Building a Crisis Preparation Culture

 Recognise first that you are permanently in the pre-crisis phase by: 

• appointing a senior, dedicated HR based crisis training manager;
• having a crisis management plan (CMP) based on latest best practice;
• updating it at least annually with the help of an outside ‘audit of preparedness’.

 By recognising that cultural beliefs where crisis management preparation is treated as a ‘grudge purchase’ will result in more expense, not less. Board-level commitment and hands-on involvement is a vital signal to the organisation. By having a designated small crisis management team (CMT) that is chaired by the CEO; represents all key areas of expertise; and is properly trained. It should not be selected by job function, but by competence and leadership skills. Psychometric testing should be used to ensure both ‘group think’ and endemic disharmony are avoided. N.B. All spokespeople, however senior, must undergo specialised media training (e.g. down the line/ rope line/ door stop/debate/teleprompter/ voice/photo op); plus makeover grooming. 

• Conduct a role-playing exercise bi-annually to test both the CMP and the CMT for skills weaknesses and chemistry mismatch.
• Identify ‘likely’ scenarios and then workshop response strategies for each of these with the CMT, but concentrate on techniques rather than rehearsing actions. Scenarios should be based on what can happen, rather than what might happen.
• Recognise that the crisis we prepare ourselves for is rarely the one that arrives.
• Identify and form relationships with supportive, independent, expert surrogates with recognised credentials.
• Prepare and constantly update a dark dedicated web site (to use in the event with a link from your current web site).
• Exploit the existing company Intranet as one of the channels for reaching employees (and any other stakeholders than may have access to your Intranet).
• If there is no existing Intranet, build one.
• Create and test an emergency mass notification system for reaching employees and other key stakeholders during a crisis.
• Set up social media and blog pages e.g. Facebook; YouTube; X; Instagram; TikTok; Flickr etc
• Establish and constantly update an emergency contact database (electronic and hard copy).
• Pre-draft selected crisis management public messages from these scenarios (including content for dark websites, robocalls and SMS message templates). Have the legal department review and pre-approve these messages.
• War room designated and IT/Comms networks installed and tested weekly.
• Media monitoring room designated and equipped.
• Comms and rebuttal unit location designated.
• Off site media conference facility designated.
• Create an on-site media bid room (or studio with uplink connections if resources allow) with a corporate identity backdrop. This should also be used for creating web-streaming messages.
• Designate make-up and dressing room.
• Emergency response call centre designated.
• Emergency dormitory, bathroom, health centre and catering facilities located and designated.

Fundamental Principles (1)

• No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.
• Time spent in reconnaissance is seldom wasted.
• Perception is reality.
• Truth is the best defence.
• In public, certainty, not speculation.
• In private, do not assume, know.
• Delay is preferable to error.
• Silence, equivocation or hiding away are all taken as guilt.
• All crises are sui generis.
• You are never in control of a crisis.

Fundamental Principles (2)

• You can’t spin your way out of a crisis: you must act.
• CMT’s are not democratic.
• Fault is not the same as responsibility. Arguing “it’s not our fault“ (the lawyer’s standard line to take) is always taken by the media as “it’s not our responsibility”.
• Being right doesn’t make one popular.
• Only hard facts trump rumour and lies (but not emotions).
• Decisiveness is not the same as inflexibility, arrogance or obstinacy.
• Understand the media ‘narrative’ ASAP.

Fundamental Principles (3)

• Acknowledgement of the seriousness of the problem must not be qualified.
• An apology is a defense, not a confession, nor an admission of legal liability.
• Pride, ego, testosterone and ‘face’ are unaffordable luxuries.
• The response needs to be proportionate to the scope.
• Wrap every argument in a principle e.g. justice, freedom, fairness, privacy, choice, safety.
• Manage the expectations.

Fundamental Principles (4)

• Alcohol and crises don’t mix.
• Humour, sarcasm and irony are counter-productive.
• Do not use euphemism, metaphor, simile or analogy.
• There is no ‘time off’ in a crisis. All public appearances must be within a professional context.
• “Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse.”
• A good retreat is better than a bad stand.
• Too many cooks waste time arguing with each other and destroy focus.
• The more uncomfortable you feel about incoming data, the more likely it is to be true.
• Always have a Plan B and consider having a separate team devoted to it.

Fundamental Principles (6)

• Group think; sycophancy and yes men are the enemy.
• Living in the bunker generally ends badly. Get out and see for yourself.
• Exercise, relax, fresh air, eat a high protein diet, relieve the tension.

