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Crisis Communications Master Class: The Golden Hour

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Last week’s crisis communications master class focused on the golden hour, a very critical time for those facing a crisis. If your company is facing a crisis, you must issue a statement to employees, the media, customers, and other stakeholders within one hour or less of the situation becoming known to the public. If you fail to communicate during the crisis communications golden hour, the narrative will get captured by others who may not know all of the facts.

What they post to social media will likely damage your revenue, reputation, and brand. The effects of that damage can be long-lasting. In this master class, we talk with Doug Levy, author of The Communications Golden Hour. Your host is SituationHub Founder and crisis communications expert Gerard Braud. The SituationHub crisis communications software platform can not only help you communicate effectively during the crisis communications golden hour, but SituationHub can actually write your first communications statement in 1-3 minutes. It turns the golden hour into the golden minutes.

Replay – Free Master Class – The Crisis Communications Golden Hour

Minutes and seconds count in a crisis. If you missed Thursday’s free Master class, the replay is now online.

Use this link to access the content.

Preparation is the key to fast crisis response. We dig deeper into the need for speed in your crisis communications and explore the tools you need to effectively communicate.

We discuss:

  • How to organize communications so that crucial information gets out fast
  • Why some messages work better than others
  • How to choose the right words
  • Skills to be an effective spokesperson
  • What you need to know about special populations or other unique factors in your audience

Your free registration for this Master Class is a gift from SituationHub.com. If your company has the potential to experience a crisis (and you know it does),

SituationHub is the fastest way to:

  • Gather the facts
  • Confirm the facts
  • Notify your crisis team
  • Write a statement for the media, your employees, and stakeholders.
  • …and do it all in a remarkable 3-10 minutes.

Be well; Be safe,

The SituationHub Team

SituationHub.com makes crisis communications move at the speed of social media. Use this link to schedule a free, private call https://calendly.com/braud/15min

To schedule a free, confidential demo for the crisis communications software SituationHub, visit: https://www.situationhub.com/#demo

CONNECT: https://twitter.com/situationhub

VISIT OUR SITE: https://www.situationhub.com/

Pumpkin Spice Crisis Communications

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Pumpkin spice crisis communications is the latest craze among companies, CEOs, and public relations professionals. These are people who realize that Fall is here. We’re in the final quarter of the year, and they have failed to meet their goal of completing a crisis communications plan, their crisis communications news releases, their crisis drills, and the other components of their crisis communications strategies.

To welcome Fall and to embrace whatever panic you may have, we’re ready to help you sprint through the 5 Steps of Effective Crisis Communications. Just smell the aroma of rich crisis communications plan nutmeg, cinnamon news releases, ginger media training, and accents of cloves in your crisis communications drill!

Your challenge is to take a huge task – Crisis Communications – and make that task easy and fast. Fortunately, we pioneered this concept for you back in 2005. We figured out a way to let you customize a crisis communications plan in… you ready for this? Drum roll… five hours.

Yep, you can have a finished plan in five hours as we sprint through the process. (Of course, the secret pumpkin spice ingredient is that we’ve put more than 25 years of experience and more than 6,000 hours into development, just so you can create crisis communications magic in five hours.)

Sure, you can cook up your own crisis communications plan if you have 2,000 to 4,000 hours sitting on your spice rack… and who doesn’t? But if you don’t have the extra time, our Crisis Communications Sprint system is like pulling a box of carrot cake mix off the shelf in the morning and having a perfect crisis communications plan finished before dinner.

Your crisis communications plan is Step 2 of the 5 Steps. On the front end, you need to conduct a Vulnerability Assessment to evaluate all the “stuff” that might “hit the fan.” That’s Step 1.

The secret sauce to your crisis communications plan should be having a deep library of pre-written news releases. That’s Step 3. We have 100 pre-written news releases with your name on it. However, for some of you, your best bet is to subscribe to the SituationHub crisis communications news release app. SituationHub can actually write an advanced crisis communications news release in 3-5 minutes.

Some of you realize your greatest need to train your spokespeople. We call that Step 4, but often it is a perfect standalone training class. A single misplaced word can damage a company’s revenue, reputation, and brand in ways that are as foul as putting dill in your pumpkin spice mix.

