What is the most important preparation for crisis communications?
The most important preparation for crisis communications is being organized, ensuring every team member knows their specific role and has immediate access to up-to-date facts, figures, and pre-prepared resources like fact sheets and holding statements. This means not only assigning clear responsibilities (e.g., media monitoring, press briefings) but also coordinating with front-line staff like receptionists and call-center agents so no critical query slips through during high-pressure situations.
CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONSCRISIS COMMUNICATIONS
9/2/20262 min read
What is the most important preparation for crisis communications?
Crisis communications is something that no communicator wishes for, yet we all must prepare for.
Planning for how to handle communications during a crisis involves multiple steps, including everything from aligning with incident response procedures, mapping out scenarios, tabletop exercises and spokespeople training to pre-prepared holding statements and media lists.
These are all critical activities for any crisis communications preparedness. Yet the most crucial factor, in my opinion, is being organized.
That's a fairly broad statement, so what do I mean by it? At its most basic, it is about everyone involved knowing what their role is, and having the tools and information they need at their fingertips.
What this means in practice is assigning team members specific roles, for example, monitoring the news, organizing press briefings and so forth.
It is also crucial to have facts, figures and other relevant information available. The best way to do this is to prepare fact sheets in advance and make them available in the designated location where the communications team convenes in the event of an incident. The last thing you want is to be fumbling for an answer when a journalist asks something like "how many people work at the facility where the incident happened?" Having all relevant information ready ahead of time — and reviewing it regularly to ensure it is up-to-date — can be a life saver in high-pressure situations.
I have fortunately not had to deal with major incidents where there's been major damage, but I have handled communications for minor incidents as well as quickly spreading reputational crises. Being prepared and "organized" truly made a difference in both types of situations.
Part of what being "organized" means in practice is thinking beyond the obvious, to the small things that are easy to overlook but matter enormously when they're missed. For instance, one thing I've seen skipped more than once is coordinating with receptionists and call centre agents on how to handle incoming queries during a crisis. It's a straightforward task, but a vital one that has to be actively planned for.
What do you think? What would you say is important for crisis communications planning?
Fares S Ghneim
Stratetic Communications & Corporate Affairs
Dubai Media City
Ground Floor, Buiding 8
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
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