The Best Crisis Communication Advice You'll Ever Receive

We live in a world were the unpredictable is inevitable, where Mother Nature does her thing, and sometimes it's violent and destructive. And there are  people who do stupid things, make irresponsible decisions that bring harm and chaos to a world many of us are trying to make sense of. These acts of nature and God, the unavoidable stupidity of mankind whose half-baked decisions driven by malice, greed, hate and any number of bad traits we'd rather not talk about, are the breeding grounds for crises and emergencies we face everyday.

There have been a few noted crises of late: the Virginia Tech massacre is one of the more  highly publicized.  Recently, Elliot Spitzer suffered his own crisis that ruined his political career. And everyday for the past week, I've seen Texas law enforcement, following child abuse accusations, evacuate women and children from a radical religious compound.

Whatever the event, even if it won't fundamentally change the course of your business, there are several  management points to be aware of when the unthinkable happens:

• Respond quickly: The need for speed in crisis communication escalates as technology accelerates the speed of information, thereby actually reducing the response time  of a crisis team.
• Be consistent: Speak with one voice. Contrary to popular belief, just having one person speak for your organization is a recipe for aggravating a disaster.  "Speaking with one voice means coordinating  official spokespersons from across an organization, and discouraging other organizational members from becoming unofficial spokespersons," says Seitel in "10 Myths of Handling Bad News," in Bank Marketing. 
• Transparency. Transparency. Transparency: Being open means (a) available to the media 24-hour a day, (b) willingness to disclose information, (c) honesty, and (d) honesty. One last point about being transparent: BE HONEST! This could the  single point of crisis communication that can make or break the integrity stakeholder have in your company. Done right,  your organization could emerge from damage control a stronger and more highly respected company than before everything went awry.
• Make your information useful: When a crisis hits and chaos ensues, your stakeholders want to know how the crisis might affect them. And you need to communicate three types of information:

1. Basic information about what happened -- the what, when, where, why and how information fundamental journalism 101.
2. Inform stakeholder how they can protect themselves, if there is anything they should be doing. Some crisis or emergencies may not warrant this.
3. Tell stakeholders what's being done to correct the problem.

In a crisis, information is key to damage control. "Instructing information satisfied the needs of both the stakeholders and the crisis team," writes W. Timothy Coombs, author of Ongoing Crisis Communication.

With the right mix of information delivered quickly, consistently and honestly, damage control during and after a crisis can me manageable. Not only can a crisis be  managed and collateral  damage minimized,  being transparent through the whole process will bode well for your organization. In the end, you strengthen the integrity your stakeholders share about your company.  You'll become a stronger corporate citizen for others to model. This is just another way companies can rise to the top and become icons we admire -- I think of Tylenol, for example. Can you think of any?

Other Post You May be Interested in Reading:

1. Images, Framing and Reputation Management
2. 3 Steps to Rescue Your Reputation
3. Your Company in Crisis: Manage Your Emotions in Three Easy Steps
4. Kelvin Sampson's Second Mistake
5. Damage Control: How Will You Frame the next Disaster
6. Crisis and Issue Management 101

Comments

[Harry Hoover]

Rodger, this is excellent advice. Remembering that honesty is the best policy ALL THE TIME can help us avoid many communications crises.

[Rodger D. Johnson]

Thanks, Harry. I see, and we can all relate to this, organizations the hide behind smoke and screen rhetoric that does more to confuse the situation than resolve it.

[Mariana Sarceda]

Excellent comment Rodger. I've recently finished a Master's thesis on the subject and having an open communication policy and trained speakholders is the best advice. As crisis experts say, when your company is undergoing a crisis you have to speak out. If you don't, then your silence will be covered up by rumours or by somebody else's sayings.

[Rodger D. Johnson]

Mariana,

Thanks for weighing on the issue. My thesis will examine the why we speak into that communication void. When frames collide, how do they resonate with the public, create a share reality and affect damage control end games.