The icing on the cake is Step 5, when you conduct a Crisis Communications Drill. That’s when you get to test your crisis communications plan, your crisis communications news release, you get to test your spokespeople, and you get to test the ability of your entire team to work together. A crisis communications drill can be agonizing and exhilarating all at the same time. Most importantly, it lets you make mistakes in private so you can correct them in private, without ever making those mistakes in public.

So, what is your next step? How about a free discovery call to discuss your specific needs?

Pull up a chair, order a Pumpkin Spice Latte, and how about you and I chat about your Pumpkin Spice Crisis Communications needs?

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:

15 Questions to Ask Before You Use Facebook for Crisis Communications

Can You Handle a Crisis When it Hits by Winging It?

Crisis Management Lessons from Hurricane Katrina vs. COVID19

Photo by Kira auf der Heide on Unsplash

Covid Crisis Communications: Sample Press Release

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by Gerard Braud, CSP, Fellow IEC

Your COVID crisis communications plan and your COVID crisis communication pre-written news releases need to be modified immediately if your organization is being attacked over policies related to COVID-19 mask requirements or vaccine mandates.

Daily we see news reports of school boards, city councils, and county governments being attacked for their position. Likewise, companies, restaurants, bars, and retail businesses are also in crisis mode as they deal with the Delta Variant.

So what do you do?

I’ve used a crisis communications secret for decades to harness the power of a written and spoken preamble. (One of the things that I love about the SituationHub.com crisis communications app is that every crisis statement has a preamble already written and baked into the crisis news releases that the app writes.)

If you are responsible for making an opening statement in a public meeting or if you have to issue a written news release, the preamble states the organization’s 1) noble purpose and 2) goals.

For example, the president of the school board might make the following statement:

“At the Harris County School Board, our goal is to educate children in a safe and nurturing environment. Effective learning is best accomplished when we are able to have in-person learning, and when our population of both students and faculty are healthy.”

Such a preamble must also be true. You want everyone in the audience to nod their head in agreement.

Admittedly, you will never win over everyone, but your goal should be to win over two-thirds of your intended audience.

Your next sentence must state your action while using the preamble to justify your action. For example:

“In order for us to have in-person learning and in order for the learning environment to be safe for all of our students, staff and faculty, we are establishing the following requirements.”

(Example)

“All children over the age of (X) and all staff and faculty will be required to wear a mask.

All children over the age of (X) and all staff and faculty will be required to have a vaccination.”

If this were your official position, you would then be attacked by those who think masks and/or vaccinations should not be required. Your job in crisis communications is to know that such an attack represents a vulnerability that needs to be researched in advance. (See our past articles on Vulnerability Assessments and the 5 Steps to Effective Crisis Communications. You can even watch the SituationHub.com Master Class on this topic.)

A Vulnerability Assessment will tell you what the objections are of those in opposition to your position, such as:

  • A violation of personal liberty
  • Religious exemptions
  • Breathing difficulty
  • Medical conditions

Therefore, your next statement should acknowledge those objections, in a way that allows those in opposition to nod their heads in agreement that you understand them, such as:

“We recognize that some members of our community may be opposed to this. Some people feel that this violates their personal liberties and freedoms. Some people may say it affects breathing, medical conditions, or religious beliefs. We understand this and we respect that you have strong feelings on this issue.”

Next comes your alternatives to the opposition:

“If your child is not vaccinated and if you prohibit your child from wearing a mask, you will have several options. We will offer remote learning options and parents also have the option to homeschool their children.”

Next, tie everything back to your preamble:

“Ultimately, our goal is to educate children in a safe and nurturing environment. Effective learning is best accomplished when we can have in-person learning, and when our population of both students and faculty are healthy. Health experts tell us that the two most effective tools at our disposal are masks and vaccinations.”

Now address the objections directly, while reinforcing your stand, credit third-party experts, and tie your position back to your preamble.

“We know some people may question the effectiveness of masks. We know some people may question the safety of vaccines. However, experts tell us that masking and vaccinations are the two most effective tools at our disposal. And in order to keep our children safe, experts tell us that the benefits far outweigh the risks.”

