No organization is immune to a crisis. The news headlines are saturated with countless PR disasters. From HR fiascos at Twitter, to cybersecurity attacks at local businesses of all sizes, the list of crises is endless.
While no one can predict when a crisis will strike, knowing what to do and say if it does, will buy you precious time.
Ask yourself, if your phone rings tomorrow and you are suddenly confronted with a PR crisis, what steps will you to mitigate the damage? Do you have a crisis communication team in place to navigate the situation? And how comfortable are you in responding to tough questions from the media and stakeholders?
Whatever stage your company is along the crisis readiness path, here’s four reasons why embracing a “crisis ready” culture will empower you and your team to manage a crisis and conquer it in a way that results in more trust and credibility with your stakeholders.
Transcript
Hi, I’m Nicole Harris, founder and lead crisis trainer at Solv Communications. Over the past 15 years, my team and I have helped leaders crisis-proof their organizations with strategic planning and high-stakes communication training. These steps are crucial in ensuring that a company remains functional even when it’s weathering a crisis. Here’s four reasons why preparing for your worst day before it happens can provide peace of mind when the unexpected strikes.
Number one, awareness. When leaders take time to create a crisis-ready culture, it encourages employees to pay attention to the things that may lead to a crisis. Creating a crisis that’s crisis-ready ensures everyone is involved in taking steps to mitigate any smoldering crisis before it happens.
Number two, impact. A well-thought-out crisis plan protects your organization’s reputation, and it will limit the damage. Knowing in advance what to say, how to say it, and who to deliver that message to is critical in a crisis, because every moment counts. A customized plan helps you navigate and mitigate any crisis by communicating with the right stakeholders, at the right time, with the right message.
Number three, rapid response. Scrambling to figure out how to deal with a crisis puts you and your crisis team in a pressure cooker, and that can lead to bad decisions. But having the right plan in place buys you valuable time to focus on not only how to solve the problem, but how to increase value to your stakeholder relationships. Responding effectively and swiftly lets your stakeholders know they’re valued, and that strengthens relationships and increases trust in your brand. And number four, increases productivity.
And finally, a plan takes the guesswork right out of the equation. Everyone knows who’s responsible for what when something goes wrong, and this improves morale and empowers your team to contribute to problem solving.
So as you can see, having a plan in place can help you save time, money, but most importantly, it helps you save your reputation when the stakes are high. Thanks for watching.
