Create the future.
What do you do when your company experiences a reputational crisis? You’re in the crosshairs of a social media firestorm, an executive makes a financial misstep, or an unforeseen accident shatters your customers’ trust. Your communications team needs to be ready to step in and lead the crisis response. Your reputation depends on it.
In the book “Chief Crisis Officer”, author James Haggerty shared the results of a review of more than 12,000 public statements issued by companies facing a range of crisis situations. He found:
“In every case where the event caused sustained reputational damage … it was clear the company didn’t have a plan in place for communicating publicly when a negative event or incident happened. They were making it up as they went along.”
It’s impossible to anticipate every crisis but organizations can develop a playbook for potential scenarios and set a foundation for an efficient and strategic response that will help support the organization’s long-term reputation.
Ohlmann Group has worked with organizations of all sizes to train teams and develop crisis response strategies. Here are our top recommendations to stay crisis-ready:
In an initial crisis response, uncertainty about who is in charge and who has the authority to declare that the organization is facing a crisis can cause an unnecessary stumbling block.
In Chief Crisis Officer, Haggerty makes the case for identifying a leader in the organization, usually in communications or legal, who has the “authority to act, the willingness to act and the background, experience and communication skills to act effectively.”
The core crisis team should be supplemented with operational experts relevant to the crisis. The facilities director, for example, if there is damage to a building, or the IT team in the case of a data breach.
When you’re in the middle of a crisis, having a written playbook lets you cut through the inevitable emotion of the moment and move to action. The best crisis playbooks are succinct, well-organized, regularly refreshed, and accessible anywhere.
Your playbook should include:
It can be difficult to find the time for a crisis tabletop drill, but in order to manage a crisis professionally, it helps to work from muscle memory of thinking through the scenario and how to respond.
Working through the challenges and unanticipated issues of a crisis scenario will help the team respond quickly and effectively during a crisis.
Don’t underestimate the after-action review. You weathered a crisis or had a near miss. Now, gather your team and discuss what you did well and what could have been done better. Then, don’t forget to update your playbook!
The steps you and your team take today to stay crisis-ready will shorten the duration of future crises and help you restore your organization’s reputation more quickly.