Initial Crisis Response

• Speed: try to have an initial action response within the first ‘golden’ hours – but always establish the facts first (especially the scope).
• Investigate: don’t.
• Accuracy: all facts must be double sourced before release.
• Consistency: by keeping spokespeople constantly informed of events and key message points.
• Safety: always make public safety the number one priority rather than reputation management.
• Honesty: avoid the temptation to spin.
• Flexibility: as the facts change, the response changes.

Initial Crisis Response: (2)

• Objectivity: if team members are not performing or cannot handle the stress they must be replaced.
• Compassionate: be empathetic to human tragedy. Use a team of toxic handlers and rotate them.
• Inward Marketing: remember to include employees in the initial response using all of the available communication channels, including the Internet, Intranet, and mass notification systems.
• Helpful: be ready to provide stress and trauma counselling to victims of the crisis and their families, including employees.
• Responsive: make an interactive information pathway and call centre easily available and properly resourced.

Initial Crisis Response: Actions First ‘Golden’ Hours (1)

• Assemble CMT and comms support teams (including specialist rebuttal & investor relations units; and veterans if available).
• Establish and double source facts.
• Set objectives, methods and outcomes strategy (“What do we want to happen” & “What are we afraid of happening”).
• Public information and media contact hot lines activated with recorded messages and touch tone selection.
• Begin contact with management on site and install multiple comms networks including emergency lines.

Initial Crisis Response: Actions First ‘Golden’ Hours (2)

• Despatch CMT to site by private transport including a senior leader with decision making rank.
• Distribute CMP war books.
• Alert external advisors (bankers/insurers/lawyers/government engagement/speechwriters/freelance journalists/PR/advertising/web comms/private investigators etc).
• Alert HR, Finance, Transport and Estate Management.
• Emergency security for Head Office activated (e.g. mailroom X-Ray/close protection).
• Activate initial robocalls and autodialler sms.

Initial Crisis Response: Actions First ‘Golden’ Hours (3)

• Open war room, test IT & comms, then bug sweep.
• Open media bid board.
• Activate emergency contact database.
• Activate landline & mobile call tracing/logging and e mail search software programmes.
• Activate web site and resource with dedicated team.
• Establish priority action list and allocate responsibilities.
• Allocate emergency funding.
• Alert surrogates.
• Activate emergency response numbers; call centre and emergency cell phone stock.

Initial Crisis Response: Actions First ‘Golden’ Hours (4)

• Activate web site and resource with dedicated team.
• Activate quantitative benchmark research and qualitative focus group programme.
• Open toxic handlers response unit.
• Begin Media monitoring: Television; Radio; Newspapers; Magazines; Internet; Social media & Blogs.
• Start emergency media buys to reassure customers, retailers, distributors, stockholders, employees and suppliers.

Initial Crisis Response: Actions First Golden Hours (5)

• Alert internal counselling unit e.g. to combat stress.
• Assign an institutional learning archivist.
• All victims or potential victims should receive useful information, for example safety details. This is called the “instructing information” response and is one-half of the base response to a crisis.
• All victims should be provided with an expression of sympathy; information about corrective actions; and trauma counselling where needed. This is called the “care” response and is the second-half of the base response to a crisis.

Crisis Media Relations: Basic Principles

• Excepting when they are the problem, the organisation’s executive leader is always the chief spokesperson.
• The media expect (and need) a symbolic site visit.
• The media are not your enemy or your friend; they can be allies or opponents according to how they are (or have been) treated.
• Ban the phrase “no comment” because people think it means the organization is guilty and trying to hide something.
• If you want the media to stop running a story then make it risky for them to continue, or give them a better story.
• Journalists want and will print facts, but only ones they understand; so present information without jargon or technical terms.
• Lack of clarity inevitably makes people think the organization is being confusing on purpose in order to hide something.
• All spokespeople must have been fully trained and objectively appraised.
• Be aware of nervous habits that people interpret as deception. A spokesperson needs to have direct eye contact, no hesitations such as “hums” or “uhs”; and avoid distracting nervous gestures such as fidgeting or pacing.
• Brief all potential spokespersons hourly on the latest crisis information and the key message points the CMT is trying to convey to stakeholders.
• All senior spokespeople must have experienced & objective minders attached to monitor performance.