Next, dispel any beliefs in the audience that have not been addressed previously, for example:

“Some may question whether this infringes on your liberties and personal freedoms. Some may question if this is an overreach by the government or businesses. Here are examples of similar rules already in place in our society:

  • If you go to a restaurant, you’ve likely seen a sign that says, ‘No shirt, no shoes, no service.’ This is an example of the rights granted to a business, for the safety, comfort, and respect of all of the other patrons.
  • If you drive, you must wear a seat belt.
  • If you drive, you cannot be drunk.
  • If you go into an industrial facility, you must follow safety requirements, such as wearing safety glasses or perhaps a bright, reflective vest, or other safety garments and apparatuses.
  • In school, vaccination requirements already exists.

Our society is full of requirements designed to keep the vast majority of people safe. These rules are in place for the safety of each individual and the safety of society at large.”

Now, reinforce the above statement with a tie to your preamble:

“If our goal is to provide education in a safe environment for our students, we must keep them from getting COVID and we must keep them from spreading COVID to their parents and grandparents.”

Now give a real-life example of the tragedy that you wish to avoid while conveying emotion and empathy, which are critical in effective crisis communications.

“How would you feel if one of our students died from COVID? How would you feel if one of our parents died of COVID because a child brought the infection home from school? How empty would the holidays be if a grandparent had died of COVID because they received a loving hug from a child who got COVID at school?”

Now put a bow on it.

“Every decision this board makes, must always focus on two things: the education of your child and the safety of your child.”

If you structure your crisis communications statement, news release, policy, or letter in this way, every objection that you get simply requires you to retreat and repeat, i.e. retreat to a previous statement and repeat it.

As a society, I’ve never witnessed a crisis in which there are opposing points of view. For example, if a house is burning, everyone is in agreement that those inside should be rescued and that the fire should be put out.

But the reality is, we live in polarizing times where anger and outrage are weaponized, fueled by politics and social media.

  1. Identify your position.
  2. Take your stand.
  3. Write your crisis communications statement.
  4. Use your statement to defend your position and answer all objections.
  5. Stand by your stand.

If we can assist you, please contact us at gerard@braudcommunications.com

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:

15 Questions to Ask Before You Use Facebook for Crisis Communications

Can You Handle a Crisis When it Hits by Winging It?

Crisis Management Lessons from Hurricane Katrina vs. COVID19

Photo by Sam McGhee on Unsplash

‘Sprint’ to More Effective Crisis Communications

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Be Prepared. Be Fast. Sprint!

Doing crisis communications right can take a long time; a really long time. Let’s stop doing that. Let’s do it faster. Let’s find a better way. Let’s sprint!

Traditionally, companies set up endless meetings and an inflated collaboration process. People will spend three months to two years talking about the “process” and never really create a usable set of tools. And during the drawn-out process, a crisis might hit and everyone is still unprepared. They have no tools in their toolbox; only notes from those endless meetings.

Does that sound familiar? If it does, let’s stop doing that, which doesn’t work, and start sprinting through the crisis communications process.

A “sprint” is a process for solving big problems and tackling big tasks in five days or less. It’s about both efficiency and focus. 

To simplify your goalsetting and ability to accomplish tasks, you have to break them down into smaller, faster, more achievable tasks. That’s why I created the Five Steps to Effective Crisis Communications. 

What would take your company or organization months to complete, you can now complete in five days or less, with a crisis communications sprint. Here are all of the Five Steps to Effective Crisis Communications you can complete virtually:

Crisis Vulnerability Assessment

What is the worst thing that could happen? Your roadmap to crisis communications begins as you imagine and evaluate all the situations that could go wrong. We are ready to partner with you to harvest insights from your team. Ask about our one-day Vulnerability Assessment Sprint to begin your crisis communications planning.

Crisis Communications Plan

As a situation unfolds, can your organization take control in the first few minutes? The best crisis communications plan plots every step before, during, and after a crisis. If you fail to plan, plan to fail. Our “sprint” crisis communications system can put a plan in place in one day.

Crisis Pre-written Statements

When you write a statement, is the review process bogged down in second-guessing, word-smithing, and fights over commas? Save time by using our library of pre-written statements for the media, employees, customers, and stakeholders. Ask about our pre-written statement sprint, which can be delivered in one day.

