Crisis situations can be challenging and stressful for any organization, but they can also be opportunities to showcase your values, resilience, and creativity. How can you tell a story that turns a crisis into an opportunity? Here are some tips to help you craft a compelling narrative that engages your stakeholders, builds trust, and enhances your reputation.
Before you start writing your story, you need to know who you are talking to and what they care about. Who are your key stakeholders, such as customers, employees, partners, media, or regulators? What are their concerns, expectations, and emotions? How do they prefer to receive information and feedback? Understanding your audience will help you tailor your message, tone, and channel to their needs and preferences.
Crises that begin with a narrow scope can quickly escalate to impact wider communities. While customising your approach for distinct groups is vital, having well-prepared communication channels is indispensable, as all avenues may become necessary. Imagine a cyber breach involving compromised medical records from a decade ago. Essential steps include reporting to regulators, victims, media, parliament, and clients. This entails sending letters to individuals without previous email data, engaging with regulators via email, and implementing a social media escalation and response matrix. To navigate such situations effectively, my suggestion is to establish a swift, cross-channel crisis
There is Purpose in Your Pain. In every sphere of human life, there are bound to be challenges in one way or another. The problem is not the presence of the challenge but rather how an individual chooses to respond in the face of the challenges. Life challenges come from different angles, but with each side facing you, you have to know how to handle the situation by turning the tide of the challenge and taking only a lesson out of the situation because in every crisis there is often pain or heartache. You need to stand still, knowing that in your pain there lies your purpose. This is for those who can accurately discern and know that crises in life are fleeting shades that appear to be real but you are the real deal in every crisis.
In crisis, beginnings mirror blank canvases. The challenge starts with unclear problem statements that ripple across stakeholders – consumers, partners, vendors, and investors. Effectiveness hides in subtlety, with unnoticed strategies. Key checkpoints emerge: 1.Define the core issue. No assumptions, just clarity. 2.Engage all stakeholders, primary to tertiary. Respect breeds loyalty. 3.Equip with a solid holding statement and mapped risks. 4.Act deliberately, admitting fault if needed. Recovery > Denial. -Apollo scooters and Rogers Communications showcase authentic recovery strategies. 5.Crisis reaffirms commitment; communicate genuinely. 6.Benchmark through sales over 2 quarters post-crisis. A crisis is a proving ground for authenticity.
This article touches on Discourse of Renewal, which states that crisis creates an opportunity to learn and address organizational weakness. So at the beginning, you don't only identify stakeholders (audiences) and their competing interests. You also have to think about the state of those relationships and organizational reputation as well as who will be the spokesperson or face of the organization in a crisis. Bottom line: Is there trust? No message will be effective without trust and an effective messenger.
? Here are my 5 top principles for crisis communications: 1.Respond quickly!? Assure your stakeholders? you are working on the crisis and keep the updates flowing! 2.Crisis test the character of organizations. Live out your values including telling the truth! 3.Leverage your existing relationships for support! Who else to stand? with and for you than your stakeholders with whom you have a longstanding relationship! 4.Silence is NOT golden!. In crisis, ?see the Media as an?ally, not a threat. Arm the Media with every informational resource to help tell your story,? This will help build? believability. 5.A tongue doesn't get things done! Managing a crisis takes more than communication. It takes action.
Next, you need to clarify what you want to achieve with your story. What is the main message you want to convey? What action do you want your audience to take or what attitude do you want them to adopt? How do you want them to feel about your organization after reading or hearing your story? Having a clear goal will help you focus your story, avoid distractions, and measure your impact.
Plan, Plan, Plan... If the goal is to identify and address organizational vulnerabilities, then other steps fall into place, including organizational narrative. Ulmer and Sellnow's Discourse of Renewal allows the organization to work across departments and hierarchy to be proactive, identify vulnerabilities before crisis stage, and prepare potential responses. Proactive measures help prevent failure in two major causation areas: human error and leadership failure. The third area includes acts of nature and outside forces, such as the tornado that recently destroyed a North Carolina pharmacy plant or a hostile takeover attempt of a corporation. You cannot prevent all crisis, but can have plans for each major category of vulnerability.
I would argue that a more crucial question revolves around what you do once you define your goal, how do you monitor progress and are you able to adjust your response strategy quickly if you see you are not reaching the goals. Proficiency in managing crises online and through digital channels provides us with a powerful instrument to promptly connect with our audiences, facilitate meaningful interactions, and employ data to substantiate our initiatives and gauge the success of our response strategy.
Before you rush to optimize "how", make sure you take the time to question, and deeply understand, "why". Don't let assumptions about the means funnel you to a means-serving goal.
One of the most important elements of a crisis story is to acknowledge the problem and take responsibility for it. Don't try to hide, deny, or minimize the issue, as this will damage your credibility and trustworthiness. Instead, be honest, transparent, and empathetic. Explain what happened, why it happened, and how it affected your stakeholders. Apologize sincerely and express your regret and sympathy. Show that you care and that you are listening.
In any crisis, or incident response, you need to tell the truth, tell it fast and update as new information becomes available. Communicate everything you know in a reasonable period and establish transparency that leads to trust. In the absence of effective communication, impacted audiences are left to speculate. Remove that opportunity with your honest and clear message. When done correctly, responding to a crisis can build trust, not destroy it.
