Sooner or later, even the most successful businesses and organizations will encounter a crisis. Some may be so severe and widespread that they are a threat to the organization's very existence. Others may be contained within a community where they put a company's local relationships at risk.
In today's information-sharing age, an organization's ability to communicate with its key publics during a crisis can make or break its reputation. Poor planning, lack of direction or even inaction during this time can be devastating.
How an organization reacts to a breaking situation—in particular the first 12-24 hours—can prevent an "incident" from becoming a full-blown crisis. In battle, General Patton once referred to this timeframe as "the unforgiving minutes." At Travers Collins & Company, we're trained to defend your company and your reputation.
Crises no longer pertain solely to accidents or incidents in the natural environment. They also involve product recalls, lawsuits, labor disputes, embezzlements, workplace violence, sexual harassment, and other issues that affect the everyday life of an organization.
At Travers Collins & Company, we define a crisis as a situation that:
- Interferes with normal business activity
- Can occur suddenly, often unexpectedly, or build over a period of time
- Typically escalates in intensity
- Demands a quick response
- Creates scrutiny and distress
- Interests the media
The common denominators for every organization that successfully survives a crisis are preparation, planning, practice and execution. With an effective crisis plan and a "do-the-right-thing" management philosophy, virtually any situation can be dealt with and the damage minimized. In fact, handled properly, such situations can actually be opportunities to improve an organization's reputation.
On average, two out of three crises start out small and take days, weeks or even months before they get out of control and draw public attention, while only one out of three are the sudden, unexpected type.
So, while it makes sense that many organizations think about crisis planning following a major event, a vast majority of crises fall into the category of "smoldering." These are situations that can be prevented from becoming full-blown crises with the proper amount of internal control and monitoring.
Over the years, Travers Collins & Company has counseled a number of companies in a variety of industries during crisis situations.
Here are some guidelines that we feel will help any organization survive a crisis:
1. Be prepared. Have a flexible, written crisis communication plan and team in place, in advance. Use table top and mock disaster drills to be ready. When it comes to handling a crisis, practice doesn't make perfect, but it sure helps.
2. Initiate the plan and assemble the crisis team at the first hint of a problem.
3. Don't panic. Gather as much initial information as possible regarding the situation or incident and establish a chronology of events.
4. Determine what messages need to be communicated to various publics, identify your spokesperson (if needed) and draft a preliminary media statement.
5. Don't hide. Be available. Stone-walling or "no comment" will just fan the flames and delay the inevitable. In the absence of information, people, in particular the media will create their own interpretation of what happened or try to find somebody else to fill in the blanks.
6. Respond quickly, honestly and consistently. Release only the facts and don't speculate or place blame. When you don't know something, say so. If you can't comment on something, explain the reasons why not.
7. Log all action items and keep a detailed list of phone calls and/or media inquiries, where they fall on the priority list, which callers should be put through immediately and which callers should be contacted at a later time.
8. Continue to monitor the situation and update key publics as needed.
9. Correct false reports, rumors or misinformation immediately.
10. Evaluate the results of your efforts and begin developing a follow-up strategy.
Effective crisis management relies to a great extent on people; not just plans. If you've got the right people on the team, make sure they do their homework and give them the resources, support and information they need; they typically come through in the clutch.
