Presentation made at 2018 KC IABC Business Communicators Summit

1. 2018 KC IABC
BUSINESS COMMUNICATORS SUMMIT
KU EDWARDS CAMPUS
MATT TIDWELL, PH.D., APR
EILEEN HAWLEY
Don’t let your crisis communications
plan gather dust…How to keep your
organization sharp and ready

2. View from the top
“Communication teams’ traditional focus on media
relations during a crisis is no longer enough. They are
now taking on a wider strategic role in the
organization, including stakeholder mapping and
engagement and scenario-planning to help
management teams anticipate crises and alleviate
their impact.”
 IABC Communications World, February, 2017

3. Today’s risk environment

5. Good assessment leads to good planning
 Assessing risk and anticipating crises
 Getting off the page and into the routine

6. The Fearn-Banks crisis inventory
Black bars: Damage potential
White bars: Probability
 Probability: From 0 (“impossible”)
to 5 (“Highly probable, may or may
not have already occurred but
warning signs evident”)
 Damage:
 0: No damage or serious consequences
 1: Little damge, can be handled w/o much
difficulty, not serious enough for media
 2: Some damage, slight chance for media
exposure
 3: Considerable damage: but sill not a
major media issue
 4: Considerable damage with definite and
major media exposure
 5: Devestating: front page news, definite
threat to reputation and survival

7. The table top drill
 Design a realistic narrative around high-probability,
high-damage potential events from your inventory
 Describe the situation/background, current-state
(stick only to what we know to be true)
 Participants should include organizational leaders,
functional leaders and communicators
 Around the table discussion:
 What would I be doing in this situation? Who would be my key
contacts? What resources would I need?
 May craft a statement or review likely media ?s

8. The live simulation
 Live action, live fire
 Multi-day scenario compressed into full day training
 Unfolds in stages
 Participants work in their real-life roles (and may have
specific narratives written for them)
 Multiple “planned interruptions” when the crisis morphs
and changes
 Often culminates with a mock press conference
(recorded)
 Finishes with a detailed de-brief (what worked/didn’t)

9. Designing your training
 Choose scenarios with greatest impact
 Careful scripting with rich details
 Background
 Timing
 Planned interruptions / changing elements
 After action post mortem evaluation
 Almost always produces edits to your c.c. plan

11. Thank you!
Questions?
Matt Tidwell
mtidwell@ku.edu
Twitter: @matt_tidwell
Eileen Hawley
eileenkhawley@gmail.com
Twitter: @EileenMHawley