Christine Baker, president of CB Creative developed a presentation for Advanced Journalism students on the topic of crisis

1. Crisis Communications
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2. Introduction
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3. What’s a Crisis?
“A crisis is unpredictable but not
unexpected.”
- Timothy Combs
But what actually is a crisis?
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4. It’s not always an event.
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5. Historical Types of Crises
 Natural disasters  Challenges (boycotts,
 Malevolence strikes, lawsuits,
(kidnapping, product government actions)
tampering, terrorism
etc. )  Megadamage (oil
 Technical breakdowns spills, radioactivity)
 Human breakdowns  Organ. Misdeeds
 Workplace violence
 Rumors
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6. Crisis Communications
 Sub-speciality of PR.
 Designed to defend.
 Designed to protect a reputation.
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7. Overview
Precrisis Crisis Post - Crisis
• Scanning
• Detecting • Following -up
• Assessing situation
• Shaping
• Designing Tools & • Containing memories
Systems
• Monitoring • Recovering • Assessing
effectiveness
Learning
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8. Proactive vs. Reactive
An effective crisis communications plan should:
· Define response strategies that can be implemented
when a crisis occurs;
· Assign crisis communications resources and
responsibilities;
· Enable you to reach target audiences with key
messages, and
· Launch public information and media relations
campaigns immediately during a crisis.
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9. Pre-crisis Planning
 Objective - prevent or lessen the negative
outcomes of a crisis and thereby protect
the organization, stakeholders, and/or
industry from damage
 $ loss
 reputation loss
 identity altered
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10. Designing Tools & Systems
 Select Crisis Management
Team (CMT)
 Select Spokespersons
 Develop Crisis
Management Plan
 Prepare Crisis
Communication System
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11. Selecting the CMT
 A cross-functional group who have been
designated to handle ANY crisis
 Characteristics of a good CMT
 Work together (conflict mgt)
 Apply the CMP (manage stress)
 Listen to others
 Make the right decisions
 Communicate proactively
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12. Selecting the CMT
 Typical roles
 Legal
 Security/safety
 PR
 Operations
 Top Management (CEO)
 Victim manager
 Make time for training (63% companies do)
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13. Selecting Spokespersons
 Principle - “One voice is more important than
one person”
 Role - Manage the accuracy & consistency of
the messages coming from the organization
 Communication should be guided by the 5
C’s: Concern, clarity, control,
confidence, & competence
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14. Develop Crisis
Management Plan
 What is it?
 A potential action plan
 Used during the crisis
 Focuses on “how-to”
 What it is not?
 Overly detailed
 Rigid
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15. Prepare Crisis
Communication System
 Physical setup
 Prepare tools
 Intranet
 Internet
 Phones
 Prepare team
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16. Managing the Crisis
 A. Detecting the crisis
 B. Containing the crisis
 C. Recovering from the
crisis
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17. Strategic options
 Full apology and corrective action - misdeeds
 Corrective action
 Ingratiation (remind audiences of the org. past
good deeds)
 Justification - minimize or no serious problems
 Excuse - “no control”, “no bad intentions”
 Denial - no crisis exists
 Attack the accuser - confront, threaten, lawsuit
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18. Strategic options
Defensive Accommodative
Attack Denial Excuse Justification Ingratiation Corrective Full
Accuser Action Apology
Weak Crisis Strong Crisis
Responsibility Responsibility
Rumors Natural Disasters Malevolence Accidents Misdeeds
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19. Managing Post-Crisis
 Assessing effectiveness
 Examine records
 Look at phases of crisis
 Determine changes
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20. Learning
 New protocols and systems
 New training opportunities
 New personnel
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21. Questions?
 Thank you for the opportunity to present
this lecture today.
 Christine@cbcreativeinc.com
 www.cbcreativeinc.com
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