Crisis Communication:
 A crisis is a major event that has potentially negative results. It
may significantly damage an organization and its employees,
products, services, financial condition, and reputation.
 Crisis communication involves what an organization says to its
employees, the media, the community, partners, and customers
during and after a crisis.
 The goals of crisis communication are: (1) to protect affected
publics and (2) restore/maintain the company’s image
 The difference between problems and crises
 Problems: commonplace; predictable; quickly resolved; and
may go unnoticed.
 Crises: less predictable; time-consuming; costly; and bring
unwanted public attention.
The Risks and Opportunities of Crises
Crises risks include:
 -escalating in intensity
 -falling under close scrutiny
 -interfering with operations
 -jeopardizing image
 -damaging the bottom line
Crises opportunities:
•Heroes are born
•Change is accelerated
•New strategies evolve
•Early warning systems develop
•New competitive edges appear
Things Return to Normal...
But Have We Learned Anything?
(1) Risk
Assessment
(4) Recovery
(2) Plan
Development
(3) Response
Solving the crisis isn’t enough…
organizations must communicate with important publics during crises
Step One: Risk Assessment
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Involves identification of threats.
Seeks to eliminate or minimize those threats.
Is where values play an important role.
Can be done by a consultant or a Crisis Planning Team.
Typology of Crisis Communication Strategies
Denial: Rejects that the crisis exists or that the group was involved
-Simple denial
-Shifting blame
Evasion: Minimizes the group’s responsibility for the crisis
-Provocation- performed in response to another wrongful act
-Accident
-Good intentions
Reduce offensiveness: Tries to reduce the degree of harm
-Bolstering- finding something positive
-Minimizing
-Transcendence- place crisis in a different context
-Attack accuser
Compensation
Apology: Admit error and provide corrective action
Step Two: Developing The Plan
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Develop a precise definition of what constitutes a crisis.
Develop a Crisis Management Team (CMT).
Identify the stakeholders.
Identify the Emergency Operations Center (EOC).
Identify the Media Information Center (MIC).
Train employees.
Steps Three and Four: Response & Recovery
Response:
This is the stage in which the crisis plan is executed.
Like any other plan, a crisis communications plan must be
flexible.
Recovery:
• Were our actions consistent with our values?
• What aspects of the crisis did we anticipate?
• What aspects of the crisis did we fail to anticipate?
• How well did our employees perform?