A 5-point crisis comms plan for those who didn’t plan good and wanna learn to do other stuff good, too.
So you forgot to plan – that’s okay! (Look away if you’re Type A)
We’ve got you! Here’s a 5-point comms plan for when you find yourself in dire need:
① Get everyone in the room together. Yes, everyone.
Communications (internal AND external), legal, regulatory, HR, company leadership. They all must be there.
But not everyone. You don’t want more than a dozen people in this room. People might have hurt feelings if they’re left out of the crisis, but they’ll get over it, I promise.
② Designate a project manager (translation: glorified note taker and assigner of all the things)
You’d be surprised how often highly intelligent people spend hours in the war room mapping out a comprehensive, actionable plan, and then walk out of the room with no idea who is doing what. The plan needs to be in writing, accessible to everyone who has an action item, and trackable.
③ Two points of contact - less serious than scaling a mountain, where you need three ⛰️
Internally: You need a designated person from your leadership team to issue emails, post on the intranet, and be ready talk with employees who have concerns and questions, or are looking for direction. People will be anxious, and you want them coming to you, not going externally to friends/family/the media seeking answers and reassurance. Your team will be looking for leadership and consistency – so be prepared to demonstrate it 24/7.
Externally: A spokesperson who will talk with media as well as reach out to customers, clients, donors, etc. This person needs to be prepped very well, so … this is the part where I recommend hiring an external firm that specializes in crisis communications (hey, we do! Shameful 🔌). They (we) have just done this so many times before. We can come in with the outline of a plan, tailor it to your organization and issue, and execute. We’re not smarter than you, we’ve just done it too many times to count.
④ Communicate, communicate, communicate 📣
We live in an age of skepticism. People lack trust in most institutions, and frankly, they can be mean. As communicators, our natural instinct is to retreat. It’s scary out there! But more than ever, if you are under a microscope, you simply cannot shrink away. You need to be communicating more than ever to show that you’re listening and learning. You’re transparent and you want to gather feedback and learn from this experience.
⑤ After-action reporting: Silver lining – you learned something in spite of all the stress!
A review of your whole plan and process will pay dividends for the next time you find yourself in crisis. Because there will be a next time, it’s critical to talk through what went well, what didn’t, and how to do things differently the next time. Hopefully the next time is years and years away, and you won’t even remember this crisis – which is why it’s so important to make notes in your after-action report!
Even with all these steps and/or a fully prepped crisis communications plan, things aren’t going to go perfectly. People will be armchair quarterbacking you for weeks, maybe months. But guess what – they were going to do that anyway.
Hope this helps and you never need it. But if you do, we’re just a phone call away.
PS - If you appreciated my Zoolander reference, please let me know. It’ll make me feel less elder millenial.