Crisis Media Relations: Be Aware of Journalistic ‘Techniques’

• Challenge the false premise. 'Some observers claim ...'
• Unmask the false friend with their ploys of synthetic sympathy e.g. 'I just want to tell your side of the story'. Or, 'unless I get something from you they'll put someone on the story who doesn't have my liking/admiration for you.'
• Ignore the ‘citing dubious sources’ ploy where the reporter gets quotes from blogs or less scrupulous competitors (‘I’m not saying I believe them, but now it’s out there.....) and then tries to get you to deny the story.
• Resist the Bob Woodward ploy: “this is what people are saying about you. Is there anything you want to tell me?”
• Reject the spurious supporter e.g. 'I don't think you did anything wrong, but the others back at the office do.'
• Spot the black lie e.g. 'I've already got two sources for this and all I want from you is your confirmation.'
• Face down the blackmailer e.g. ‘there are two stories I can write. In one you are named and shamed. In the second you tell us all anonymously and the other guy gets it in the neck.’
• Beware of the ‘question’ which is in reality a statement with a question mark at the end.
• Do not be ‘directed’ by photographers and camera operators; rely on your minder.
• In all photo ops the background must be scanned by the minder.

Crisis Media Relations: Basic Rules for Dealing with the Media

• Anticipate the questions (especially the ones you don’t want to be asked); prepare and rehearse the answers.
• Don’t avoid answering the question, but always seek to include your message.
• Journalists don’t have friends. They just have sources.
• If you don't know, say that you don't know. If you do know but can't say, tell them why. If you can’t say why, say nothing.
• Lying to journalists is an abuse of trust, corrosive of credibility and usually unnecessary.
• The public have a right to know, accept that.
• Treat all microphones as live.
• Do not engage in ‘Off the record’ responses. Use fact based ‘background’ briefings instead.
• Never answer hypothetical questions.
• Anger is unprofessional. Never be provoked.
• Only accept bids when you have something to say and the interviewer’s agenda is known.
• TV & Radio interviews should normally be live (to avoid editing).
• Never repeatedly leak to the same reporter; the others will become enemies.
• Never say or write anything that would embarrass you if it appeared on the front page of the X.
• No end - however worthy - can justify an immoral means e.g. bribery. What is morally indefensible is invariably commercially damaging.
• Treat everyone with courtesy, respect and efficiency - as you yourself would like to be treated.
• In reacting to a story doing something is generally (but not invariably) better than doing nothing. The frequency of occasions requiring 'masterly inactivity' is less than one might suppose.
• Never let an outright attack go unchallenged unless research gives a 100% assurance that it is not believed or not thought serious.
• The nature of the damage needs to be defined before action is taken otherwise you risk making a triviality important.
• Speed is of the essence, but never respond to unprinted rumours; attacks only exist when the media covers them.
• Understand the media’s motives, attitudes and prejudices.
• Never criticize the media unless they are acting in a way that their superiors would recognise as unprofessional.
• The media attach more credibility to stories they 'discover' for themselves (hence the importance of surrogates).
• If apologies for factual errors are necessary they must be immediate and unambiguous.
• Personal abuse of working journalists is commercial suicide.

Media Basic Training

 All spokespeople, however senior, must receive basic media training: 

• Voice, Accent & Teleprompter
• Posture
• Body language
• Hair, teeth, skin, other grooming
• Background bio
• Official photo
• Photo ops

Media Response Rehearsal

 The impact we make on others depends on the following: 

• how we look and behave: 55%
• how we speak: 38%
• what we say: 7%
• Source: Prof. Albert Mehrabian ('Silent Messages‘)

 After the ‘pepper drill’; ‘key message’ & ‘line to take’ rehearsals, the minder should select useful opening lines that turn the question around to the prepared bite: 

• Let me first just say this …
• I think the question you are trying to ask me …
• The question you should be asking …
• You're getting away from the really important point …
• What the people really want us to concentrate on...
• The issue that your viewers really care about is……
• That's not my responsibility, you'll have to ask those whose responsibility that is...
• I'm so glad you asked that question …
• Before answering that, let me …
• With respect, I don't think you quite understand the point I'm trying to make.
• Let me give you the true facts …

 The minder should rehearse various forms of 'in extremis' stonewalling e.g. 

• I cannot confirm or deny that …
• I'm not ruling anything in or out …
• I'm not prepared to engage in speculation of that kind.
• I would need time to study that further before giving you a proper answer...
• I will cross that bridge when I come to it...
• I don't have any comment until we get more details...
• Until the situation stabilises it's impossible to form any opinion as to the causes of …
• I'm still studying the situation and will be able to give you an answer in due course...
• We're still researching this issue, and it's premature to reach any conclusion...
• I wish I could help, but we just don't know enough yet to comment properly...
• I don't know but I'll find out and get back to you...
• I will not dignify that kind of question with a response...

