How to implement a crisis management and communication plan that builds resilience

By Amanda Coleman is the author of Crisis Communication Strategies

If there is one thing that 2020 has shown it is that many organisations and businesses were not as prepared as they could have been to deal with a crisis. Despite having crisis plans and business continuity plans, Covid-19 demonstrated that many were out of date, untested or simply did not exist. Moving forward it is vital that businesses are protected and ready to weather whatever happens in the future.

Creating an effective crisis management and communication process is fundamental to any business. It is not just something to use when a critical incident has occurred. It should be part of the operating procedures helping to drive the business and protect its assets. Risk management and crisis readiness go hand-in-hand. For many, communication is the end of the process when the reality is it should be at the start helping to define the plans and approaches.

The starting point is understanding what systems, processes and plans are in place. More than that it is knowing whether they have been used and did they work? Unfortunately, many crisis plans and procedures are used and never assessed. It means there is little to no information about whether it was effective, and whether anything needed to be changed. Debriefing every critical incident or crisis response is essential to creating a strong and resilient process. If you don’t know that it worked then why would you continue to do the same things the next time?

Every plan can be improved and developed. Doing this takes time, and requires review, analysis, and consideration. If you have a plan, then take another look at it. If you don’t have a plan, then how do you expect to strategically and tactically respond to a crisis?

Managing risk is what will help a business to survive when others may feel. This means the business needs to have a culture of risk management that comes from the top and features right through to the frontline staff. It must be regularly talked about and reviewed. There needs to be a risk management plan and risk matrix that is in place. You cannot be ready to respond if you have no understanding of what problems may happen and what issues may occur. Identifying risks and developing mitigation is not just something for one department, it is something for everyone in the business. Critically it should be something that PR and communication teams get involved with as they are in a privileged position of being able to see across the business as well as outside of the business to spot things on the horizon.

Strategic risk management is the starting point. It needs to be supported by a framework for operational response to a crisis or critical incident. It is important to note that the same approach and response and be used for a serious or critical incident as well as for a significant crisis. The response must also be able to deal with an operational and a reputational crisis. There are many ways to structure to manage a crisis including military, emergency services or legal response. In my book Crisis Communication Strategies, I have drilled this down to seven key elements that are required to be in place for there to be a strong framework for crisis management.

1. Ensure the business appoints people to lead – this means ensuring there are people taking responsibility for the elements of the response. It includes having specialist advisors to support the decision-making process. Each role needs to be clear with requirements outlined and key actions assigned.
2. Bring people together – key leaders need to have connectivity in the early stages of a crisis response. This means either having them together in one room or using technology to bring them together. This must bring people together to operate at speed while consulting with senior decision makers.
3. Planning and testing keep people ready – if you want to be more comfortable with decision making in high risk and high stress situations then have a plan and know it in detail. This means people know what they need to do and when, they know the systems that are in place and what needs to be activated. Be in a continued state of readiness.
4. Have the right person doing the right thing – make sure that plans and process get the best from the people within the business. Use people’s skills and experiences in the right way to get the best from them. This should not be about the position of seniority in the business but is ensuring everyone plays their part.
5. Understand the implications so you can manage the consequences – managing a crisis effectively needs you to look from the outside in. Consider the impact of what has happened on people. Where has it touched and what does it mean for people? If you have this understanding, then you will be able to develop a consequence management plan to support the response.
6. Ensure communication is integrated – bring all your communication activity together. This means internal, external, stakeholder, shareholder and all communication need to be co-ordinated. Keep people updated and be open and honest in what you say.
7. People are what matters and will be what boosts the reputation – make decisions based on how you can support and reduce the impact of what has happened on the people affected. The reputation of the business should be built upon the actions that are taken and not just in trying to protect it through communication.

The structure, processes and systems are all important to the crisis response. They need to be created, developed, redesigned, improved and tested so they are ready to go whenever and wherever required. Above all an effective crisis management and communication process needs to have put people at the centre of it, from those who will be asked to respond on behalf of the business through to those who have been adversely affected.

A final piece of the jigsaw of building resilience when a crisis happens comes from training, exercising and really understanding the plan. When there are both financial and time pressures this is often work that is overlooked or put off until there is both time and money. This means businesses are putting employees under unnecessary pressure when they are called in to face a crisis. Building resilience comes from not just knowing the plan, but knowing it in detail, and understanding the role you must play. People know it because they have done more than read about it, they have found some way of living it.

If they have lived it then they will be able to recall those experiences when the crisis response is put into action. From readiness there is resilience. Actions can be taken, and decisions made because people are comfortable in the crisis framework and working environment. It means having a plan is just half the battle in being crisis ready.

Crisis management and communication has been thrust into the spotlight during the Covid-19 pandemic. The conversations that are taking place now must continue if businesses are to have a strong and decisive crisis response ready for whatever lies ahead.