The 3-hour, remotely proctored PECB exam across four competency domains (see below).
Current examination requirements
Open-book, multiple-choice. Duration: 3 hours. 80 multiple-choice questions in the current English PECB examination record. Passing requirements: 70%. Check the current PECB examination record and assigned examination before booking.
- Fundamental concepts and principles of crisis management
- Establishing the crisis management framework
- Crisis management prevention and preparedness
- Crisis management response and recovery
Cost, inclusions and access
Self-Study: A$ 857.00 excluding GST. Published inclusions (subject to the credential and retake clarification immediately below): PECB Lead Crisis Manager slide deck (digital); Over 400 pages of information, practical examples, and quizzes; 12 months access via myPECB; Scenario-based quizzes drawn from real crisis situations; Certification and examination fees included in the course price; Three-hour exam across four competency domains; First exam attempt plus one free retake within 12 months; PECB Provisional / Crisis Manager / Lead Crisis Manager credential on pass; Crisis management framework and team structure templates; Crisis communications plan worked example; Crisis anticipation and assessment approach; Post-crisis review and lessons-learned format. Clarification: references to a credential or certificate on pass do not mean automatic award. The eligible PECB credential requires an application and PECB approval, including applicable experience and ethics requirements. PECB’s partner-course policy sets a 12-month examination and included-retake cycle from purchase for Self-Study and eLearning, or from course completion for instructor-led training. A failed attempt does not restart that cycle. The first retake requires at least 15 days after the unsuccessful examination; booking rules and the recorded myPECB deadline also apply. A retained inclusion referring to the initial examination date does not extend or restart this policy cycle. Australian GST follows the billing address. Check the course page for the full inclusions and current booking options.
This course publishes 12 months of material access. Course-material access, examination and retake deadlines, and any certificate-application deadline are separate. Confirm the material-access start date in your booking confirmation and check the deadlines recorded in myPECB before scheduling your examination. PECB’s partner-course policy sets a 12-month examination and included-retake cycle from purchase for Self-Study and eLearning, or from course completion for instructor-led training. A failed attempt does not restart that cycle. The first retake requires at least 15 days after the unsuccessful examination; booking rules and the recorded myPECB deadline also apply.
Credential requirements and how to enrol
Before attending, understand the core crisis-management concepts, framework and process. Experience in business continuity or incident response can support the learning activities.
PECB credential hierarchy: Provisional Crisis Manager → Crisis Manager → Lead Crisis Manager → Senior Lead Crisis Manager, based on professional experience and attested crisis management activity hours. Maintained through continuing professional development (CPD) credits. Passing the examination and receiving a credential are separate: PECB must approve the application. Maintenance depends on the credential awarded; Provisional credentials and Foundation certificates are exempt from CPD and maintenance fees. Check the current PECB policy for other credentials.
Primary references and applicability
These sources explain the requirements and scope distinctions discussed above. Check their applicability to the organisation or credential.
FAQs
What is the PECB Certified Lead Crisis Manager?
It is a certification course built on ISO 22361:2022, the international guidelines for crisis management. It teaches you to design and develop an organisation’s strategic crisis management capability — the crisis management framework of leadership, structure, culture, and competence, plus crisis communications, anticipation and assessment of crises, prevention and preparedness, and response, recovery, and learning. Delivered as flexible self-study (35–45 hours, a 5-day course equivalent) with a 3-hour certification exam.
Can an organisation be certified against ISO 22361?
No. ISO 22361 is a guidelines standard rather than a requirements standard — much like ISO 31000 — so there is no organisational certification against it. What exists is individual certification: the PECB Lead Crisis Manager credential attaches to you, not to your employer. If you need a certifiable management system for disruption, ISO 22301 for business continuity is the requirements standard.
What is the difference between crisis management and business continuity?
Business continuity restores defined operations after a disruption you planned for, with recovery objectives set in advance. Crisis management handles situations that are novel, escalating, and often reputational as well as operational — where the task is to lead and decide under uncertainty rather than execute a plan. Many organisations run both, with ISO 22301 for continuity and ISO 22361 for crisis capability.
What does the exam involve?
Open-book, multiple-choice. Duration: 3 hours. 80 multiple-choice questions in the current English PECB examination record. Passing requirements: 70%. Check the current PECB examination record and assigned examination before booking.
Which credential do I receive?
It depends on attested experience. Provisional Crisis Manager requires none. Crisis Manager requires two years of experience with one in crisis management plus at least 200 hours of crisis management activities. Lead Crisis Manager requires five years with two in crisis management plus 300 hours. Senior Lead Crisis Manager requires ten years with seven in crisis management plus 1,000 hours. All require passing the exam and signing the PECB Code of Ethics.
How much does the course cost in Australia?
Self-Study: A$ 857.00 excluding GST. Published inclusions (subject to the credential and retake clarification immediately below): PECB Lead Crisis Manager slide deck (digital); Over 400 pages of information, practical examples, and quizzes; 12 months access via myPECB; Scenario-based quizzes drawn from real crisis situations; Certification and examination fees included in the course price; Three-hour exam across four competency domains; First exam attempt plus one free retake within 12 months; PECB Provisional / Crisis Manager / Lead Crisis Manager credential on pass; Crisis management framework and team structure templates; Crisis communications plan worked example; Crisis anticipation and assessment approach; Post-crisis review and lessons-learned format. Clarification: references to a credential or certificate on pass do not mean automatic award. The eligible PECB credential requires an application and PECB approval, including applicable experience and ethics requirements. PECB’s partner-course policy sets a 12-month examination and included-retake cycle from purchase for Self-Study and eLearning, or from course completion for instructor-led training. A failed attempt does not restart that cycle. The first retake requires at least 15 days after the unsuccessful examination; booking rules and the recorded myPECB deadline also apply. A retained inclusion referring to the initial examination date does not extend or restart this policy cycle. Australian GST follows the billing address. Check the course page for the full inclusions and current booking options.
Do I need business continuity or incident response experience first?
Before attending, understand the core crisis-management concepts, framework and process. Experience in business continuity or incident response can support the learning activities.
What CPD credits do I earn?
Participants who complete the training receive an attestation worth 31 CPD (Continuing Professional Development) credits. Other professional bodies apply their own relevance, activity, evidence and reporting rules; acceptance is not automatic.