Public Relations During Times Of CrisisBarbara Nixon
So what is a crisis anyway? How many kinds of crises are there? What are the best steps to handling a crisis? This presentation will guide you through public relations during times of crisis. [NOTE: Many thanks go to Kami Huyse; her presentation given to the Boys & Girls Club makes up the core of this slide deck.]
Public Relations During Times Of CrisisBarbara Nixon
So what is a crisis anyway? How many kinds of crises are there? What are the best steps to handling a crisis? This presentation will guide you through public relations during times of crisis. [NOTE: Many thanks go to Kami Huyse; her presentation given to the Boys & Girls Club makes up the core of this slide deck.]
This presentation provides a unique view of crisis communications principles. It is based on the author's many years of experience in PR and corporate communications.
A crisis management plan that was created for Cases in Crisis Management at UW-Green Bay. The plan was created and then tested in a mock-crisis situation over four hours of chaos, mayhem and fun. Following the use of the plan an imitation press conference was given based on the crises.
Crisis Management and Crisis Communication Alaa Abdallah
What concept you would adopt for Crisis Management for your Organization. will you leap or go on unease.
Which can be applied on all aspects of Crisis Management, Emergency Management and Oil Spill Response Preparation.
How to deal with the media after a failure. Guidelines for development of a crisis management program with details for everyone in the company to understand the importance and value of the plan.
This is the presentation for the crisis management plan we prepared with my friend for our crisis communication class. You can find the actual crisis management plan here: http://slidesha.re/hW1Fur
Bad things happen; however, many organizations have not prepared a crisis communications plan.
How hard is it to prepare a custom crisis communications plan? What goes into a crisis communications plan? What is the difference between a crisis communications plan and an emergency action plan? What do you need to be ready for?
Answering these questions is easier now than during a crisis. This presentation outlines key things you should do to prepare for all types of potential crises and provides a simple action plan towards completing a preliminary crisis communications plan.
Strategies for Negotiation & Conflict Resolution Dr. Janice Ba.docxcpatriciarpatricia
Strategies for Negotiation & Conflict Resolution
Dr. Janice Barrett
Notes onCrisis Management and Conflict Resolution
Defining a crisis: An event that brings, or has the potential for bringing, an organization and its leaders into disrepute and imperil the organization’s future profitability, reputation, growth and possibly its very survival.
Financial measures of a crisis: bankruptcy, drop in sales, boycotts, loss of valuable employees etc.
Tarnished reputation results: the erosion of a company’s reputation in the eyes of its many stakeholders and the general public --- the worth of an entire organization can be endangered as a consequence.
Characteristics of a crisis:
Suddenness
Uncertainty
Time compression
The seven types of crises:
1. nature (natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, floods)
2. technology (oil spills, nuclear reactor accidents)
3. confrontation (equal rights, strikes)
4. malevolence (terrorists, disinformation)
5. skewed values (fraud, cheating, embezzlement)
6. deception (withholding information, lying, deceptive products)
7. misconduct (illegal or criminal acts).
Essentials of a contingency plan: Contingency planning involves formulating responses to crises before they occur. The essentials of a contingency plan include: anticipating what might happen, searching for preventative and preparatory measures, and drafting appropriate responses to those situations most likely to occur or whose impact is greatest.
Other, more specific elements are: Identify all potential contingencies and areas of vulnerability, examine specific vulnerabilities, review general vulnerabilities based on the organization’s “public nature”, establish crisis thresholds and assign crisis alert responsibilities, organize and train a crisis management team and establish a crisis communications center, Obtain advanced approvals for contingency plan measures, list and prioritize publics that must be informed, prepare a crisis media list and background press materials, and designate and train spokespersons.
The most important tasks are: Identifying risks, ranking those risks in a matrix based on relative impact as compared to probability of occurrence, and finally creating plans to eliminate or mitigate the impact of the most impactful and highest probable incidents. Every crisis cannot be planned for; there are simply not enough resources to do so. However, high impact, and high probability risks can be eliminated, or at least mitigated by proper planning and management.
The essentials of a contingency plan include: anticipating what might happen, searching for preventative and preparatory measures, and drafting appropriate responses to those situations most likely to occur or whose impact is greatest. Other, more specific elements are: Identify all potential contingencies and areas of vulnerability, examine specific vulnerabilities, review general vulnerabilities based on the organization’s “public nature”, establ.
This presentation provides a unique view of crisis communications principles. It is based on the author's many years of experience in PR and corporate communications.
A crisis management plan that was created for Cases in Crisis Management at UW-Green Bay. The plan was created and then tested in a mock-crisis situation over four hours of chaos, mayhem and fun. Following the use of the plan an imitation press conference was given based on the crises.
