Communicating in a Crisis

In any industry, crises are inevitable–whether due to internal or external forces. With today’s never ending news cycle, it only takes one spark to ignite a wildfire-sized crisis. What remains firmly in any communicator’s control is to create internal processes in advance to quickly triage and address the problem before narrative control is out of reach. 

Speaking to members of the Public Affairs Council, Senior Vice President John Brandt shared how having a framework to diagnose and accurately respond to a crisis can be the difference between weathering a storm or being engulfed by it. 

As a former journalist, John was the crisis initiator asking the questions companies did not want to answer. Now on the other side of the telephone, John uses his valuable expertise to help companies navigate those perilous moments. Read highlights from his workshop “Communicating in a Crisis” below.  

Before one can even begin to manage a crisis, we have to define what our goals are.

• Avoid a crisis: What are the steps we can take to reduce our risk and exposure to avoid negative publicity? 
• Limit the duration: No matter the incident, what steps can be taken to get out of the news cycle? 
• Stem the reach and impact: If the epicenter of a crisis is at the regional level, how can we ensure it does not grow to a national level?

Once we have defined our goals, it’s time to triage the source of the crisis to determine the path forward.

• Internal sources: Whether it’s a product failure, employee misconduct, financial irregularities or corporate malfeasance, the crisis starts and ends with your organization. 
• External sources: Government hearings or regulatory action paint your company or industry in a negative light.

Now we’ve determined the source, we can begin building a crisis communications response. 

• The best offense is a good defense: Before a crisis ever hits, one should always be building and strengthening relationships with reporters covering their industry so when trouble arises, the line of communication is already there. 
• Planning: Before the storm lands, it’s time to prepare–assessing how important a response is to the mission of the company determines whether a response is necessary at all. Start pulling all the information and collateral now. The easier you can make it to write a story, the more likely the story is going to mirror your preferred narrative.
• Preparing: Determine who is running point internally, who is managing the media and what teams need to be in the loop. Have a holding statement framework drafted so the blanks can be filled in when more information becomes available.
• Testing: It’s true for any interview and doubly true in a crisis: you perform what you practice. This is the moment to get inside the media’s head–what are the “gotcha” questions, what are the key details we have not prepared. Testing can be used to refine the communications plan for streamlined execution when the time comes.

It’s right in the name: news is just the word new made plural. For better or worse, something new is always happening in the world. For example, President Trump’s first trade deal announcement since “Liberation Day” got upstaged by the first-ever American Pope.. 

While a company, organization or industry might be front page news today, there are steps communicators can take to get a crisis below the fold and eventually out of the papers. It requires the preparation and planning to craft a definitive statement early, hold to it and ride out the storm. With careful planning and preparation, organizations will be able to weather almost any crisis and return to normal operations eventually.