Crisis Spokesperson Media Training

When revenue, reputation, and brand are on the line, there is no margin for error. One misplaced word can be costly. We’ve seen companies lose hundreds of millions of dollars in a 12-second sound bite. Our crisis communications media training gets your spokespeople prepared to handle tough questions on your toughest day.

Crisis Communication Drills

Practice makes perfect. Do you routinely test your crisis management team, crisis communications plan, and spokespeople? A crisis drill allows you to make mistakes in private so you never make those mistakes on the day of your crisis. Add a virtual crisis drill to your crisis communications sprint commitment.

We care about your reputation, revenue, and brand. We hope you do to.

Here is your sprint roadmap. Would you like us to sprint with you?

To set goals, talk about your needs, and formulate a budget, schedule a complimentary, confidential call with me https://calendly.com/braud/15min

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:

15 Questions to Ask Before You Use Facebook for Crisis Communications

Can You Handle a Crisis When it Hits by Winging It?

Crisis Management Lessons from Hurricane Katrina vs. COVID19

COVID-19 Crisis Communications: How Much Worse Could It Get?

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By Gerard Braud, CSP, Fellow IEC 

We’re all more than a month deep into various forms of crisis communications for COVID-19. So, how much worse could it get? Let’s talk frankly about that.

You are exhausted.

  • Zoom meetings
  • Strategy meetings
  • News releases
  • Employee communications
  • Social media
  • Schooling the kids with distance learning

Oh yea, and don’t forget the flood, the tornado, the hurricane, the chemical release, the fire, the explosion, and the power outage.

Wait, what?

“No!” you say. “I already have a crisis. I’m dealing with the COVID-19 crisis. That’s my crisis.”

Reality check. That’s one of your crises.

Amid the exhaustion around COVID-19, you must avoid the myopic belief that you have somehow been given permission to focus only on one crisis at a time. The hardcore truth is, you must be ready for more.

Are you ready for:

  • COVID-19 + Flood
  • COVID-19 + Tornado
  • COVID-19 + Hurricane
  • COVID-19 + Chemical Spill
  • COVID-19 + Fire and Explosion
  • COVID-19 + Power Outage

When you apply the 5-Steps to Effective Crisis Communications strategy, you see there is work that still must be done to prepare for a compound crisis.

You must multitask and keep your teams focused on the reality and the possibilities of “What else?”

  • Vulnerability assessments must be updated to account for new combinations of events that take social distancing into account.
  • Your crisis communications plan must be updated to handle multiple, simultaneous crises.
  • Your library of news releases must account for your current events with a COVID-19 twist, for example, if an evacuation is called, how is that accomplished in a COVID-19 environment.
  • Your media training must be updated to account for remote, online interviews.
  • Your crisis communications drills should account for how teams will coordinate activities when all or part of the team is working remotely.

As always, if you need help with any of your 5-Step process, reach out. You can use this link to schedule a free 15-minute call.

The reality is that COVID-19 may seem overwhelming. But don’t get caught in the trap of thinking that you can put everything else on the shelf until COVID-19 has passed.

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:

Covid-19 Crisis Communications Webinar Recording

The Biggest Lie in Crisis Communications

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

Photo by Daniel Jerez on Unsplash

How to Write a Coronavirus Crisis Communications Plan?

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By Gerard Braud, CSP, Fellow IEC 

Coronavirus is spreading and if you are in public relations, emergency management, or business continuity, you need to be preparing and using your crisis communications tools.

You may be asking:

  • Do I need a coronavirus crisis communications plan?
  • How do I write a coronavirus crisis communications plan?

Those are the two questions I have been asked the most in the past week.

The answer:

  • Yes, you need a coronavirus crisis communications plan.
  • Writing a crisis communications plan for coronavirus, at least for me, is the same as writing a crisis communications plan for any issue.

In the 5 Steps to Effective Crisis Communications,

Coronavirus checks off every box:

  • It is identified in your Vulnerability Assessment
  • Your crisis communications plan should guide you through gathering information, confirming the information, then sharing the information.
  • You should use pre-written news releases to manage the expectations of your stakeholders regarding how the virus is affecting your organization, your employees, and the people you serve.
  • You should conduct media training for your spokespeople using the pre-written news releases, because if you are directly affected, the media will be on you fast.
  • Now is an excellent time to hold an exercise or drill with coronavirus as the topic.

