Brace Yourself for This.
This article is part of Finding the Words, a newsletter that delivers practical insights on the day’s issues.
You’ve just woken up to a buzzing cellphone. Just as you reach to silence it, you notice that dozens of text messages have come in from your colleagues while you slept.
Brace yourself: your organization is in an active crisis, and you'll need to guide the team through this.
While it might seem far-fetched, the reality is that no organization is immune from crisis. We can't predict when a natural disaster will strike or when a seemingly peaceful community will find itself at the center of tragedy—just as we can't predict when one heated interaction might backfire on an entire company or when a workplace incident will leave everyone involved in crisis response mode.
Preparing for any one of these situations must begin long before the crisis takes place. However, most organizations brush aside the importance of planning until they find themselves at the center of the storm.
To situate your organization for the best possible outcome in trying times, I suggest living by the classic Stoic virtue: You Don’t Control What Happens; You Control How You Respond. As history has shown, it’s often an organization’s response to an incident that will determine its long-term sustainability. How we respond in the moment can determine our future. So, preparation is key to your success.
To help with your own preparation, here are a few of the action steps I share with clients when developing issues management and crisis communications plans:
Manage "Brewing Concerns" to Reduce the Chance of Crisis. Most reputational crises that I've managed over the years started as internal communications breakdowns. If you sense that something on your team, in your work, or across your organization is awry, take the situation seriously and work to understand the root of the situation. If addressed early and honestly, you may be able to reduce confusion, re-align the team, and alleviate the chances of a crisis erupting. Actively listen, learn, and work to understand concerns before they escalate.
Do Some Scenarios Planning. Many organizations fail to identify potential issues and manage them properly, which can lead to manageable issues elevating to the level of crisis. To prevent that from happening to your organization, consider the various situations that could threaten the integrity or reputation of your organization, and create a plan for swift action when you see those issues arise. Failure to deal with certain issues rapidly and forthrightly can lead to a much larger crisis, and that can have a devastating and long-lasting impact on your organization. Think and plan ahead, considering how you'd react to the most likely crisis situations.
Have Your Go-Team in Place. Appoint a small team of highly trusted individuals across your organization (and perhaps outside of the organization, too) who would be called on should an issue arise that meets the level of potential crisis. This team is aware of their role and understands that they may be called on at any moment to support crisis response. Once the team is identified and agrees to their role, convene a few times each year for crisis response drills so you're even better equipped to respond when an actual crisis arises. Align your trusted advisors, and communicate often so they're able to assist if and when the need arises.
What You Say Matters. Through any crisis situation, your spokesperson's job is to provide as much relevant and accurate information as possible. Responses and talking points should express integrity, transparency, empathy, and commitment. While there are advantages to a cautious approach to communications in difficult situations, there is also a great danger in not communicating quickly or clearly enough, as it may be perceived if you're hiding something. The more effectively we communicate through difficult moments, the more likely we are to manage through the situation.
Bottom line: No organization is immune from a crisis erupting at any moment. It’s how you prepare, plan, coordinate, and communicate in the moments of calm that will determine how you weather the storm when it rolls in.
This post is part of the Finding The Words column, a series published every Wednesday that delivers a dose of communication insights direct to your inbox. If you like what you read, we hope you’ll subscribe to ensure you receive this each week.
