Control Communication Flows Before They Control You
Sending 1 update can prevent 100 calls…
Key Takeaways
In our experience, crisis teams that don’t start proactively communicating to key stakeholders (internal and external) in the first 30-60 minutes of a critical incident will often fail or underperform because they get flooded with calls and inquiries.
Right from the start, the team should provide timely, regular and comprehensive updates to stakeholders. This will allow the team to remain focused on resolving the crisis with efficiency.
Sending 1 update can prevent a 100 calls/emails, so it’s well worth it…
Practical Questions
Do you have a crisis communications team set up? If not, look at the booklet below for guidance.
Can your team draft a (good) holding statement, get it approved, and disseminate it within 30 min? Have you practiced it? it’s an extremely valuable drill and it might be harder than you think. If it takes more than 60 min, consider it a failure, streamline the process. and try again.
Do you have a list of all the key stakholders who will need updates? How and when will you update them? For example, how does your upper management want to be updated and how often? Would a verbal update after every meeting + a short daily situation report suffice? Clarifying this ahead of time is important.
Recommendation
If you want to learn more about “crisis communication”, we highly recommend the booklet Managing the Message: Communication and media management in a security crisis. The booklet is free and available for download on the GISF website.
“Managing the Message: Communication and Media Management in a Security Crisis, a guide written by Sara Davidson (2013), offers guidance on communication and media management following a critical incident involving one or more members of national or international staff. Communication and media management refers to the monitoring and management of internal and external messages about an agency’s work via conventional news media, public relations channels, personal communication and social media networks. The guide is aimed at those in headquarters, regional and field offices who are likely to be involved in the stages of planning, response and review of crisis management or communication and media management before, during and after a critical incident. This guide was developed with practicality in mind. “ - Source GISF Website.
The booklet and the GISF website include usefull tools as well: