What executives must say when wildfires hit

If you manage people and teams at a business or nonprofit organization, read on.

In a crisis like a wildfire or natural disaster, you possess the ability and responsibility to convey information that gives people hope and direction. Your commitment to this can make a big difference for those seeking your guidance.

Most insurance policies fund professional crisis management communication initiatives during an adverse event. That will come in handy because time is not on your side when wildfires happen. You can’t wait hours to respond. You have minutes. Delaying conversations with employees, customers, business partners, and news outlets will mean others will speak on your behalf and set the narrative. We saw this only too well recently in Los Angeles. Without warning, devasting winds and dry conditions sparked mass conflagrations that made the region hellish. The ensuing chaos tied up first responders, elected leaders, municipal services, transportation corridors, and business operations. Misinformation from city, county, and state officials filled the void and littered press coverage.

I often get asked if executives can plan for responding to a crisis like a wildfire before it occurs without knowing all the facts. Absolutely! Here’s how.

Figure out with whom you need to communicate, why, and how. As self-evident as it seems, most leaders neglect to engage ALL audiences. While many companies pay significant attention to news outlets in a crisis, journalists aren't the only concern. Instead, prioritize audiences this way:

1.? Employees

2. Customers

3. Business Partners

4. Agency Officials / Government Entities

5. Investors / Donors

6. Press / General Public

Staff must always—ALWAYS—get informed about an adverse news event before any other audience, regardless of the type of crisis. Employees are the most effective and valuable marketing assets. They operate as your director of first and last impressions. Provide staff with information on the situation and empower them to convey your message clearly and effectively.

Next, figure out how to reach these audiences. Since you’ll likely experience power disruptions during a wildfire, plan to use multiple channels, such as group text, internal chat apps, phone trees, and email. This approach will give you the best chance of your information reaching people promptly.

Know what to say. Communicate what you know, as incomplete as it may be, and without speculation. Your official word will tell audiences what information they can rely upon.

Also, keep everyone updated. Get audience feedback about what’s on their minds and what they need. Then, respond to it and communicate with current information regularly. Don’t just send out one statement and expect to kick back.

Be sure to incorporate empathy and action in each message. Remember that audiences feel great angst during a wildfire. Your messaging should recognize those anxieties to let people know you hear them and understand why they're concerned.

At a minimum, you should prepare to address how you and others can help employees and others who lost homes or are injured and how operations will continue during and after the wildfire event.

Practice. Developing “muscle memory” in communicating during a wildfire or natural disaster will allow you to address things immediately in an empathetic and action-oriented manner. If you don't practice it, particularly on the gotcha questions, you'll likely default into a "fight" or "flight" mode.

The fight mode arises when you instinctively argue with someone, like an employee, who posts on Indeed that their bosses don’t know how to support team members after they’ve lost their homes. Reacting publicly with sharp, angry, and dismissive tones is natural. However, taking this route only elevates audience anxiety and anger, provides search engines with a compelling clip to rank highly, and hampers your ability to return to normal operations.?

I’ve also seen executives entering the flight mode during a crisis by saying little or nothing. Your silence can amplify the other narrative, cause employee morale to plummet due to your lack of response, and alienate customers.?

You can avoid these two pitfalls by preparing to answer the seemingly random "gotcha" questions. These questions carry an inherent bias, implying that you’ve intentionally or negligently done something wrong.

I hope you never need to use this information beyond the planning and practice stage, but the cold, hard reality is that you might. Getting prepared could mean the difference between getting through it and never recovering.