By now, you’ve likely heard about the recent crisis at CrowdStrike. While it’s too early to grasp the full extent of the impact, there are urgent lessons to be gleaned in the realm of crisis communications.
Over the weekend, I had a conversation with an enterprise-level client who expressed their admiration for the crisis communication and actions of their organization. This incident, unfortunately, was not the case for many, but it sparked a realization that the more we learn from past crises, the more we can empower ourselves to mitigate future challenges.
In our book, Leading Beyond a Crisis: A Conversation about What’s Next, my co-author and I underscore the reality that crises are a part of life—some more significant than others. However, we advocate for the power of preparation, strategic planning, and a resilient, adaptive, and creative mindset in navigating and overcoming these challenges.
We cannot always control what happens to us, but we can control how we react. Here are some thoughts on setting yourself and your organization up for success.
Be ready before you need to be prepared: Too many organizations become reactive in crisis mode. They have no strategies to ensure that when crises happen, they know what to do first and then what to do next. Crisis communication must be part of a proactive, comprehensive plan, reassuring you that you are hopefully prepared for any eventuality.
A good communications plan starts with “what if?”
- What if our website goes down?
- What if our email goes down?
- What if the telephone lines go down?
- What if there is a virus and all our computers go down?
- What if we cannot get ahold of key people in the organization who need to make decisions?
A myriad of other things must be considered based on your organization, clients, stakeholders and media exposure including:
- Who speaks for the organization, when, from where and how often?
- Who is in charge of responding to online inquiries, frustrations, etc?
- Who is in the inner circle, and what processes are in place to ensure they are in constant contact?
- Who needs to be activated to help fix the problem, and how will these people communicate and be led to ensure the right priorities are prioritized?
Excellent crisis communication assumes something will go wrong, mistakes will happen, and it is essential that one person, or a small team is in charge to assess what has happened, decide what needs to happen next, communicate it effectively and continue to communicate through the crisis:
- What has happened and why?
- What is happening and why?
- What is going to happen and why?
- And when the next update will be.
Practice, practice, practice: A plan without being practiced is merely a theory. No plan is perfect; even when enacted in real-time, there will be flaws. However, the more you can continuously simulate various crises within your organization, the better chance of spotting deficiencies before they become critical.
What if your head of IT is on a three-week trip to Antarctica, and all systems go down? Who is in charge then, and how does this change your strategies and tactics?
What if your website goes down? How do you reach your customers to let them know what happens next and what you are doing to alleviate their stress levels? Can you redirect your website to a splash page that tells people what to do next on a completely different server and network?
What do you do if your email is hacked? Do you have a backup email address on a different network to keep in touch with people and still have them realize that all these emails are actually coming from you and are considered legitimate?
Unless you train for disaster, most people and organizations become paralyzed. They make assumptions about what will work, who will be available, and whether all emergency phone numbers and emails are current. This is rarely the case, and plans need to be updated to reflect lessons learned in practice situations.
There are no sacred cows: The critical thing to consider during any crisis communication, is that anything and everything must be questioned? Until we “know” what has happened, why it has happened, what we are going to do next and implement flawlessly, everything should be considered, evaluated and tested.
Post-mortem is critical: When the crisis is over, now is the time not to point fingers but to honestly and openly meet with the team to discuss what went well, what didn’t and what should have been considered. From there, this new information needs to be communicated widely, so that everyone understands how this situation could be avoided in the future and what lessons have been learned to help make things less stressful if and when they do.
About Ben Baker
Ben Baker has been a Fractional Chief Communications Officer, Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Podcast Officer for his clients for over a decade. "The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” - George Bernard Shaw We help you fix that problem and make sure you are listened to, understood, valued, and engaged with by internal and external clients, prospects and stakeholders in meaningful and profitable ways.
Ben Baker has been a Fractional Chief Communications Officer, Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Podcast Officer for his clients for over a decade.
"The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”
- George Bernard Shaw
We help you fix that problem and make sure you are listened to, understood, valued, and engaged with by internal and external clients, prospects and stakeholders in meaningful and profitable ways.