Acknowledgement has to come from the heart to apply renewal and be empathetic to human and environmental cost of a crisis. Plan pre-crisis who interacts with which stakeholders in crisis and how/when to deliver messaging, even down to providing staging areas for journalists as well as employees. It is equally important to nurture stakeholder relationships/trust in the pre- and post-crisis. Pre-crisis planning should include steps for listening to stakeholders throughout crisis and post-crisis (renewal). Consider how to leverage media analysis, focus groups and surveys, as well as meeting with stakeholder representatives. Without their input or the perception that the organization is listening, solutions will appear self-focused and elitest.
Acknowledging the problem during a crisis is the foundation of effective crisis management. It allows you to address concerns, take responsibility, and demonstrate your commitment to resolving the issue, thereby building trust, preserving your reputation, and paving the way for a successful recovery.
In today's landscape, celebrities frequently use Instagram to apologize for missteps, often with scripted apologies that risk sounding insincere. Maintaining authenticity is vital, avoiding the perception that the apology is a reaction to being exposed. The priority is genuinely addressing the issue and showing commitment to change and growth. It's not just about the words; it's about the actions that follow, proving that the commitment to rectify the situation is real and lasting. In crisis response, the key is to be not only heard but also believed and respected, in order to rebuild trust in a meaningful way.
Instead of telling persuasive stories, take tangible action to make a difference to the affected human beings. Stories don't feed the hungry.
After acknowledging the problem, you need to share your solution and demonstrate your action. Show your audience how you are addressing the issue, what steps you are taking, and what results you are achieving. Highlight your values, principles, and standards that guide your decisions and behaviors. Provide evidence, examples, and testimonials that support your claims and show your progress. Show that you are committed and that you are delivering.
Planning in pre-crisis for vulnerability categories -- human error, leadership failure, and acts of nature/outside forces -- gives direction. But in crisis stage, this step relies on listening. Media analysts/communication consultants should gather stakeholder input. Solutions must put their interests first. The organization can't just say it values them, actions must show it values the greater good ahead of organizational self-interest. Don't forget internal communications and your employees. Are their jobs at risk? Is their safety at risk? The solution stage has to be flexible as information develops. But leaders must also convey confidence in a path forward and show how the organization will address conditions that led to the crisis.
The best example of this is when, back in the 80s, someone started lacing Tylenol with cyanide. 9 people died and it caused a huge panic, as you might imagine. The makers of Tylenol, Johnson and Johnson, took dramatic and public action. They took not only all Tylenol off the shelves, but all of their products. They then went even further and INVENTED tamperproof packaging. When Tylenol and their other drugs were put on the shelf again, many months later, with the tamper proof packaging, it turned Johnson & Johnson from a company that had gotten scammed into a company that truly cared about its customers. Branding bonanza! They took a negative and turned it into a giant positive by doing the right thing and doing it very publicly.
Spend less time telling your story, and more time listening to theirs. Spend less time spouting jargon and buzzwords, and more time responding to real concerns with real actions. There is a profound truth to the cliche that "actions speak louder than words". Which is another reason to be suspicious of marketing stunts like this one, "powered by AI and the LinkedIn Community".
The final element of a crisis story is to highlight your opportunity and showcase your vision. Show your audience how you are learning from the crisis, how you are improving your processes, products, or services, and how you are creating value for them. Emphasize your strengths, opportunities, and innovations that set you apart from your competitors. Inspire your audience with your goals, aspirations, and values. Show that you are optimistic and that you are ready for the future.
You always need to communicate how you're doing better. Sharing business speak platitudes that don't result in actual change makes the brand disingenuous and will lower your value. A crisis can be a transformation moment for a company, learning to adapt and overcome a situation and provide better value or services.
The final element of a crisis response is demonstrating measurable reduction of tangible harm, documenting lessons learned and means used to reduce harm, and sharing those best practices with the world.
A good story is not a one-way communication, but a dialogue that invites your audience to participate and co-create. To engage your audience, you need to make your story relevant, relatable, and memorable. Use simple, clear, and concise language that avoids jargon and technical terms. Use stories, anecdotes, and metaphors that illustrate your points and connect with your audience's emotions. Use questions, feedback, and calls to action that encourage your audience to respond and interact. Show that you value and respect your audience and that you want to build a lasting relationship with them.
Based on my experience, enabling two-way communication during a crisis poses significant challenges, particularly in major crises. Rushing to engage with your audiences can prove detrimental if you lack the readiness to manage the ensuing interactions. My recommendation is to activate two-way communication channels only when you're confident in offering reassurance, possess the capability to address all individual inquiries, and have a system in place to expedite responses for urgent matters.
Though this depends on the nature and severity of the crisis, opening all communication channels to invite feedback from the customers is not always recommended. Especially, when the crisis has not been completely resolved. Instead, choose your communication tools and platforms wisely to give as much correct information and updates as possible, but strictly on a need-to-know basis for your different audiences. However, when the situation gets under control, share the facts, actions taken, and what are the improvements are you planning to avoid such situations. This is the time when taking the stakeholders' feedback matters the most.
Engaging is an art. It is something like a theatrical play in the world of communication: a good explanation with no drama will result in a boring moment, so we have to trigger listeners' and readers' emotions to let them feel involved in the moment. We can definitely play with people when communicating in person with many two-way techniques, yet while writing the most important thing to engage is the creation of curiosity and desire to know more; only this will lock the audience's attention while drama will deliver the message.
The issues I deal with outlive sensationalism and rumors. Wait for the facts. Even if you are the last to comment, you know facts over rumors are on your side. If people can't wait, rumors abound, but we will not release information which has not been checked and not cleared with authorities.