The subtle art of crisis management

Good crisis communication in the face of adversity can even build long-term trust with stakeholders, restore brand reputation afterwards and increase brand value in the long term. Furthermore, in times of significant change, rigorous planning supported by clear communications can help create an element of certainty, even in the most fast-moving and challenging scenarios.

What’s a crisis?

First, let’s shed some light on what constitutes a crisis. The word crisis is of Greek origin, and it means “decision”, so it is a time when a difficult or important decision must be made.

In the event of a crisis, it is often how it is managed that determines how a company emerges in the aftermath. A crisis can be defined as a decisive and unstable situation that has long-term implications on the reputation and a company’s ability to operate.

Defining public relations

Very simply put, there are two sub-specialities of the public relations profession; the first is strategic communications, through which a business builds mutually beneficial relationships with the public, media, investors, and community to promote its products and services.

The second is crisis communication, and it is the least spoken about form of PR. It is designed to protect and defend a business when facing a public challenge to its reputation.

While almost everybody thinks they can do Public Relations, that it is about the fluff and the spin. The truth behind a public relations professional’s abilities comes out when you take away the glitz and glamour and are faced with a potentially damaging situation. What you say, when you say it and how you say it will determine your business’s survival.

Do you have a plan?

Sixty-three percent of the value of most companies is dependent on their public image. Yet, most companies do not even think about it until disaster strikes. This is without a doubt a major weakness for any organisation because two of the critical elements needed to navigate a crisis successfully are planning and response time.

Crisis management should not merely be reactionary; it should also consist of preventative measures and preparation in anticipation of potential crises. Effective crisis management can greatly reduce the amount of damage the organisation receives due to the situation and may even prevent an incident from ever developing into a crisis.

When to ring the alarm

There are four ways to measure a situation: scale, severity, the significance of public interest and whether the case is ongoing. In other words, how big is it? Are there casualties? Is the media involved? Has it gone viral? And is the brand reputation at risk?

Each company must have a crisis management escalation plan, with response teams in place, clearly defined responsibilities, and a media-trained spokesperson.

The six stages of crisis management

The first stage is to identify which kind of crisis you are up against. There are different types, such as organisational misdeed, when someone in the organisation takes actions that harm the brand’s reputation or a workplace crisis when employees or customers commit inappropriate acts on property.

The second stage is preparing to handle said crisis and conducting a vulnerability assessment, determining current and potential areas of operational and communication weaknesses. You’ve got less than two hours to assess and take action. Create a holding statement to act as the core of the crisis communication. Get support and have your crisis management team in place. Master your key messages and holding statement. Decide how to get the messages out (proactive vs reactive).

The third stage is preventing the crisis from escalating. Anticipate and have a plan, be responsive but do not overtalk – less is more, always tell the truth and accept responsibility if appropriate. The fourth stage in a crisis is how to respond – having a set of planned and predicted scenarios and a holding statement for each. The fifth stage is recovering from the crisis. While dealing with a crisis, you must also be simultaneously planning how to recover from the damage the crisis is causing or has caused.

Finally, the sixth stage of every crisis is to learn. This is where you gauge the learning of the situation, review the vulnerabilities, and use it to avoid a similar situation.

Holding statements, why do you need one?

An effective holding statement can buy you crucial time until you have a better understanding of the situation. It is the first line of defence in communications. It helps prevent the spread of speculation, so while you may not have the ability to control the crisis, you can control the narrative.

A well-written holding statement can alter the course of a crisis, and it must be crafted by someone who truly understands each word’s impact.

In a time of great confusion, clear communications are critical, bringing much-needed clarity. So, you must communicate with purpose. Be clear about why you are communicating every time.

Be prepared

Think of it this way if we compare a crisis to a fire. A fire requires three things to burn – heat (energy), fuel, oxygen, or a catalyst like oxygen (speed). Take away any one of those elements, and the fire goes out.

In a crisis communications situation, something has gone wrong, and your brand is on fire. There’s the something you did or something you’re responsible for – the fuel. There’s public opinion – the heat, the energy. Finally, there’s your speed of reaction to it – the catalyst.

As with real fires, if you deny the fire any one of these sources, you break the chain reaction that causes the fire, and it burns itself out.

So, to truly protect your brand, you must have your firefighting team trained and ready to be activated at any moment. If you don’t have an in-house team, you can always seek the help of a well-versed agency that specialises in crisis management to be on your side not only when a crisis hits, but also to train your team, anticipate your liabilities and create preventative and responsive plans for you.

Ruwaida Abela, managing partner, head of PR and communications, JRN Consultancy.