After personally experiencing the harrowing ordeal of a family member being kidnapped, Rachel Briggs took it upon herself to co-found and manage Hostage UK and Hostage US. These organizations provide crucial support to both hostages and their families throughout the duration and aftermath of a kidnapping.
Utilizing her extensive knowledge gained from working closely with former hostages and their loved ones, Rachel now imparts her expertise to teach teams about the invaluable lessons that can be derived from these traumatic situations. Her teachings focus on resilience, effective teamwork, and overall well-being.
Rachel's written contributions have been published in renowned national newspapers and magazines such as The Washington Post, Financial Times, and Foreign Policy. Rachel's dedication and commitment to her work have led her to handle numerous cases of international abductions, ultimately earning her the prestigious OBE award in 2013.
Surviving captivity requires huge amounts of strength and resilience. When a hostage is released, their next challenge begins: surviving survival, working with their family to rebuild relationships, finding their way back to the workplace, and learning to rely on a network of specialists that will help them to rebuild their body, mind, and life and to thrive once again in their new normal. This talk draws on what I’ve seen and learned working with hundreds of former hostages and their families, and draws on latest knowledge of resilience, wellbeing and team-work in high pressure situations.
The decisions we make when the stakes are high can make or break a business. The history of corporate crisis shows that – counter-intuitively – some businesses win out of the crisis. Their magic secret? Solid Foundations. Drawing on two decades observing companies handle hostage situations and advising multinational corporations on risk and security, this talk will provide a strategy for success in the bad times, as well as the good.
Why people are central to success. Even the best plans can fail, especially in the face of low risk, high impact risks, such as kidnapping, terrorism, global pandemics and health emergencies and social unrest. Successfully managing these types of incidents is a largely human challenge. What is your duty of care to your people? Does This extend to their families? How Do you maintain morale, focus and motivation in the face of extended crises? How Do you keep your people “on message” and playing as part of the team given the lure of social media? And How do you rebuild afterwards to ensure your people, teams and organization can grow and thrive? This Talk will draw on extensive experience working with organizations during and after hostage crises and work with risk and security teams to prepare for these and other extended critical incidents.
