crisis communications
TRANSCRIPT
Crisis Communication Management Principles and Tools
Roberto Adriani
January 2014
The distinctive characteristics
of a crisis
• Surprise: a crisis comes out of the blue, unless, of course, the
• company has planned to release bad news, like redundancies.
The distinctive characteristics of a crisis
What happens when a company is hit by a crisis which
could damage its reputation?
The distinctive characteristics of a crisis
Lack of information: because the situation
is unforeseen, there is little information
about the crisis and its cause.
A good example of this is when there is an
industrial accident – everyone wants to
know the cause immediately.
The distinctive characteristics of a crisis
A sequence of events: when a crisis explodes, it often triggers
a chain of events which make matters worse – for example, an
official enquiry opens, vehement or even violent demonstrations
take place, or consumer groups organize a boycott.
The distinctive characteristics of a crisis
Loss of control: in this situation, the top management fear that
the situation will get out of hand.
This is feeling is normal, but should not be overwhelming.
The distinctive characteristics of a crisis
Siege mentality: the management feel judged and so prefer say
absolutely nothing. It is absolutely essential to avoid this error
from the moment that the media take the crisis on board because it
is the media who set the agenda in feeding the news to the public,
not vice-versa.
The distinctive characteristics of a crisis
Getting stuck in the short-term: managers can also fall into this
trap, focusing only on the short term issues instead of looking at
how the crisis could evolve and planning evasive action.
The distinctive characteristics of a crisis
The distinctive characteristics of a crisis
The main types of crisis
The main types of crisis
The main type of crisis – Hit and Run
The principal characteristics of this type of crisis are speed and
volatility. It can appear and disappear in the space of a few hours
ore some days.
Often emerging from urban legends, it comes up and spreads
thanks to the Internet.
i: intensity t: time
The main type of crisis – Double Whammy
The news hits the headlines for the first time and gives the
impression of just being a “hit and run” crisis. After the first peak,
there is a falling-off, creating the illusion that the crisis has passed.
The management relax and just when it is least expected – within a
couple of days or even some weeks – the crisis explodes again with
renewed vehemence.
i: intensity t: time
The main type of crisis – Tormenting Crisis
The unpredictability of this type lies in the continuous drip-feed
of news.
Day after day, you never know what the media is going to say
next, but you can be certain that the news is going to inflame
the crisis and keep journalists' interest high.
i: intensity t: time
The main type of crisis – Low-Intensity Crisis
This happens when a company dispute has not been resolved
clearly and definitively in favour of one side or the other. In
general, a low-intensity crisis does not have an immediate impact
on a business. This often means that the company pays little
attention to it, leading to its growth over the years.
i: intensity t: time
Preparing to manage a crisis
Preparing to manage a crisis
Crisis communication managers say that the best-managed crises
are the ones which are not seen. In fact, the majority of crises
which arise are completely predictable, so companies can prepare
their communication strategy in advance.
Obviously, no-one has a crystal ball, however, between the illusion
of being able to predict any crisis and being unprepared for one,
there is a middle way. What is it?
Preparing to manage a crisis - Mapping company
vulnerabilities
The first step is to make a map of all the potential danger points in
a company's production process. This should reveal possible
vulnerabilities and assign a risk-level to each one. Thus, dangers
can not only be identified, but put into an order of priority.
Preparing to manage a crisis - Identifying allies and
enemies
We can classify anything and anyone who could be an ally, an
enemy or be neutral in a crisis situation.
Preparing to manage a crisis – Media, social media
and web monitoring
Monitoring the media and the web is necessary in order to
identify possible news stories which, even if they are not
directly linked to the company, might be related to the list of
company vulnerabilities. You also learn lessons from others'
crises.
Preparing to manage a crisis – Preparing a crisis plan
It is vital that this is a full and structured document, which
explains in detail plans for communication management should a
crisis occur.
Essentially, it is an instruction manual for what to do in an
emergency.
Preparing to manage a crisis – Practice with Media
Training
Go in front of the TV cameras and be interviewed by the most
biased, aggressive and worst informed journalist you can imagine
– a pretend one of course! If you can keep your nerve, you have
already successfully completed half of the drill.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaCdPiJ1OKs
Managing a crisis
Managing a crisis – What to do
• Bring the situation under control, as much as possible.
Analyze the situation to judge its newsworthiness. Do not increase
the crisis by yourself. Many times the situation does not get
media attention. Activate your crisis team only if needed.
• Gather the facts: who, what, where, when, why, how.
• Talk -carefully- to the journalists: as they will get the
information (frequently inaccurately) from other sources.
• Report your own bad news: do not allow another source to
inform the media first
Managing a crisis - What to do
• Be honest: if you do not know the facts say so and promise
to get back to the media as soon as possible. If you back to them
with newsworthy news, you become a trusted source of information.
• Avoiding the Shadow Effect: protect the integrity and reputation
of the organization.
Any reputation can be segmented into several elements (values).
Let’s defend the values which are not affected by the crisis or which
are not questioned.
• People first: show concern and consideration for what happened
Managing a crisis – Most common tools
1. Q&A (Questions & Answers)
2. Position Paper
3. Press Release
4. Interview
5. Off the Record
6. Social media posting
