Crisis Communications

Communication is critical in a crisis.

Crisis communications is about navigating the options before you, avoiding mistakes and communicating clearly. You need a thought partner to help you evaluate each choice and make decisions in less than ideal circumstances.

If you are in a crisis now — scroll down for some tips.

If you’d like support: reach out.

STOP

  1. Turn off your phone. For the rest of the day, you’ll communicate using your computer (messaging platforms, video meetings). You will not pick up any phonecalls.

  2. Clear your day. This will be the focus of the rest of the day (or until you are blocked.) Delegate the rescheduling to someone else, if possible.

  3. Eat and drink something. You’re going to need to think clearly and make decisions, and you won’t notice that you forgot to eat, and you won’t notice how that affects your decisions (it does).

OK, now what?

There is no rule book on crisis communications; every situation is unique and requires an individual strategy. Your objective right now is to navigate the choices immediately before you; there is no “right answer”, but there is a process to help you choose an option — which is the task at hand.

Don’t try to do it alone. You need a thought partner who is not directly involved.

We can help, or you can use someone you know.

Tips

1. Gather your team.

2. Situation Analysis

3. What’s the worst that can happen?

4. Options

5. Tell the truth. Say sorry.

Assemble the stakeholders. Refer them to the first three instructions.

Notify anyone who might need to be responsive at short notice — this list will always include your lawyer. Notify your PR and customer support teams that you are beginning a crisis situation analysis and you will notify them as soon as you have information to share.

This is going to be the hardest part, hands down.

Don’t rush. Be meticulous and question everything. Don’t compile a report of “what happened” because that framing will force assumptions. Instead, list “What we know” and “What we don’t know”. An assumption will be your biggest mistake, and knowing what you don’t know is your most valuable defense.

Every crisis response begins with a panicked response to the worst case scenario — but in most cases that scenario doesn’t play out, or isn’t even possible.

Start with the worst case scenario and find its failure points. The sooner you fail out the worst case scenario, the sooner you can move on to what’s more likely, and focus your attention where it will be more effective.

Crisis response is all about options.

You are in a crisis: don’t look for the best option — you might not have any “good” options so that framing will skew your approach. And don’t look for the “right” option — there is no single right option in any crisis. Look for the least bad option. Every option will have pros and cons: be explicit who they are better or worse for, and record your logic; you might need to defend your choice one day.

Spin smells from a mile away. You’re better than that. Listen to your gut; be a human.

FAQs

  • If a current situation could put your company at stake, you are in a crisis.

    A crisis requires an extraordinary response — you need to take actions that are outside your ordinary activities.

    If you are in a crisis now, some immediate pointers are here.

  • Click here for immediate recommendations.

  • If you are in a crisis, you have important decisions to make. Having input from someone who is not involved will help mitigate against making decisions.

    Communications support can range from hiring a crisis communications agency, to simply having someone sit in and oversee.

    Ultimately — YOU are the expert. You know your customers better than anyone else.

  • Managing a crisis is simply making a series of decisions.

    You can work with an agency, with an individual consultant, or you can rely exclusively on your internal team.

    You can work with an agency, with an individual consultant, or you can rely exclusively on your internal team.