Crisis Communication

“A crisis is unpredictable
but not unexpected”
- Timothy Combs

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1. Introduction
 MTV, Protests over Beavis  General Dynamics,
& Butthead, 1994 Contract fraud, 1985
 Dayton Hudson, Protests  Perrier, Benzene in its
over Planned Parenthood water, 1990
grant, 1990  Snapple, Racism rumors,
 Gerber, Reports of glass in
1993
baby food, 1986
 Heineken, Glass in beer,
 Nike, Mistreatment of Asian
1993
workers, 1997
 Jack-in-the-Box, E. coli,  Sizzler, E. coli poisoning,
1993 1993

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2. Overview

Precrisis Crisis Post - Crisis

•Scanning
•Detecting •Following -up
•Assessing situation
•Shaping
•Designing Tools & •Containing memories
Systems
•Monitoring •Recovering •Assessing
effectiveness

Learning

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3. Pre-crisis Planning

 Objective - prevent or lessen the negative

outcomes of a crisis and thereby protect
the organization, stakeholders, and/or
industry from damage
 $ loss
 reputation loss
 identity altered

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3a. Scanning

 Definition - Looking out for potential

sources of crises
 Industry-wide issue analysis
 Organization specific issue analysis
 Risk assessment (“implicit issues”)
 Stakeholder relationships

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Scanning cont.
 Issue Sources  Risk Assessment Sources
 Newspapers  Safety/accident records
 Business Magazines  Ethical climate surveys
 TV News  Financial audits
 Trade Journals  Liability exposure
 Public Opinion Polls  Workers Compensation
 Medical/Science  Product tampering
Journals  Risk audits (70-80%)
 On-line (web pages,  Sexual harassment exposure
newsgroups, etc.)

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Scanning cont.
 Relationship Sources  Principle: Keep in
 Shareholder continual contact with
resolutions key constituents and
 Stakeholder complaints listen to what they
 Rumors/grapevine at are saying.
conventions
 Speculative discussions
 Potential Boycotts

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3b. Assessing situation

 Evaluate issues in two dimensions

 Likelihood/Probability
 Impact
 Evaluate risks with risk mgt. grid

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Risk Management Grid

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Assessing cont.

Risks
Risks Relationships
Relationships
Issues
Issues

•Scenarios
•Rankings
Intuitions
Intuitions History
History
•ROTs
(Redundant,
Outdated,
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Assessing cont.
 Historical Types of  Challenges (boycotts,
Crises strikes, lawsuits,
 Natural disasters government actions)
 Malevolence  Megadamage (oil
(kidnapping, product spills, radioactivity)
tampering, terrorism  Organizational
etc. )
 Technical breakdowns
Misdeeds
 Human breakdowns
 Workplace violence
 Rumors

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3c. Designing Tools & Systems

 Select Crisis Management Team

 Select Spokespersons
 Develop Crisis Management Plan
 Prepare Crisis Communication System

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Selecting the CMT (Communication
Management Team)

 A cross-functional group who have been

designated to handle ANY crisis
 Characteristics of a good CMT
 Work together (conflict mgt)
 Apply the CMP (manage stress)
 Listen to others
 Make the right decisions
 Communicate proactively
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Selecting the CMT

 Typical roles
 Legal
 Security/safety
 PR
 Operations
 Top Management (CEO)
 Victim manager
 Make time for training (63% companies do)

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Selecting Spokespersons

 Principle - “One voice is more important

than one person”
 Role - Manage the accuracy & consistency
of the messages coming from the
organization
 Communication should be guided by the 5
C’s: Concern, clarity, control,
confidence, & competence
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Selecting the CMT
 Skills of the spokesperson
 Appear pleasant on camera (visual, nonverbal)
 Answer questions effectively
 Don’t argue with reporters
 Avoid “no comment” comment (65% believe “no comment” = “guilty”)
 Challenge incorrect information
 Assess assumptions of questions
 Legitimize
 Present information clearly
 Avoid jargon
 Provide structure

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Develop Crisis
Management Plan

 What is it?
 A potential action plan
 Used during the crisis
 Focuses on “how-to”
 What it is not?
 Overly detailed
 Rigid

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Components of CMP
 Introduction (usually  Incident report form
by CEO) (documents what happened)

 Rehearsal dates  Proprietary info. (list)

 CMT members  Strategy worksheet
 CMT contact sheet  Stakeholder contact
 Crisis Assessment sheet
 overview piece  Crisis control center
(e.g. where, capabilities)
 short
 Postcrisis evaluation
 likely scenarios

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Prepare Crisis
Communication System

 Physical setup
 Prepare tools
 Intranet
 Internet
 Phones
 Prepare team

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4. Managing the Crisis

 A. Detecting the crisis

 B. Containing the crisis
 C. Recovering from the crisis

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4a. Detecting the crisis

 Early monitoring
 Convince upper management
 Assess type & character of crisis
 different crises require different strategies

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4b. Containing the crisis

 Respond quickly
 Acknowledge what you don’t know yet
 Set fairly rigid information priorities
 Express sympathy
 You can express concern without opening
the company to liability issues
 Develop a strategy based on type of crisis

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Strategic options
 Full apology and corrective action - misdeeds
 Corrective action
 Ingratiation (remind audiences of the org. past
good deeds)
 Justification - minimize or no serious problems
 Excuse - “no control”, “no bad intentions”
 Denial - no crisis exists
 Attack the accuser - confront, threaten, lawsuit

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Strategic options

Defensive Accommodative

Attack Denial Excuse Justification Ingratiation Corrective Full

Accuser Action Apology

Weak Crisis Strong Crisis

Responsibility Responsibility

Rumors Natural Disasters Malevolence Accidents Misdeeds

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4c. Recovering

 Follow-up on information requests

 Communicate with stakeholders
 Inform people about corrective actions
 Talk about financial implications
 Continue expressing compassion
 Continue tracking issues, risks, etc.

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5. Managing post-crisis

 Following-up
 Collect crisis records, stakeholder feedback, &
media coverage
 Conduct interviews with key personnel
 Shaping memories
 Internal audiences
 External audiences
 What did we learn? So what?

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Cont. 5 - managing post-crisis

 Assessing effectiveness
 Examine records
 Look at phases of crisis
 Determine changes

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6. Learning

 New ROTs
 Changes in CMP
 New training opportunities
 New personnel

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