crisis communications_plans and exercises

Emergency Management & Safety Solutions Out of Danger Comes Opportunity

April 2011 www.ems-solutionsinc.com 1

Plans and Tabletop Exercises to Build An Effective Communication Strategy


Agenda •  Definitions •  “We’re not in Kansas any more”:

The Communities we Live in •  Two Critical Aspects of a Viable

Communication Plan •  Communication exercises •  “In case of emergency, break glass”

April 2011 2 www.ems-solutionsinc.com


Definitions



Crisis Management •  Crisis management is the process

by which an organization deals with a major unpredictable event that threatens to harm the organization, its stakeholders, or the general public.

•  The three most common elements that define a crisis: –  A threat to the organization. –  The element of surprise. –  A short decision time.



Reputation Management •  Reputation is the opinion (or “social

evaluation”) of a collection of entities towards a person, a group, or an organization. It has three elements: –  Defined by others. –  Highly effective mechanism of social

control. –  Fundamental instrument of social order.

•  What is “reputation management”? –  Borne from the computing age, where the

fluid nature of that media requires the constant monitoring of your reputation.



“We’re not in Kansas any more”: The Communities we Live in



Three Different Communities

•  “Real world”: –  Small towns. –  Big cities.

•  “Virtual” world: –  Online communities.



Small Town •  Small population, frequent

face-to-face interactions, and positive identification. –  There is no question who

said or did what. •  Reputation accrues not only

throughout one's lifetime, but is passed down to one's offspring:

–  One's individual reputation depends both on one's own actions and one's inherited reputation.



Big Cities •  Community members come

and go. We know a small fraction of people compared to the whole: –  Small subgroups provide

some implied reputation management.

•  Reputations are managed with more formal tools: –  Laws/criminal justice

system. –  Elections/elected officials. –  Racial or ethnic prejudice.



Online Community •  Instant communication,

24x7: –  There is no hiding, covering

up, or holding back.

•  Everything is available for public comment in a moment.

•  Everyone is a “reporter” in the virtual world. –  Cell phone photos and video

are released to a global audience in moments.



Going Viral in the Virtual World

•  Tony Howard, BP CEO: –  “We’re sorry for the

massive disruption it’s caused to their lives.”

•  Later he said: –  “There’s no one who

wants this thing over more than I do. I’d like my life back.” (May 31, 2010)



Two Critical Aspects of a Viable Communication Plan



Communication Matrix

•  A simple and valuable tool for any team to develop is what we call a communication matrix. –  Identify all of the stakeholders that you will need to

communicate with after any incident. –  Name the internal “owner” of that communication

relationship. –  Specify what tools will be used to communicate

with each stakeholder.



Communication Templates •  Pre-written “scripts” that contain the basic outline of

what information might be needed, and then could be quickly modified with current and pertinent information during an incident.

•  Once the templates have been written, get all of the formal approvals now, before an event occurs. Pre-approval may need to include legal counsel, senior management, investor relations; your company may require other approvers.


Emergency Management & Safety Solutions Out of Danger Comes Opportunity Consider Two

Styles of Messages 1.  It happened only to you. The incident only

happened to you and the rest of “the world” is fine. Imagine such events as a fire, workplace violence situation, water pipe break, etc.

2.  It happened to everybody. The event is widespread or regional in nature, and many people are affected. This could include earthquakes, hurricanes, severe winter storms, etc.



Communication Exercises



Communication Exercises

•  Communications exercises can be done for just the Communications team, or as part of a larger Incident Management Team exercise.

•  Begin by determining what the team wants to get out of the exercise experience. Start with what we call the “silly little question”: Why are we doing this exercise? –  This conversation will help you to develop the

specific exercise objectives for the team.



Communication Objectives

•  To assess the ability of the communications team to develop timely communications: –  “Validate the communication matrix: stakeholders,

owners, and tools. Note areas for improvement.” –  “Utilize the new communication templates. Assess

tools and process for timeliness. Note areas for improvement.”

–  “Assess the ability of the team to monitor and respond to social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Digg. Note areas for improvement.”