Communications Strategies

 There are twelve basic choices: 

• ‘Immediate unreserved apology’: often referred to as 'total contrition‘. If possible this is turned to advantage by trying to elicit support for measures to put the problem right.
• ’Qualified admission’ e.g. 'it did happen, but not in the way alleged'.
• ‘Non-denial denial‘ e.g. 'this is just pure speculation' or 'we can't confirm or deny this‘.
• ‘Denial in part’ e.g. 'some trivial bits of the story are true, the important bits are not'.
• ‘Flat denial’ e.g. 'it didn't happen,' or 'it isn't true,' or 'it's a lie.'
• ’Counter-attack denial’ e.g. enemies attacked for inaccuracy or spreading rumours; or on their credibility, motivation or hidden agenda.
• ‘Scapegoat’: crisis manager blames some person or group outside of the organization for the crisis.
• Justification: crisis manager minimises the perceived damage caused by the crisis.
• ‘Provocation’: crisis was a result of response to someone else’s actions.
• ‘Defeasibility’: problem caused by a lack of information about events leading to the crisis situation.
• ‘Accidental’: problem caused by lack of control over events leading to the crisis situation.
• ‘Good intentions’: organization meant to do well and the consequences were unintended.

Crisis Types by Levels of Responsibility

Victim Based Crises: Low Level Responsibility

• Natural disasters: acts of nature such as tornadoes or earthquakes.
• Rumors: false and damaging information being circulated about your organization.
• Workplace violence: attack by former or current employee on current employees on-site (assuming no security lapse).
• Product Tampering/Malevolence: external agent causes damage to the organization (assuming no packaging or security negligence).
• Terrorism: assuming no security negligence.
• Criminal attack: hacker/blackmail/kidnapping/hijacking/hostages.
• Employee related: death or incapacity of senior staff.

Incident Based Crises: Mid Level Responsibility

• Challenges: stakeholder, state agency or whistleblower claims that the organization is operating in an inappropriate manner.
• Technical error accidents: equipment or technology failure that cause an industrial accident (where there is no human error).
• Technical error product harm: equipment or technology failure that cause a product to be defective or potentially harmful (where there is no human error).
• Economic failure: bankruptcy/profit warning/mass redundancies/unit closure.
• Employee criminality: embezzlement/theft/corruption.
• HR related: unfair dismissal/sexual harassment/racial discrimination.

Preventable Crises: High Level Responsibility

• Human-error accidents: industrial accident caused by human error or lack of training.
• Human-error product harm: product is unsafe, defective or harmful because of human error, bad design or deficient research.
• Organizational misdeed: management actions that put stakeholders at risk and/or violate the law.
• Cover Up: management attempts to prevent reputational harm by deception.

Post-Crisis Phase Best Practice (1)

• Deliver all information promised to stakeholders as soon as that information is known.
• Keep stakeholders updated on the progression of recovery efforts including any corrective measures being taken and the progress of investigations.
• Analyse the crisis management effort for lessons and integrate those lessons into the organisation’s crisis management plan & training.

Post-Crisis Phase Best Practice (2)

• Archive the institutional learning cf. US Army Center for Lessons Learned.
• Continue the research programme at least until reputation recovers.
• Reward those who have made the greatest contribution.
• Write the history (‘thank you’ ads; press articles; academic case history; industry conferences).

Key Indices of Probable Success (1)

• A “culture of when” (not if).
• Having the tools, skills and mechanisms to recognise the nature and gravity of an emerging crisis early in its development.
• A priority on public health & safety rather than defending reputation.
• Senior level commitment to funding the preparation.
• Experienced, objective, outside advice from those who understand the culture.
• Focus, discipline, optimism; energy; pertinacity, creativity; objectivity.

Key Indices of Probable Success (2)

• The absence of a hierarchical or over-deferential culture which values openness and transparency (complaining customers, maverick executives, employee whistleblowers and rigorous safety inspectors are your best friends).
• A constantly reviewed crisis management plan which enables the organisation’s response to be activated quickly.
• A talented, trained, harmonious crisis management team of hand picked experts who understand their roles.
• A communications team trained to support the crisis response strategy by providing a clear and consistent message.
• A good corporate reputation, properly managed, that acts as credit in the ‘trust’ bank.