Managing Expectations as a Crisis Communications Strategy

  • If your organization has no crisis communications plan, you are already far behind. I have a plan that you can put in place in one day. Reach out to me at 985-624-9976 if you want details.
  • If your employer or your executives tell you that the company doesn’t need to do anything at this time, they are wrong. The best time to prepare for a crisis is on a clear sunny day, long before the crisis hits. However, human denial and corporate denial are strong. Failure to plan for coronavirus sends a powerful message about the degree of denial within your organization.
  • If you do have a crisis communications plan, and if it is properly written, it should have consistent guidance and rules that universally work for every crisis.
  • If you use pre-written news releases to address the variables of your crisis – which is what I advocate – then your pre-written news releases will be the main tool that needs customization.
  • If you have no confirmed coronavirus cases, send a statement to all employees that outlines how your organization will be responding to this crisis. Give them instructions about any precautions they should take to protect their personal health. Outline what you’d like them to do if they feel ill. Inform them about any changes to your travel policy. You may also wish to send the same statement to your customers, depending upon your type of business.
  • Next, develop a pre-written news release that addresses all the issues associated with a case actually being discovered in your workforce.
  • You’ll want to write a statement that also addresses potential fatalities and long-term impact on your organization in the event there is an escalation of cases that affect your organization.

I’ve long defined a crisis as any event that affects an organization’s revenue, reputation and brand. As evidenced by the stock market, coronavirus checks all of the boxes.

Should you need to do this all quickly, I have some great turnkey options ready for you to use. Use this link to schedule a free, private call https://calendly.com/braud/15min

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:

How to Use Social Media for Crisis Communications

The Biggest Lie in Crisis Communications

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


Coronavirus Crisis Communication Plan Update

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By Gerard Braud, CSP, Fellow IEC

The Coronavirus crisis is a perfect crisis communication case study that can encompass every one of the Five Steps to Effective Crisis Communications that we have focused on this year.

In Crisis Communications Step 1, we focused on your Vulnerability Assessment. We mentioned that a Vulnerability Assessment should be done at least once a quarter. The Coronavirus is a perfect example of a potential crisis that did not exist last quarter.

Based on your Vulnerability Assessment, you can determine if your Crisis Communication Plan written in Step 2 needs to be updated. Of particular interest with something like the Coronavirus, would be issues related to social media. If there was an outbreak, the comments on social media could be overwhelming.

The most important update will come in Step 3, which is your Pre-Written News Release statements. You should write pre-written statements that should include a statement of precautions that employees should take to stay healthy and safe, as well as a pre-written statement that you would use if a case of the Coronavirus occurred among your employees. You’ll want to pre-determine how much you would say, whether you would give names and updates on conditions, as well as how you would address fatalities if they happened.

Because an illness or death from Coronavirus would create a lot of media attention, you will want to hold a Coronavirus media training class for your spokespeople who might need to be your spokesperson(s). Media training is Step 4 in the Five Steps to Effective Crisis Communications. Remember to use your pre-written news release as a script for the media training news conference.

Finally, Step 5 is to hold a crisis communications drill. The Coronavirus crisis is an excellent drill scenario. It is very different than responding to something like a fire, explosion, or shooting. Because Coronavirus would involve issues related to HIPPA and employee confidentiality, you will be able to have some interesting policy discussions. I suspect you’ll have some interesting debates between your crisis communication team, your HR team, your executive leadership team, and your legal team. A drill lets you have those discussions now, rather than losing valuable time if a real crisis emerges.

Opportunity Knocks

Coronavirus is an opportunity knocking on your door. It is the kind of thing that will help a public relations professional get a seat at the table. Show your executive leaders that you are thinking ahead and thinking on their behalf.

Also, the Coronavirus has the ability to negatively affect an organization’s revenue, reputation and brand. Those are the precise things we aim to protect through effective crisis communications.

You have your marching orders. Get to work.

If you need to schedule a free strategy call or if you need ask about any of the Five Steps to Effective Crisis Communications, please use this link to schedule a free 15 minute strategy call with me.

