Effective crisis response is a combination of advance planning and good decisionmaking during the crisis. For the first Stealable Slide of 2019 we turn to something designed to help organizations and brands plan ahead for a crisis. The slide comes from a presentation Kaelan Hollan, VP, communications, the Motion Picture Association (MPA), made during PR News’ Media Relations Conference in Washington, D.C.
Known in her organization as a crisis pivot table, it lists five crises (vertically) in the first column. Moving across the table (horizontally) shows how a crisis at Level 1 can escalate to MPA’s top office (Level 3).
The sheet is used as a decision-making tool to prepare Hollan to have larger conversations with legal, compliance and other internal stakeholders about anticipated outcomes in pre-determined crisis situations. Briefing MPA employees with this sheet during a non-crisis period “puts us on the same page” and increases efficiency because “I don’t have to spend time [during a crisis] explaining good communications practices” and who should be responding.
Supplementing the pivot sheet are other documents that essentially are the guts of MPA’s crisis plan, such as pre-approved messages, decisionmaking tables and resource allocations. These are updated frequently, she says.
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