Sharing the Playbook: 7 Rules of Crisis Communication

Sometimes things happen where you have to open the old playbook. Hurricane Sandy, Harvey, Katrina, 9/11, Blackouts... dust it off and get to work. These 7 rules have been a go-to strategy that helped me communicate with partners, clients and employees. 

1) Be thoughtful, respond quickly. 

2) Before you fire off a message, engage your team and socialize your upcoming message. 

3) Victims first, understand the issue from their perspective

4) Don’t play the blame game

5) Be transparent

6) Perform “what if?” work

7) Make sure your message is consistent company-wide

Explanations:  

1) Be thoughtful, respond quickly. 

Everyone expects a quick response, because of social media, email, texts, everyone expects responses immediately. If you don’t respond within a few hours, people typically jump to a conclusion. Get clear on the message, and tell your story.  

2) Before you fire off a message, engage your team and socialize your upcoming message. 

There has got to be groundwork here. If you don’t have a trusted few clients, partners and employees where you can review a message, you are already in trouble. Best to explain your position, here all sides and get the message out. That team of people must be relied on to back you up. You may not be able to build a team once a crisis hits, You need to already have that group in place. Take the time to understand your stakeholders, their needs, and what motivates them. 

3) Victims first, understand the issue from their perspective.

Empathy for everyone’s reality is key to good message. How the company or you feel is secondary to the crisis at hand. Gauge the pain, and keep the message directed at the audience not the message. An insincere apology or your refusal to take responsibility can damage your brand and breed mistrust.

4) Don’t play the blame game

When a crisis occurs, don’t play the blame game, even if you weren’t the one at fault. By focusing the culprit, you put yourself before the victims. Although others will want to place blame, wait until the crisis calms down before you start pointing fingers. Again, above all else, prioritize your audience and their feelings.

5) Be transparent

What would you want to know if you were the victim of a crisis? Think through that question as you’re crafting your message to the public. Your audience will want answers, even if it’s simply, “I don’t know.”

When a crisis occurs, you’re under a microscope; every move you make is going to be judged. It’s better to be upfront and transparent than plead ignorance or stonewall. If there’s additional, related information that could paint the company in a negative light, Powers recommends sharing it. The news will leak eventually, and you have a better chance of controlling the message. The more information you hide, the guiltier the company will look. 

6) Perform “what If?” work

Although it’s near impossible to anticipate everything that could happen, brainstorm potential scenarios with your team and map out how you would react, so if the situation does occur, you’ll be better equipped to handle it.(ie can you all work remotely?) Focus on situations that align with your organization’s product, services, and industry—particularly on areas where the likelihood and impact of something going wrong are high.

7) Make sure your message is consistent company-wide

Depending on the organization’s size, the marketing, sales, corporate communication, and investor relations teams could be just a small sample of the departments generating messaging. When a crisis occurs, you want to make sure teams company-wide are addressing the issue in a cohesive manner. Remember, your employees are your companies, their voice is your voice when a crisis hits.

There is obviously much more that goes into a plan, but I thought to share highlights from my business continuity days. When doing business continuity programs, a crisis communication program is invaluable. Sometimes, a crisis breeds new crises. For example, when your business is weathering the effects of a Hurricane, you send memo that is insensitive and you have to retract. Or, an employee, without thinking explains to a client, “I have no idea what is happening with your account” No matter the issue, these communication rules are good to follow even after you break one.