Issues and Crisis Management
I have been involved in over thirty different issues and crises over the last 25 years, from salmonella in infant formula to aircraft crashes, and from poisoned pain relievers to data integrity issues for financial service companies. As a result, one thing has become abundantly clear - while experience certainly helps, no issue or crisis is ever the same.
I have worked on high profile issues that dominate the front page, potential crises that did not reach the public domain and prepared companies to handle problems that never happened. In every case, there are four critical elements:
- Gather information - quickly assess the situation. Who is affected now/in the future? How severely? What do key stakeholders think ?
- Plan for the worst - use any preparation time to develop different scenarios, stakeholder maps, messaging and proof points for each so that you can move quickly.
- Be flexible. Strong preparation allows you to move in any direction quickly if needed
- Move decisively - once the decision has been made, act quickly against your plans to ensure communication is in synch with all other parts of the organisation's response
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