How to plan for a crisis
January 23, 2002 | 12:00am
Crisis is an unstable or crucial time or state of affairs whose outcome will make a decisive difference for better or worse. It is a situation characterized by threat and time pressure. Threat that can harm the integrity or reputation of a company usually brought about by adverse or negative media attention, and time pressure that mandates a quick but effective solution to the crisis. This situation can be any kind of legal dispute, loss of business, bankruptcy, major policy change, accident, death, natural calamity, and man-made disaster.
Crises with disastrous effects are routinely faced by most organizations, big or small. Some are detected early enough, and are matched with measures to avoid such nightmares. Others are either self-induced, utterly random, or come as a big surprise, enough to knock an unprepared organization down. Unfortunately, not all organizations can tell the difference between communication in routine situations versus communication in crisis states. Communication’s routine role is to build the value of the business, while crisis communication’s function is to preserve its value. Luckily, with motivation and know-how, organizations can manage crises rather than be their victims.
Crises leave you with two choices–be proactive and prepare for them, or be reactive and face greater potential damage. To be proactive calls for the preparation of a crisis management plan, a major component of which is a carefully thought-out communication program. Here are some guideposts.
• Know your organization. Do a vulnerability audit, a detailed self-inspection designed to identify potential crises before they occur. This paves the way for the development of a communication plan. Information can be culled from people in key information-flow positions through interviews conducted on an extremely confidential basis. You must be aware of your organizations weak points, and work on them. As management consultant Steve Albrecht says, "Bad things can happen, even to good companies in this age of entitled disgruntlement."
• Establish a crisis communications team to act as the line of first response. Ideally, the team must be led by the CEO, with the firm’s top PR executive, legal officer, senior manager of the department where the crisis is coming from, security officer, and anyone else who might be able to shed some light on the situation. Within the team, an official spokesperson will be identified. He will be the only one authorized to speak on behalf of the organization.
• Know your audiences. Do you care about media, your customers, prospects or suppliers? Each audience seeks specific types of information. You must know them, and be ready to accommodate fast transmittal via e-mail, fax or personal delivery.
• Identify key messages. Keep it simple, and have no more than three main messages for all audiences, which are repeated in all media statements, appearances and interviews.
• Work with media. Expectedly, reporters can be pushy and insistent on a level of access to information. They can put you on trial by challenging anything you say or write, and put words in your mouth via leading questions. They sometimes cross the line from aggressive to offensive, and report inaccurate facts. "Off the record" statements are published, and "no comment" is interpreted as a tacit admission of guilt. But reporters can serve as your ally, rather than your enemy. How they treat you throughout the period of crisis depends largely upon how you treat them from the start. It is therefore crucial to tell all, tell fast and tell the truth. Admit mistakes up front, and start doing whatever is necessary to regain credibility and confidence with identified audiences.
If you believe everything negative about government as reported in media today, you may readily conclude that crises abound. The country faces problems and challenges like no other. Fired and fanned by those that breed hatred and anxiety into the very fabric of the people, they threaten to undermine the government’s development programs.
How should government respond? What should it communicate to rally the citizenry around a common goal, quell fears, ease concerns, and bring the Filipinos together? With the eyes of the general public, media, opposition groups, civil society organizations, and even supporters upon it, the government must communicate firmness. This will allow the nation to see its resolve in fighting the ills that continue to plague the nation. It must effectively draw a line in the sand, and say, "either you are with government or you are with the obstructionists." Strong words yes, but necessary to meet the objectives.
Government must communicate a vision, a plan of action, and the ensuing program implementation results. It must effectively motivate a divided people to come together for the common good, and make them better understand that they have to share the responsibility of nation-building.
The messages to be used, and how they will be projected can make the difference between advance and retreat, motivation and hesitation, growth and decline. What will it take to communicate and implement these ideals among the people? What will make them help to keep government programs in the right direction, and make life a little better for everyone?
Credibility of the leader and the bureaucracy counts. Imagine how the "grapevine" is taken as truth rather the "official word." This can only be borne out of the lack of trust between government and the people. Without trust how can a downward or upward communication be effective? To build trust, government must show concern and compassion. People have to feel its genuine concern, before they hear, or at best believe any word it says.
Develop positive attitudes. Government must consistently show the populace an attitude of firmness, clear resolve and, an unending commitment to move the country forward.
Talk specific. When government does, people will be guided on what results to expect in measurable terms. Programs like one million jobs in agricultural areas, one school in every barangay, and 150,000 entitlements on low-cost houses for the urban poor, food in every table, are excellent examples. They are branded, and the people are given a way to see their success or failure. Talking or communicating to its constituencies is vital, but it must not be seen as empty rhetoric. It must be matched with concrete results. Government must talk the talk, and walk the walk.
Report to the nation with regularity. Under a normal or crisis situation, government must update the people on the achievements of different departments and agencies on a regular basis. Use various media forms–publicity, public service announcements, advocacy songs or collateral materials. It must not wait for the president’s State of the Nation Address to report its accomplishments in one blow.
