communications
BUSINESS BUILDERS
Plan for crisis communications before one hits by Jon Austin
TIPS 1. Have a plan in place for how you are going to handle a crisis. Make sure to revisit the plan from time to time, testing it and adjusting it as appropriate. 2. Assign responsibilities. Who takes phone calls? Who talks on behalf of the organization? Who creates content and who approves it? 3. Be prepared to pull in people from other departments or functions on a temporary basis and to supplement your resources with an outside agency. 4. There is no “winning” strategy in a real crisis. Your goal is to minimize the damage being done and to make the return to “normal” as quick as possible. 5. You’ve got a finite amount of credibility. Don’t squander it by saying things you have to take back later. Don’t guess, don’t speculate or theorize.
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UPSIZE MARCH • APRIL 2020
AS YOU’RE READING the first few sentences of this article to decide if it’s worth finishing, an organization somewhere is in an unexpected, unwelcome event that could severely harm – or even end – its business and prospects. Chances are, that organization has done little planning to prepare, particularly in terms of how to communicate to its employees, customers, investors, business partners, neighbors and others stakeholders. The people running the organization will do their very best; maybe it will work out, maybe it won’t. Maybe that organization is yours. Two truths: Even the best organizations experience crises: machines break, people make mistakes, external events intrude without warning and second, every organization will eventually encounter a crisis. Despite those realities, most don’t have a plan for how they’ll respond. Most organizations that do have a plan don’t keep it up. Most organizations with an up-to-date plan haven’t tested it recently. Many organizations that maintain and test their plan don’t activate it in an actual crisis event. Where does your organization fall on this spectrum? If the honest answer to that question is, “Not where we want to be,” then creating a real, useful crisis plan should be at the top of your to-do list. While that work is in progress, though, here’s a quick-start guide.
What’s a Crisis? First, what scenarios is your organization most likely to face? While every organization is different, here’s a list of some common ones: • • • • • • • • •
Loss of key personnel Loss of facilities or capacity Employee misconduct Product quality issues Enforcement actions Accidents Workplace violence Investigations Community-wide events
What additional vulnerabilities are uniquely yours? Next, assign responsibilities. Who takes phone calls? Who talks on behalf of the organization? Who creates content and who approves it? Chances are you’ll run out of people before responsibilities because no organization staffs for the possibility of a full-blown crisis. Be prepared to pull in people from other departments or functions on a temporary basis and to supplement your resources with an outside agency. Third, do the work. Here are some tips I’ve garnered from doing hundreds of these events over the last quarter-decade: • Set your context. There is
no “winning” strategy in a real crisis. The only good crisis is one that doesn’t happen. Instead, your goal is to minimize
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