How do you identify and prioritize your key stakeholders in a crisis?

Stakeholder prioitization is part of stakeholder management, and is a regular exercise. Stakeholder salience determines the stakeholder's level of power, legitimacy and willingness (to be involved), and this tells you which stakeholders to engage first, how to engage each of time, and who to engage when. An important stakeholder group is the institutional investors and one way to discover salience is regular engagement - informal and formal - to find out their investment concerns, thinking on investee's direction, and their over investment strategy vis a vis the investee. A good case study of stakeholder salience is the removal of Sam Altman as OpenAI CEO.

Many key stakeholders are not ones that are chosen - they are stakeholders because of their roles or functions. For example, members of the Board of Trustees and other advisory boards are automatically included. If your organization is an educational institution or a governmental entity, you more than likely have established (and often mandated relationships with agencies like local law enforcement.) It is important to maintain good communication among these stakeholders, something that often falls between the cracks because there are usually protocols in place for handling any crises. A good crisis communication plan includes regular communication with these stakeholders as well as scheduled tests of emergency response protocols.

Creating a stakeholder map in crisis communication planning is crucial. Start by categorizing stakeholders into internal (employees, managers), external (customers, suppliers, investors), regulatory bodies, media, and the local community. Within each category, identify specific groups (e.g., different departments for employees). Use a matrix to assess each stakeholder's influence and interest in your organization. High influence and interest stakeholders are top priority, while low in both are of lower priority. Consider secondary stakeholders, like suppliers' suppliers or customers' customers, as they can indirectly impact your organization during a crisis.

It just came to my attention yesterday that the word "stakeholders" has its roots in colonialism, and we should avoid it. So the first thing is to come up with a different term, like "relevant parties" or "interested parties."

I love this proactive idea! What a luxury to be able to pull up already prepared messaging for potential crises when you are actually facing one!

Excellent ideas and again, will save so much time and energy when you're actually scrambling in the midst of a crisis. Too few companies put energy into scenario planning.

I also recommend thinking through possible layers of the crisis. At a former company, a law firm had contacted employees by placing an ad on Facebook. They were trying to get employees to join a class action lawsuit. How will you handle this type of situation? Or going viral on the Internet for an executive scandal? I recommend brainstorming all possible crises so you can be prepared. See my comment above about the word "stakeholders."

It's critical to get to your employees as soon as possible, even if you don't have all the information. Don't wait! You can send a simple message like, "We are aware of the negative press on ABC project. We're gathering as much information as we can, and we'll update you soon. In the meantime, please direct any media inquiries to [email protected]."

It may feel tempting to create space between the execution of the plan and the following debrief, but it's important to prioritize meeting with your stakeholders sooner rather than later. This way, any successes and areas of opportunity are still top of mind. You can also consider sending out a form or channel to capture feedback ahead of your formal meeting, and then, share it with the group as a pre-read to spark deeper discussion.

Debriefs are essential and often overlooked. Debrief results should be shared widely so everyone can learn how to avoid missteps in the future. Please see my comment above about "stakeholders."