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:

How to Use Social Media for Crisis Communications

The Biggest Lie in Crisis Communications

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

Photo by Macau Photo Agency on Unsplash

Media Training for Mobile and Other Crisis Communications Tips

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By Gerard Braud, CSP, Fellow IEC

Media Training for Mobile is a new crisis communications and public relations specialty. It is the latest addition to our 5 Steps to Effective Crisis Communications series for the new year.

Quick recap – this is the fifth week of the new year. You have been challenged in the previous four crisis communication blogs to end the cycle of broken New Year’s resolutions, in favor of achieving consistency.

Media Training as a Bucket List

Media training is too often treated like a bucket list item that an executive does once in life. Our challenge to you is to conduct one thorough media training for your key spokespeople each year, along with a thorough practice training before every interview.

Today’s video goes deep into media training for mobile, as well as the use of crisis communications scripts for crisis events. Both of these techniques are great ways to improve and intensify any media training that you have done in the past.

I encourage you to watch the complete video, because it will go much deeper into the techniques than this blog will. Warning – it goes so deep that today’s BraudCast video runs about 12 minutes.

In the BraudCast, I share some media training and crisis communication tips that I don’t normally share with anyone except my clients.

Give Up Old Media Training Techniques

This episode of the BraudCast encourages you to give up the old, failed media training techniques of the past in favor of new techniques.

As more people transition from traditional media to news on their mobile devices, you need to recognize that how a spokesperson delivers a message greatly affects public perception and how a news story is edited.

When someone reads news on a mobile device, they primarily see a headline, followed by the lead sentence. Most people draw their conclusion from those two pieces of the news story. Likewise, most people seldom scroll to read anything else about the story, unless it directly affects them.

Therefore, your media training for mobile needs to focus on teaching the spokesperson to deliver a compelling preamble statement at the beginning of the interview, as a way to mimic a reporter’s lead. Your goal is to be so profound and natural in your wording of that preamble, that the reporter wants to capture the essence of it to write their lead.

Control the Lead; Control the Headline

When you control the lead, you then control the headline. That’s because the person writing the headline only reads the lead sentence, in order to gain the information they need to write the headline.

Can You Control the Edit?

When you control the lead, you control the headline, which means you control public perception.

…And More Control

By watching the BraudCast video, you’ll also learn that the way to eliminate bad adlibs during a crisis is to use a well-worded script that anticipates all of the questions you’ll be asked during a crisis news conference.

Bottom Line The bottom line is that media interviews are hard. The variety of ways people receive their news is expanding. This means you must expand your media training to stay up with the times. It’s one of our secrets to effective crisis communications.

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:

How to Use Social Media for Crisis Communications

The Biggest Lie in Crisis Communications

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

Photo by Hermes Rivera on Unsplash

How to Write a Crisis Communications Plan? Use Pre-Written News Releases

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By Gerard Braud, CSP, Fellow IEC

Two of the most popular crisis communication searches on Google are for these questions:

  • How to Write a Crisis Communications Plan?
  • Do I need a Crisis Communication Plan?

As I sit writing this, I also have an expert eye on the television, where a real crisis is playing out. A massive explosion at an industrial facility has rocked a community and there is no official statement from the company after more than four hours.

Yes, every company needs a crisis communications plan.

Take this quick test:

  • Could a workplace shooting happen where you work?
  • Could an executive be accused of sexual harassment?
  • Could someone be killed or injured in the workplace?
  • Could a natural disaster such as a tornado, hurricane, earthquake or snow storm affect your operations, your employees, and/or your customers?

If you answered yes to any one of the above questions, you need a crisis communication plan. Chances are, you answered yes to all four questions. You need a crisis communication plan.

This is part three or our New Year’s series. Today we look at the third step out of the five steps to effective crisis communications.

Step 3: Pre-Written News Releases

For every vulnerability discovered in your Vulnerability Assessment that we discussed in Step 1 two weeks ago, you should write a pre-written news release. When writing a crisis communication plan for my clients, each organization is given an immediate library of 100 pre-written news releases from my personal library of news releases.

