Most communications teams plan carefully for the external
repercussions of a crisis - you prepare "war rooms" to ensure easy
strategizing and monitoring of the media, you make sure you have a
dark site ready to go live online when a crisis takes place.
But some of the most important consequences of a crisis take
place within your organization. In his presentation at PRSA's
International Conference in San Francisco recently, Kamer Davis,
SVP with Ogilvy Worldwide in Washington, D.C., presented
"Consequence Management for a Worst Case Scenario." This
presentation included an in-depth look at the ramifications of a
crisis for the communications team and for employees - as well as
key tactics on how to resolve these problems.
Consequence: Communications Team Stressed
- There's an immediate demand for information and
communications - Misinformation begins immediately both within and outside the
organization - The Web site isn't set up for crisis communications
- Management and staff are dispersed or missing
- There are internal communications bottlenecks
Solution: Redundant, Tested Systems
1. Have multiple ways to locate management and staff - and be
sure you and your key team members always have access to this
contact information
2. Put in place systems to maintain contact with the workforce
[For example, American Airlines CEO Don Carty has kept an open line
of communications with his workforce through many crises using
regularly-recorded voice messages that bring a widely-dispersed
group of employees up-to-speed on any situation.]
3. Enable the crisis communications team to work from anywhere
with "go packs" [Include key tools and information they'll need to
communicate with media, management and other audiences - this could
be anything from Blackberries to contact lists to crisis comms
checklists. Take regular stock of the items and make sure
everything is in working order.]
4. Have a backup for all communications networks
5. Create information for Web sites and have it ready to go,
either in the form of a dark site or templates for various types of
crisis communications and various audiences
Perhaps the most important audience during any crisis is
employees. But they're often neglected or forgotten as management
deals with media queries, victims' families, attorneys, regulators,
the public at large and other external crisis audiences.
Employees require special attention during a crisis, especially
since the key to successful crisis management is to communicate
effectively around the incident and keep business running as usual
- which is entirely dependent upon your workforce.
Consequence: Employee Anxiety
- Employees are critical to the solution
- They have their own emotions and concerns in reaction to the
crisis - They are concerned about their families first, especially if
the crisis is one like the terrorist attacks, which impacted every
company and every American - They need to know what's going on within your organization
- They have expectations of the company
Solution: Empathy & Facilitation
1. Acknowledge and empathize with employees' feelings
2. Be forthright in recognizing those who have been hurt or
impacted by the crisis
3. Always have in place systems that allow you to communicate
swiftly with employees, and use that system to tell them what you
are doing to address the problem
4. Put in place mechanisms that allow feedback to assess their
concerns and reactions
5. Develop forums that encourage employees to interact - with
each other and with the crisis communications team and senior
management
(Contact: Kamer Davis, [email protected];
202/452-9438)