bryan strawser | Crisis Playbook

Crisis Playbook: How our plans are different than the rest

Now, let’s talk about why you should pick Crisis Playbook for your crisis planning needs.

There are other options out there – some are even free. We have read them and found them to be completely focused on administrative duties and not at all focused on what matters most – aligning your internal team to handle the operational and communication needs.

You see, when a crisis occurs, its important to have a guide of what to do (and what not to do) when something goes wrong. And its important that the guide includes these key components:

Its been tested. These plans have been tested. We have leveraged planning tools that have worked very well for Fortune 500 companies – and taken out parts that don’t work well. So, you don’t have to wonder about the what if’s. We have accounted for twists and turns.

It covers the communications response. No other plan offers media messaging – from holding statements that you can use when the media start calling, to pre-crafted press releases to social media. We have studied and tried out these communications – this helps prevent your company from saying the wrong thing in the rush to say something – and helps you to respond quickly. You can leverage these tools with confidence because they apply the right tone and have a professional, buttoned-up approach. And, these provide a solid place to start, but you can make changes to reflect your brand voice. Calling a crisis PR pro in the height of an incident will run upwards of $50,000. Having this part planned can save you a bundle.

It covers operational response. This is what more of the freebie plans out there cover. Its important to have a checklist for your local teams, but its also important that you have specific plans to lead beyond just the immediate response. And that is what the other plans don’t have. How do you support a long-term response? How do you recover your business and provide care for your employees over the long haul? Plans to help you do so are included.

Its an integrated response. Too often the operational response is disjointed from the communications response. When the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing, companies end up misaligned. An example of this is when the operational team confirms information that should be communicated internally or externally – but the communications person cannot or will not share the information because their “plan” is different. Keep your teams aligned by using a plan that was crafted to address the whole of what your organization needs. You’re really getting two plans for the price of one!

Lastly, our plans are the most cost effective because we have already pulled together the best practices for each scenario. So, whether you use the pre-populated plan that we provide for you or choose to tailor the plan to your company, you start out putting your best foot forward.

Why Communications Need to be Part of Your Crisis Plan

We started Crisis Playbook because we recognized the need to create a more accessible crisis plan and because we want to close the gap between the operational and communications response. One of the key differences between Crisis Playbook and other crisis plans is that we include communications response tools for each plan. And, the communications response is aligned with the operational response.

Whether you have a dedicated communications and social media team – and whether they are adept at crisis response or not, it is crucial to include your communications leader in crisis planning for several reasons. There will be a publicity moment in pretty much every major crisis incident – and not the good kind.

Including your communications partners in the plan will help with:

Speed of response. If the communications and social media team have a plan, they will have editable communications that they can turn around much more quickly during an incident. In the middle of a crisis, coming up with the right tone and content is a huge challenge. Having something to work from is incredibly beneficial.

Alignment. Having the communications and operations parts of your company working from the same plan, will have the same effect as having a chorus singing from the same song page. It will ensure your timing and actions line up so that your team can work quickly to get essential information to those who need it without delay. A strong relationship between these key internal partners is essential during a crisis.

Reputation. During a crisis response, your company’s reputation is on the line. What takes a lifetime to build could be changed forever with the wrong tweet or social media post. This happens all the time. For many communicators, it is not their job to do crisis all of the time – and becoming a strong crisis communicator doesn’t happen over night. Having a prepared communications team – with resources that will steer them in the right direction is incredibly helpful and important in the moment.

For all these reasons, having a Crisis Playbook with plans in place now will be valuable and effective for your team in the future.

Tips and Tricks: Thinking Through Your Next Crisis Now

Its Friday afternoon when the phone rings. Something truly bad has happened – something that could change the face of your company. What to do next?