Last week in Step 2: Write Your Crisis Communications Plan, we discussed the importance of being specific in your instructions. One of those should be that within one hour or less of the onset of a crisis going public, your organization should issue a statement to the media, your employees, and other key stakeholders. The secret to fast communications is to have a library of pre-written news releases.

Your Pain, Problem & Predicament

At most organizations, when a situation ignites into a crisis, these things consistently happen:

  • Everyone is consumed by the “fog of war.”
  • Someone sits at a computer, opens a blank Word Document, and they begin to write a news release or statement.
  • After 30 minutes to an hour, the writer presents the statement to a group of executives.
  • The executives fight over the language and debate commas. This often goes on for up to an hour.
  • The writer crafts draft two, based on the feedback.
  • A second review happens with more changes.
  • A final statement is drafted, approved, and released.
  • On average, three and a half hours have passed.
  • While the statement was being written, the media have been speculating, employees have been engaged in rumor sharing, social media has turned public opinion against your organization, and your organization’s revenue, reputation and brand have taken a hit.

Stop

Stop being a part of the same vicious cycle we have witnessed since the dawn of the industrial age.

Start

Start at the beginning of this year to formulate and execute a system that can sustain your organization for decades to come. Start implementing the five steps to effective crisis communications.

Begin now. Today could be the day you have a crisis.

Set dates on your calendar now for when you plan to implement each of the five steps of effective crisis communications.

Your goal should be to do the hard work on a clear, sunny day, so that you are not in a panic of indecision on your worst day.

When you fail to prepare, prepare to fail.

When you fail, prepare to see damage to your organization’s revenue, reputation, and brand.

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:

How to Use Social Media for Crisis Communications

The Biggest Lie in Crisis Communications

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

Photo by Campaign Creators on Unsplash

Crisis Communications Case Study from California Wildfires and PG&E

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By Gerard Braud, CSP, Fellow IEC

The annual wildfire season in California is presenting us with an interesting crisis communication case study. I’d encourage you to follow media reports and listen to what each expert says in those media reports. As we review this crisis, we’ll look at it through the lens of the 5 Steps to Effective Crisis Communications, especially the concept of Step 1 – Your Vulnerability Assessment. (If you are not familiar with the 5 Steps of Effective Crisis Communications, follow this link for a free video tutorial.) Additionally, this crisis is a personification of defining a crisis as an event that affects a company’s revenue and reputation.

Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) has been dealing with a financial crisis after facing lawsuits leading from allegations that the company’s power lines may have started past fires that destroyed homes and took lives.

The liability is so devastating that PG&E has filed for bankruptcy. This is the personification of a crisis that is affecting a company’s revenue and reputation.

Now the electric company is fighting criticism because it has been shutting off power in fire-prone areas as a way to prevent fires. This again, is affecting the company’s revenue and reputation.

If you worked at PG&E, how would you manage this crisis? From the perspective of a Vulnerability Assessment, on one hand you have to assess the potential loss of property and lives if a fire breaks out because a faulty power line starts a fire. On the other hand, you have to assess the financial hardship the company is thrusting upon all of the businesses that cannot operate because they have no power.

One farmer showed the media how $50,000 worth of produce could go bad in his farm’s refrigerator unit that was now without power. This story is multiplied in many ways by many businesses, not to mention all of the homeowners affected by the outage.

My guess is PG&E will face a new round of lawsuits from homeowners and businesses that have faced losses because of the shutdown of power.

A further root cause analysis from a Vulnerability Assessment standpoint would have to examine all of the allegations that PG&E has not properly maintained their power lines, transformers, and equipment. Critics allege that failure to maintain the system is the root cause of the deadly fires. Other critics dig deeper, saying PG&E has spent too many years trying to give money to stockholders, rather than reinvesting in their infrastructure.

What do you know about the company where you work? Is it a publicly traded company that prioritizes stockholders over customers? Are there potential crises like this on your horizon? Do you see competing interests that need to be dealt with now, before they reach a flash point?

Your immediate course of action should be to gather your leadership team together and discuss these vulnerabilities before a crisis ignites. A good Vulnerability Assessment may provide a roadmap that allows you to eliminate a crisis before it ignites. If the crisis can’t be eliminated, it allows you to develop a plan to deal with the crisis if it ignites.

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