How is Gardening Like Crisis Communications Planning?

By Gerard Braud, CSP, Fellow IEC

How does your personal life reflect who you are in your professional life? In my life it is easy. All you have to do is look at my backyard garden. It personifies my professional life in crisis communications planning.

Two things about this garden should catch your attention.

First: I use boxes instead of rows, which means I’m making a long-term commitment as a yard-to-table gardener.

Secondly: I have already tilled the soil and begun planting my garden in February, which means 60 days from now, I might be eating the first big, juicy Louisiana Creole tomato, if I don’t get an artic blast or a freeze.

What happens in my garden now, affects what happens 60, 90, and 180 days from now.

Your approach to crisis communications should be the same way in 2019. You should be putting dates on the calendar now for the fruit you want to harvest later this year.

This year, you can easily execute all 5 Steps to Effective Crisis Communications. If you’d like more details, just sign up for my free 5-day video class.

  • Under the 5-Steps process, right now in cold February, you should be working on your 2019 Vulnerability Assessment.
  • By late March and early April you should be working on your crisis communications plan and it should be ready to harvest 60 days from now.
  • In May, June, and July, you should be creating a library of pre-written news releases.
  • Next, you will schedule Media Training for your spokespeople, followed by a Crisis Communications Drill.

Can it be done? Yes, it takes planning. Do It Now!

Can you do it yourself or should you hire someone like me? Well, you can plant your own garden and harvest your own vegetables – which takes a lot of time and work. Or, you can go to the store and buy what you need for immediate gratification.

I’ve invested 4,000 hours into the crisis communications plans and the library of pre-written news releases that I license to companies all around the word. The entire system is delivered in just two days. Think about it – 4,000 hours means you would have to work 40 hours a week on nothing but crisis communications for two entire years to have what I’ve created… or you can call me at 985-624-9976 and in two days, you are feasting on the fruits of my labor.

Whether you do it yourself or ask me to be your strategic partner, if you have questions, please give me a call.

 Crisis communications and media training expert Gerard Braud, CSP, Fellow IEC is based in New Orleans. Organizations on five continents have relied on him to write their crisis communications plans and to train their spokespeople. He is the author of “Don’t Talk to the Media Until…”

More crisis communications articles:

Please Pick Me to be Your Media Trainer

The Biggest Lie in Crisis Communications

4 Steps Every Company Needs to Take in Order to Avoid the Default Spokesperson

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