Breathe deep and think through these steps:

Gather the essential information. Gather all of the essential information. Not everything will be available right away, but more information will come in over time. Ask good questions about the who, what, where, when and why of the incident. What happened, who was impacted, where did this occur, is there a looming threat, was anyone injured, and are there other details about why this happened??
Convene the right partners. If you have it, and you haven’t used it already, this is the time to apply your Crisis Playbook plan because now you need to think through the communications, social media, HR, operations, customer service, and other needs. Bring the leaders of those teams together to weigh in through a conference call or at a private location that everyone can meet – try to pull everyone together within the next hour.
Share out. All of the key leaders should share an update on what they know as of that moment. That means the operations and/or field team should give an update about the known facts – and what is still unknown. The communications and/or social media person should share about whether there has been any media or social media activity yet. After the update, review each person’s role and their next steps. Capture this information in the notes and send a recap to everyone so they have a clear roadmap. Repeat this step every few hours during a major incident – or once a day for a less severe situation.
Law enforcement. If the incident warrants police or agency involvement, reach out to identify a point of contact and open line of communication.
Lessons Learned: After your company gets past the incident, gather the team to discuss the lessons learned and opportunities to improve while it is fresh in their minds. This is a great time to review your Crisis Playbook plan and make tailored changes wherever there were gaps. Every incident is an opportunity to practice your plan and make improvements.

For more on specific incidents, there are Crisis Playbook chapters for a variety of situations. Having a crisis plan will help you guide your team – or serve as a helpful member of the response team.

Predictable Patterns During a Crisis

By definition, a crisis creates an unstable and high pressure situation. In the moment, there are so many unknowns and you would give anything for a crystal ball to know how it will unfold.

While we would not recommend speculating, we have seen hundreds of crises and identified common patterns that have emerged in most incidents. While we can’t say with complete certainty that these things will happen, knowing what is likely to happen can help you plan better and set expectations for your team:

The news hits. Every incident starts with a moment when everything changes. The news will most likely trickle in from a social media post, a media inquiry, or an internal channel – so the leaders of those channels should always be on alert. From that moment on, the team will be in crisis mode.
The scramble. Once a known crisis happens, plenty of people will lose their cool for a bit. There are generally two types of response: fight or flight. Some people will become clear headed and calm while others will become incapable of their normal activity. An exercise is a great way to predict this behavior. And, having a plan grounds the team because they have a clear direction and role. Its important to have a leader that orchestrates order in this moment.
As more details emerge, the full picture of the crisis and the likelihood of the impact becomes clear. During this time, it is important to apply a crisis response plan – starting to communicate internally and/or externally depending on the situation. This is when many companies get themselves into trouble for not communicating soon enough. Or, communicating quickly with the wrong information or tone. It is difficult to communicate in this part of a crisis because there are a lot of unknowns, but there are plenty of things to say to demonstrate you are an aware, engaged, concerned, and responsible company.
This is when the crisis hits its height. Up until now, it may have been eerily quiet at times – with a flurry of internal activity, but little to no external action. Now the phone is ringing off the hook with media and your company is trending on social media channels for all the wrong reasons. An activist may have started a protest or a blogger is speculating and spreading rumors.
After about 48 hours, you have started to become yesterday’s news – both for social and traditional media. As things begin to slow down, there is still planning and follow-up work to do, but there is a reprieve from the chaos of full blown crisis mode.
This is common experience – something else will pop up about your company to reignite news cycle because now you are under the microscope. Or, if you have handled the situation poorly, your poor response becomes a secondary crisis. And the 48 hours begin all over again. Avoid this stage by keeping an eye out and handling the crisis well in the first place.

Crisis Planning: Why it’s Important and How to be Strategic

The phone rings. It’s a local reporter calling to get your comment regarding an incident at your company. Oh shoot – you just learned about the crisis moments ago, how did the media hear about it already? Or worse yet – this is the first time you’ve heard about it.

Yep. This happens everyday to another company. You think, “Quick – grab the crisis plan so we have a starting place.” Wait, no one ever completed the plan? Awesome. What should we do?

Let’s talk about why you need a crisis plan.

Planning means anticipating your greatest risks – its ok to have risks, everyone has them. By planning, you simply think through them and document what you would want to do. Is everything going to go exactly as planned during an incident? Of course not. But, at least you will have a place to start, an idea of how you would like things to go, known pitfalls to avoid to protect your company’s reputation, and your team will not be making things up on the fly. Because crisis response is not a pick-up game.

Having a crisis plan helps your team to get more comfortable with the response plan, their role and sets expectations for how things will go if an incident happens. Think of it like a reputational version of a fire, tornado or hurricane drill. The investment is minimal, but the return is significant – making this something on your “must do” list.