Free Crisis Communication Life Raft

One of the most important parts of Corporate communications is handling crisis communications. I've always found this particular part of work quite interesting, and here's why - you have to find a quick solution to sensitive, awkward, and often conflicting situations that come out of the blue on a sunny Sunday morning.

And for them to end successfully, you need fast decision-makers around you, have a great knowledge of all the internal and external details, and be a bit street smart. Finding solutions, improvising, and not handling things by the 5o-year-old handbook, but rather taking the roads less traveled and using a lot of common sense, is a must in crisis comms. We all like to lean into safe heavens of written and well-defined procedures, which has led to making decisions based on common sense a scarce virtue. Isn't it ironic?

The Diamond Princess case

Out of many crisis situations, the Diamond Princess represents the utmost showcase of how lack of clarity, delayed action, and communication, led to absolute - chaos.

For those who forgot, or missed it, here's the zipped story.

In February 2020, the cruise liner Diamond Princess was left stranded at sea due to the covid pandemic. One of the passengers that had disembarked on January 25th in Hong Kong had tested positive for COVID-19. Health officials from Hong Kong then used contact tracing to track down the ship and notify the captain.

Unsure of how to react, the captain waited two whole days to notify the crew and passengers, allowing the virus to spread all over the cruiser. What is even more confusing is that even after everyone was notified, ship activities continued as normal until all-around 11 PM, after which finally the captain asked everyone to remain in their cabins.

Long story short, the ship docked in Japan’s Yokohama port to be tested by boarded health officials, which kicked off the ship's quarantine until the end of February. Of course, the passengers were residents of various countries, all with different COVID-19 rules and regulations for repatriation.

Moral of the story or your free Standard Crisis Comms Package

• DO NOT DELAY IN COMMUNICATIONS.

Pick up all the pieces of the story as fast as you can and make a decision on your stand to communicate it. I've seen so many times that decisions were made, and never communicated (or poorly) internally or externally. For the sake of all your stakeholders - verbalize what happened and what you are doing. Silence can only mean two things - either you don't care or you have no clue what you're doing.

• IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DEALING WITH, PLAY IT FAIR AND HIT THE BREAKS.

In cases of crisis such as COVID, wherein the beginning, we had very little knowledge about how it spreads, a lot of decision-makers minorized it, thinking playing it cool will not spread any panic. What they did was the exact opposite, pushing the teams day by day into a very dangerous situation by keeping silent, whilst also risking a very bad reputation. Being careful is not panicking, it's being responsible and showing that you care.

• DON'T WAIT FOR A CRISIS TO HAPPEN TO TRAIN YOUR TEAMS.

Back in one of my previous companies, I was super lucky to go through extensive crisis training, right before the covid hit. We had simulations of various crises, that we had to immediately cover - operational and communication-wise. We were pushed to find fast solutions, and organize to ensure business continuity with very clear individual responsibility. Organize this for your teams as well, as it will act as an ultimate life raft once the crisis hits.

• EDUCATE YOURSELF.

In the case of Princess Diamond, the captain and his crew had little education on covid (or chose to ignore it, hope not), but were also completely unaware of other countries' repatriation policies, which led to confusion numero duo. I see this even today, in times of raging war against Ukraine, that people have very little knowledge of politics, history, economics, but should be making important decisions with long-term consequences. Educate yourself, it is the most powerful tool you will ever have.

And last, but not least - listen to your communicators, they are your eyes and ears. Stay well, everyone!