How the government communicates its programs will help determine the course of the country for the next few months and years. It can also give indications on the political future of its leaders. The approval rating of the president, and other government officials can go up or down depending on how these programs will be projected, how they will be received, and how they will be able to win the battle for the people’s hearts and minds.
For comments, questions, and topic suggestions e-mail bongo@vasia.com or bongo@campaignsandgrey.net.
Crises with disastrous effects are routinely faced by most organizations, big or small. Some are detected early enough, and are matched with measures to avoid such nightmares. Others are either self-induced, utterly random, or come as a big surprise, enough to knock an unprepared organization down. Unfortunately, not all organizations can tell the difference between communication in routine situations versus communication in crisis states. Communication’s routine role is to build the value of the business, while crisis communication’s function is to preserve its value. Luckily, with motivation and know-how, organizations can manage crises rather than be their victims.
Crises leave you with two choices–be proactive and prepare for them, or be reactive and face greater potential damage. To be proactive calls for the preparation of a crisis management plan, a major component of which is a carefully thought-out communication program. Here are some guideposts.
• Know your organization. Do a vulnerability audit, a detailed self-inspection designed to identify potential crises before they occur. This paves the way for the development of a communication plan. Information can be culled from people in key information-flow positions through interviews conducted on an extremely confidential basis. You must be aware of your organizations weak points, and work on them. As management consultant Steve Albrecht says, "Bad things can happen, even to good companies in this age of entitled disgruntlement."
• Establish a crisis communications team to act as the line of first response. Ideally, the team must be led by the CEO, with the firm’s top PR executive, legal officer, senior manager of the department where the crisis is coming from, security officer, and anyone else who might be able to shed some light on the situation. Within the team, an official spokesperson will be identified. He will be the only one authorized to speak on behalf of the organization.
• Know your audiences. Do you care about media, your customers, prospects or suppliers? Each audience seeks specific types of information. You must know them, and be ready to accommodate fast transmittal via e-mail, fax or personal delivery.
• Identify key messages. Keep it simple, and have no more than three main messages for all audiences, which are repeated in all media statements, appearances and interviews.
• Work with media. Expectedly, reporters can be pushy and insistent on a level of access to information. They can put you on trial by challenging anything you say or write, and put words in your mouth via leading questions. They sometimes cross the line from aggressive to offensive, and report inaccurate facts. "Off the record" statements are published, and "no comment" is interpreted as a tacit admission of guilt. But reporters can serve as your ally, rather than your enemy. How they treat you throughout the period of crisis depends largely upon how you treat them from the start. It is therefore crucial to tell all, tell fast and tell the truth. Admit mistakes up front, and start doing whatever is necessary to regain credibility and confidence with identified audiences.
How should government respond? What should it communicate to rally the citizenry around a common goal, quell fears, ease concerns, and bring the Filipinos together? With the eyes of the general public, media, opposition groups, civil society organizations, and even supporters upon it, the government must communicate firmness. This will allow the nation to see its resolve in fighting the ills that continue to plague the nation. It must effectively draw a line in the sand, and say, "either you are with government or you are with the obstructionists." Strong words yes, but necessary to meet the objectives.
Government must communicate a vision, a plan of action, and the ensuing program implementation results. It must effectively motivate a divided people to come together for the common good, and make them better understand that they have to share the responsibility of nation-building.
The messages to be used, and how they will be projected can make the difference between advance and retreat, motivation and hesitation, growth and decline. What will it take to communicate and implement these ideals among the people? What will make them help to keep government programs in the right direction, and make life a little better for everyone?
Credibility of the leader and the bureaucracy counts. Imagine how the "grapevine" is taken as truth rather the "official word." This can only be borne out of the lack of trust between government and the people. Without trust how can a downward or upward communication be effective? To build trust, government must show concern and compassion. People have to feel its genuine concern, before they hear, or at best believe any word it says.
Develop positive attitudes. Government must consistently show the populace an attitude of firmness, clear resolve and, an unending commitment to move the country forward.
Talk specific. When government does, people will be guided on what results to expect in measurable terms. Programs like one million jobs in agricultural areas, one school in every barangay, and 150,000 entitlements on low-cost houses for the urban poor, food in every table, are excellent examples. They are branded, and the people are given a way to see their success or failure. Talking or communicating to its constituencies is vital, but it must not be seen as empty rhetoric. It must be matched with concrete results. Government must talk the talk, and walk the walk.
Report to the nation with regularity. Under a normal or crisis situation, government must update the people on the achievements of different departments and agencies on a regular basis. Use various media forms–publicity, public service announcements, advocacy songs or collateral materials. It must not wait for the president’s State of the Nation Address to report its accomplishments in one blow.
How the government communicates its programs will help determine the course of the country for the next few months and years. It can also give indications on the political future of its leaders. The approval rating of the president, and other government officials can go up or down depending on how these programs will be projected, how they will be received, and how they will be able to win the battle for the people’s hearts and minds.
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