As with any professional discipline, the way crisis communications is practiced can follow different approaches, or different schools of thought. This is particularly the case when it comes to crisis communications planning.
In a speech before a group of college students not long ago, I told an old story for me of how I once had to rewrite a crisis communications plan where there was so much tutorial information up front that its Table of Contents appeared on page 36.
As a point of reference, imagine if the emergency manual at a power plant was equally packed with background information, so that when an accident occurred, the emergency responders would have to plow through 36 pages of background before they could even tell what was in the plan.
This is rare, of course, but it was a sign of things to come.
This old crisis communications plan had something in common with so many others, though, which was that it was also dense with volumes of hypothetical press releases and statements. There was a template news release in the event of workplace violence, another one in the event of a flood impacting operations, and another in the event of a product recall.
That’s a school of thought that persists.
For some organizations such template documents give them a sense of comfort that they feel they have thoroughly anticipated every possibility and are prepared. This can be a false sense of security, to be sure. The effort to think through and develop all of this content can often be distracting and wasteful of time, money and resources. But perhaps worst of all, organizations can tend to feel so burdened or even overwhelmed by the crisis communications planning process that managers look for every excuse not to participate, which can have a direct impact on the organization’s readiness when a crisis hits.
The truth is, you cannot anticipate every possible crisis situation in advance to the point where you can write a passable first draft of a news release. Once the crisis happens, there are usually so many distinguishing factors tied to time, place and the people affected, among other things, that you inevitably have to start from scratch on actual content development. This does not mean you start from scratch, however, in the actual crisis handling.
If the template release is helpful at all, it may be in the first five minutes of the crisis, and after that, the many hours spent on developing, editing and approving it are quickly devalued.
What really matters is that a solid communicator be in the loop directing that part of the crisis response process. That there is a team involved in information-gathering and strategic planning and response. That a reliable spokesperson has been designated to assure the organization speaks with one voice. And that an organizational commitment is made to responsible communication and accountability.
From a content-development standpoint, you need a quick and efficient message development process. And by “quick and efficient” I’m talking minutes not hours.
You need a plan that is strategic in framework and designed to finalize initial messaging, strategy, communications channels, and prioritization of key stakeholders in that first 60 minutes so that your first, customized communication is, ideally, before the public in an hour or less.
Just as with anything done right, this just can’t be handled with a template. Rather, the sense of security has to come from knowing there is a quick-start process in place, that the organization is practiced in it, that it’s tied to the way the organization already works and makes decisions, and that good people are involved in the crisis plan’s implementation.
I didn’t write this blog post to plug my book, but if you want a full explanation of the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of what I just covered, feel free to check it out on Amazon. It’s called, “The Essential Crisis Communications Plan: A Crisis Management Process that Fits Your Culture.”