'There cannot be a crisis today; my schedule is already full.' Henry Kissinger knows what he's talking about and you can't imagine this famous former US Secretary of State not keeping his head when all around are losing theirs. Watch out FIFA!The same keep-calm-and-carry-on approach is true for the numerous comms pros responding to a 'top tips for handling a crisis' post on Linked In this week.
My top tip, based on managing a crisis in several organisations, is how critical it is for IC and leaders to have a core plan and stick with it - avoiding all temptation to respond and react to everything.
The human instinct to panic is great and never more so when your crisis is playing out in the media, or with unions, regulators, stakeholders and customers. But please resist 'tit-for-tat' comms as a response to everything everyone is saying about your organisation. It only makes your business look like it's losing control and can also prolong and fuel the crisis.
That doesn't mean your comms plan should remain static. Indeed, as all good internal comms practitioners know, any communication approach needs to measure its effectiveness in terms of clarity and understanding and in a crisis regular pulse checks with employees are vital so you can respond accordingly.
Just don't lose you own head as tensions rise and keep the messages clear, relevant and timely.
Just don't lose you own head as tensions rise and keep the messages clear, relevant and timely.
Great post Sarah. I've certainly seen the benefits of not responding in both internal and external comms situations.
ReplyDeleteSo true Sarah - and with the rapid changes in the business world today, it's absolutely essential to keep that crisis plan up to date and reviewed very regularly. The wrong tweet or Facebook update from someone in your organisation could just compound the crisis - but how many organisations have social media written into their crisis communication plans?
ReplyDeleteBeware too of being silent for too long: you're so right in advising organisations to avoid the tit for tat. But it's essential to judge when it's right to respond. Leave it too long and you create a vaccuum which has a horrble tendency to raise the temperature on the crisis. Not easy......so all the more reason for organisations to have good comms pros on board.
@LeapfrogMark
Interesting post Sarah. My top tip would be to ensure your plan is kept updated. In a previous role in the railway I developed a crisis manual that all the Directors and on-call people could carry, containing key data, stats and messages.
ReplyDeleteHowever it's all very well having a plan/manual, but if the basics aren't right it will be flawed - a crucial step is to keep refreshing it.
If your press contacts or mobile numbers of key people change, the plan will be ineffective as you won't be able to communicate in the way you need to, so ensure you factor in regular revisions.
Rachel
@rachallen
Great comments folks, thanks. All very, very true. A further challenge can often be the lack of corporate memory or learnings from previous crises. Sometimes people have left the business and taken valuable knowledge with them, often I have come across organisations who don't sit down when the crisis has passed to review how it can be handled better next time and build that into business continuity or crisis comms activity.I am all for innovation but not reinventing the wheel. It's surely more advantageous for all concerned to build on past experience and do better next time?
ReplyDelete