Clarity in a Crisis…Keep it Simple and True

If the events of the last two months relating to the Coronavirus pandemic have taught us anything, it’s that accurate messaging is essential.

Almost daily, we have seen corporations, politicians, health experts and even media giants having to correct previous statements—some of which should never have been made in the first place. I won’t spend any time pointing fingers here, but we’ve certainly all seen it.

In the many years I spent working with Fortune 100 companies, I’ve dealt with a few crises. Here is some quick and simple guidance on communicating in a crisis to help you develop your own effective messaging strategies.

1. Nail your message—and stress test it to death. In a crisis, as much as you’d like to give comfort and assurance to your employees and customers, the truth gets top billing. Figure out what you want to say and say it as simply as possible. Make sure you truly know what you think you do and—more importantly—what you don’t. Once you have developed your message, have people at all levels read it and provide feedback. What you are looking for is any wording that might be unclear. Assume that if it can be misconstrued, it will be. Purge any areas that appear ambiguous or unnecessary. The end game is a tight, clear and simple message that everyone will understand.

2. Same. Same. Same. Once you have your message, use the same one for ALL audiences. There cannot be different messages for employees, customers, the media and investors. Assume everything you say internally will get out to the external world—because it will. This especially includes internal memos intended for “a small audience.” I have way too many war stories in which leaders sent out what they thought was a confidential communication to their staff or department.  These communications always got out. Addressing them was a nightmare.

3. Stay in your lane. There is often a temptation to try and comfort employees or customers in a crisis by providing them with information you may have gleaned from the news or a “very reliable source.” Don’t do it! Speak only to what you know and what your organization is doing and leave the circumstances or information outside your span of control to the experts. If you know a truly credible source of information, you may want to provide that in the form of a link—but make it clear you are not the source of this information.

4. Avoid “do-overs.” Besides issuing unclear messaging, it’s even worse to re-issue or walk-back a message. Out of the gate, you only have one chance to get your message right, so use it wisely. The simplest test is to look at every element of the communication and ask, “is there any chance we would have to retract this?” If the answer is even “maybe,” then you haven’t done it right. Clearly, circumstances beyond your control can happen, and that’s why it’s wise to include qualifiers such as “based on the best information we have at this time” or “for the time being.” It’s also smart to make it clear that as conditions change, you will update your audience. As with any communication, avoid words like “always” or “never.” It’s a good bet that even under the best circumstances, wording like that will create do-overs.

5. Stay current. As a follow-up to number four, keep your crisis messaging up to date. This is never a “one and done” exercise. Your employees, customers, investors and the media will want the best and brightest information available, and it’s wise to provide it when you can. When generating crisis update messaging, make sure every update is dated and, when relevant, includes a notation that the current message supersedes information from the last communication issued. This will create more work for your communications team, but it’s worth the effort.

Crisis messaging can make all the difference for business operations during difficult times. While I recognize that each crisis is different, I trust that some of these tips are useful. I’d love to hear yours!

Finally, recognizing that we all need to stick together in difficult times, if I can help any business owners with their crisis messaging to employees, customers or the media, I am more than happy to do so on my dime. I can’t promise I have enough time for everyone, but I will do what I can as we work through this crisis together. Please feel free to message me through LinkedIn or email me at [email protected].

Good luck!