Don’t Panic: How to Prepare Your Organization for a Media Firestorm

Written by Tricia Barenderegt.

“There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full.”  – Henry Kissinger

Is your organization prepared for a crisis? Careers Over Coffee North on November 13 featured a lively discussion on crisis communications.

Crisis Communications Consultant Libba Letton joined us and walked us through the first steps of building a thorough crisis communications strategy.

Questions to help identify a crisis:

Libba gave a list of questions that can help those on the “front lines” of your organization determine if there is a crisis. Some examples include:

• Is this interfering with normal operations?
• Is there a threat to property or people?

What kind of crisis is it?

Libba pointed out that there are two kinds of crises: sudden and smoldering. A sudden crisis happens without warning and a smoldering crisis is something you can see coming and prepare for. Examples:

• Sudden: Serious accident or natural disaster
• Smoldering: Recall or lawsuit

Assemble a crisis team.

Your team should include the leaders of your organization. Libba emphasized that every team member should be prepped in advance and will be on call in the event of a crisis.

Media statement tips:

Push hard to get the most important and most accurate facts out ASAP and then release updates, as they are available.

• Keep it short, simple and free of jargon and legalese
• Post on social media
• Email to media list
• Send to employees and board members

Why crisis communications strategy is important:

Libba provided statistics on why it’s essential to have a prepared crisis communications strategy:

• One year after a crisis, nearly 53 percent of those organizations that failed to respond quickly hadn’t seen their share prices regain pre-crisis levels. This also applies to nonprofits and their ability to regain and maintain levels of donations, numbers of volunteers, etc.
• Case studies show that hesitance to communicate immediately (thanks to lawyers and/or CEO not being involved soon enough) actually costs more legally in the long run.
• Studies show that building trust with audiences by telling the truth means any lawsuits are settled quickly and out of court.

We had a great group of ladies contribute thoughtful questions to an interesting discussion. Thank you to Libba Letton for coming out and sharing her expertise. We appreciate the ladies who braved the 8 a.m. traffic to share and connect. Thank you to all!

For more tips from Libba, follow her on LinkedIn.

Join us for our next Careers Over Coffee North discussion on Friday December 11 on intuition. Intuitive life coach Dianna Morde will be on hand to help us with our career decision-making skills.

Careers Over Coffee North meets at Mimi’s Café, 10515 N. Mopac Expy NB #O) on the south end of The Shops at Arbor Walk).

Note that there will not be a Careers Over Coffee South in December due to the holidays.