principles of crisis communications: preparedness

Developing issues and crisis Q&A

Agenda… Understanding Issues & Crisis Why a Q&A Doc? What do you need? How Do You Respond?

Issues Vs Crisis!

Ahoy, you have an issue Can turn positive or

negative Could impact on

functioning Demands care - timely

response Potential incident or a

crisis

U r in crisis dude!!! Immediate action needed Financial & legal

consequences Attract media and public

attention Harm reputation and

business prospect

Why a Q&A Doc?

Because!

Consumers wants to know Shareholders wants to know Administration wants to

know Government wants to know

And most importantly

Organisation’s position/ PoV Reduce internal communications gap All speaking the same language Inform stakeholders – reduce scope for

speculations/ rumors

Q&A: A ready reckoner

What do you need?

Client briefing o What has happened?o Background/ historyo Any diagnosis?o Any corrective action taken?o The action plan?

Ideally speaking!

The hard reality! No brief Poor brief Defensive brief Concealing brief

Saviour! Your home work o Researcho Probable questionso Suggest ideal response!o Ask for review

Questions? is the problem?has it happened?was the management when this happened?

are you solving the problem? does it happen despite your measures?

will you act ?will the the responsible be punished?will you conclude audit?will more information be available?

happened? What went wrong?are the facts? What is your policy?are you doing about it?is your action plan? What next?can you do to keep this from happening again?

is responsibleis to blame? has been affected?should be taking action?

did you fail to detect problems ahead?have you not acted on the responsible yet?

Framing the Responses

The Best Practice?

The Thumb-rule!

The Finger Rules!

Stay Positive Keep it shortHighlight strength

Be repetitive Express empathy

Stay away!!!

From starting answers with 5Ns: No, Not, Never, Nothing, None

From repeating allegations

From discussing speculative situations

From getting into an Attack mode

From using loaded words – until ABSOLUTELY SURE

KEEP CALM

AND HOPE FOR THE BEST