Eight-Steps to Crisis Communications Planning

Protecting your reputation by building a crisis communications plan

No organization is immune from the threat of a crisis. And many organizations aren’t adequately prepared with the tools to respond in a crisis. Those largely come from a crisis communications plan – the “what you say” component of an emergency and crisis response plan.

Getting a crisis plan in place starts with doing an issues audit of your organization. This involves looking at the scenarios that could interrupt your organization’s ability to operate. Fire, flood, healthcare emergency, cyber security breach, labour disruption – are all things that could have a material effect on your operations. A crisis communications plan forms the basis of your ability to respond quickly and effectively.

Here’s how to build one:

1) Prioritize the risks you face

• Think about the incidents that could impact your ability to operate and focus planning on the highest probability scenarios with the highest potential impact – we often find that asking the question “what keeps you up at night?” helps prioritize the scenarios that have the greatest risk.
• This doesn’t mean prepare for every possible eventuality, rather spend your time planning for those that could cause the greatest disruption to your ability to operate normally.

2) Identify the audiences you would need to talk to in a crisis

• Decide who you need to be communicating with in each crisis scenario identified in step one and in what order you would want to reach them. This goes for both internal and external stakeholders.

3) Assess what crisis response mechanisms you have in place 

• Take stock of the crisis-related response structures and materials that may already exist in your organization. For example, note the ways you can communicate with your leadership team, the channels you have to reach employees, and possible redundant systems of communications that can be employed in a crisis.
• Generate a list of how you typically communicate with each stakeholder group and evaluate if these channels would still be effective during a crisis scenario. It’s helpful to have a backup option for priority stakeholder groups. For example, if you usually use email to communicate with employees, think about alternative ways you could reach them if email communication was down.
• Map these systems and determine any gaps that may exist in your ability to quickly communicate in a crisis.

4) Select the crisis response team and determine individual responsibilities

• Assemble the key leadership team members and crisis response leaders who would make decisions and ensure action in a crisis.
• Once the team is assembled, identify who would lead the team. This individual would have the final approval on the strategy and approach. A backup should also be determined in case the lead is unavailable.
• Each person around the table needs to be someone senior enough that they hold decision-making authority and can quickly delegate other tasks as required.
• Each person needs an identified role and should represent key areas of your business, for example, CEO, legal, operations, communications, HR, etc.

5) Outline your response protocols

• This is where we can articulate the processes and procedures that are required to manage a crisis. This includes things like how to engage the crisis response team, where the team should assemble (in-person is best), and how the team will triage information as it comes in.
• This is also where you can determine things like who is going to develop, review, and approve materials, who is responsible for each stakeholder group, what the media relations protocol will be, and who will be monitoring for real time information.
• Depending on the scope of the crisis this is also the time to contemplate how you will keep the authorities informed and involved, whether it be police or fire rescue, etc.

6) Prepare communications materials aligned with the identified scenarios that can be quickly adapted in real-time

• This is a critical step that will be a major timesaving measure during a real crisis. It involves the development of standard messaging and templates for certain communications materials that can be quickly adjusted and deployed as needed.
• This includes scenario-specific key messages, public and media holding statements, Q&As with placeholders, stakeholder letters, etc.
• This can be a make-or-break step in effectively managing a crisis. Once you’re in the middle of one, starting all this from scratch so you can respond quickly is nearly impossible to do well.

7) Identify and media train your spokespeople

• Decide who will be speaking publicly and to media on behalf of your organization in the event of a crisis. This might vary slightly from scenario to scenario.
• It’s critical that they are well-versed in the ins and outs of conducting different types of media interviews, have studied the key message and Q&A documents, and are equipped with techniques to deal with difficult questions that may arise.
• You should conduct simulations with your spokespeople aligned with your anticipated crisis scenarios, and of course, do quick refreshers when a crisis happens.

8) Practice executing the plan with the crisis response team 

• Simulations are the best way to ensure that those involved with actioning the crisis communications plan understand their role and responsibilities and can practice a few times in a controlled setting.
• Tabletop exercises simulate real-time crisis response and allow for a debrief after to reflect on what worked well, what didn’t, identify gaps that need to be addressed, and where there could be opportunities to slightly adjust the plan.