Exercise Narrative •  Once you have designed the communications

objectives, now you can select an exercise narrative. •  Create a realistic scenario that will deliver the kind of

results you are looking for in the objectives. •  To best exercise the Communication team, it should be

a “public enough” event to create issues that may: –  Impact the company reputation and brand (both internally and

externally). –  Create media interest in the story.

•  Pull a headline “from the news” as a potential story line.



Exercise Deliverables •  There are a variety of specific exercise deliverables you

might want to have your team develop and which should be called out. Suggestions include: 1.  Create employee hotline message. 2.  Create employee text message (SMS). 3.  Create company website message. 4.  Prepare press release. 5.  Prepare for a press conference. 6.  Create Facebook, Twitter, and/or other social media

responses. 7.  Create client message. 8.  Create investor relations message.



Employee Hotline Message •  A very reliable form of employee communication.

These phone numbers are usually toll-free. •  Employees would call this number to find out simple

information (such as if the office is open or closed) and basic employee instructions.

•  For an exercise, set up a “dummy” hotline and have the team develop and record the message.



Text Messages (SMS)

•  If using an emergency notification system (ENS), SMS might be the best and most reliable way of communication after a regional disaster.

•  However, it takes practice to provide enough information in 140 characters or less.

•  An exercise goal could be to develop SMS messages for employees participating in the exercise, and then send them.



Company Website

•  How are updates posted on the company website? Which team makes the changes?

•  For an exercise, if a “dummy” webpage can be set up, it is great practice to change the page to reflect the company’s status through the course of the exercise. –  If that isn’t possible, ask the team to develop the

message and then post it on a status board in the exercise.



Press Release

•  A formal press release should be developed for the exercise, either in response to media inquiries or just as a matter of course.

•  This release should be developed, approved through the agreed-upon channels, and distributed to the team in the exercise.

•  This gives the team a chance to use the pre-approved press release templates.



Press Conference

•  This is a great conclusion to any exercise. •  The pre-identified company spokesperson gets

up before a group of “reporters” to read the company release and take questions.

•  Where do you get these “reporters”? Start with those who know the story line. Simulation Team members or other employees who have been involved in the exercise design make great “reporters.”



Social Media Response

•  Develop Twitter messages and Facebook postings (or other forums that you find) during the exercise.

•  Post these messages on the communications status board in the exercise so everyone can see what you are developing in real time.

•  BE CAREFUL! There are no “development” social media systems. Don’t accidentally post exercise information to a real site!



Client Message •  Go back to your communication matrix. •  You should have called out all of the owners

and the tools. •  Develop several messages in the exercise and

deploy to the business units. –  If you don’t provide the talking points, they will likely

make them up themselves. This is not an ideal solution for customer communication.

•  Post all client messages on the communications status board.



Investor Relations Message •  If you are a publically-traded company,

sometimes you need to get a message out to “the Street” rapidly. – This is usually an integrated response between

Investor Relations, Legal, and your senior management.

•  Use the pre-designed templates and modify them in the exercise. Assess their effectiveness and post.



“There is no privacy. Everyone is the media. You can’t hide anything – don’t even think about it… Everything you do can be exposed – so think very hard about what you want to be in the world.”


Gary Vaynerchuk http://reputationprofessor.com/

Remember This…


Communication in the “New World” •  Think about how to live in this “new world.”

–  Your company and you are being pulled into it whether you like it or not.

•  How can a Communications Team manage the onslaught in this brave new world of constant communication?

•  You have to be ready at a moment’s notice to communication effectively and quickly.



Regina Phelps, CEM, RN, BSN, MPA Emergency Management & Safety Solutions San Francisco, California 415-643-4300 www.ems-solutionsinc.com Get our new book on Exercise Design @ www.ChandiMedia.com

Thank you

April 2011 34 www.ems-solutionsinc.com

crisis communications_plans and exercises

Documents

case of emergency

ones individual reputation

ones inherited reputation

small towns

online communities

virtual world

small fraction of people

onlythroughout ones