Crisis Management and Crisis Communication Alaa Abdallah
What concept you would adopt for Crisis Management for your Organization. will you leap or go on unease.
Which can be applied on all aspects of Crisis Management, Emergency Management and Oil Spill Response Preparation.
How to deal with the media after a failure. Guidelines for development of a crisis management program with details for everyone in the company to understand the importance and value of the plan.
This is the presentation for the crisis management plan we prepared with my friend for our crisis communication class. You can find the actual crisis management plan here: http://slidesha.re/hW1Fur
Bad things happen; however, many organizations have not prepared a crisis communications plan.
How hard is it to prepare a custom crisis communications plan? What goes into a crisis communications plan? What is the difference between a crisis communications plan and an emergency action plan? What do you need to be ready for?
Answering these questions is easier now than during a crisis. This presentation outlines key things you should do to prepare for all types of potential crises and provides a simple action plan towards completing a preliminary crisis communications plan.
Strategies for Negotiation & Conflict Resolution Dr. Janice Ba.docxcpatriciarpatricia
Strategies for Negotiation & Conflict Resolution
Dr. Janice Barrett
Notes onCrisis Management and Conflict Resolution
Defining a crisis: An event that brings, or has the potential for bringing, an organization and its leaders into disrepute and imperil the organization’s future profitability, reputation, growth and possibly its very survival.
Financial measures of a crisis: bankruptcy, drop in sales, boycotts, loss of valuable employees etc.
Tarnished reputation results: the erosion of a company’s reputation in the eyes of its many stakeholders and the general public --- the worth of an entire organization can be endangered as a consequence.
Characteristics of a crisis:
Suddenness
Uncertainty
Time compression
The seven types of crises:
1. nature (natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, floods)
2. technology (oil spills, nuclear reactor accidents)
3. confrontation (equal rights, strikes)
4. malevolence (terrorists, disinformation)
5. skewed values (fraud, cheating, embezzlement)
6. deception (withholding information, lying, deceptive products)
7. misconduct (illegal or criminal acts).
Essentials of a contingency plan: Contingency planning involves formulating responses to crises before they occur. The essentials of a contingency plan include: anticipating what might happen, searching for preventative and preparatory measures, and drafting appropriate responses to those situations most likely to occur or whose impact is greatest.
Other, more specific elements are: Identify all potential contingencies and areas of vulnerability, examine specific vulnerabilities, review general vulnerabilities based on the organization’s “public nature”, establish crisis thresholds and assign crisis alert responsibilities, organize and train a crisis management team and establish a crisis communications center, Obtain advanced approvals for contingency plan measures, list and prioritize publics that must be informed, prepare a crisis media list and background press materials, and designate and train spokespersons.
The most important tasks are: Identifying risks, ranking those risks in a matrix based on relative impact as compared to probability of occurrence, and finally creating plans to eliminate or mitigate the impact of the most impactful and highest probable incidents. Every crisis cannot be planned for; there are simply not enough resources to do so. However, high impact, and high probability risks can be eliminated, or at least mitigated by proper planning and management.
The essentials of a contingency plan include: anticipating what might happen, searching for preventative and preparatory measures, and drafting appropriate responses to those situations most likely to occur or whose impact is greatest. Other, more specific elements are: Identify all potential contingencies and areas of vulnerability, examine specific vulnerabilities, review general vulnerabilities based on the organization’s “public nature”, establ.
Crisis Communication Plan Scholars and practitioners alikCruzIbarra161
Crisis Communication Plan
Scholars and practitioners alike stress the importance of planning ahead and being prepared for
potential crises before they occur. In this assignment, each student will select a company and
develop a crisis communication plan based on that company, its industry, culture, potential risks,
stakeholders, etc. The company selected can be a current or recent employer, or a
company/nonprofit of choice as long as it is large enough to experience a crisis that would
impact stakeholders. Once you select the company, analyse a crisis situation and then prepare a
message action plan (MAP). This MAP should define the different stakeholder groups to be
addressed, the communication goals for each of these target groups, the preferred channel for
each communication, and who within the organization will be responsible for delivering each of
these messages. You will submit your paper to the Turnitin.com dropbox link within blackboard.
Instructions:
When a crisis situation develops, time is of the essence. There’s a saying: “If you’re not quick,
you’re not relevant.” That’s why companies need to have a crisis communication plan in place
BEFORE a potentially hazardous situation arises. But, what does that mean? What elements
should be included in your crisis plan? While there’s no such thing as a “cookie cutter” crisis
plan, the following information will help your company begin assembling an effective plan. This
assignment does not have a page requirement, rather that you create a well thought out plan
addressing each of the 5 steps below. (See the Bass Pro Shops Crisis Communication Plan in
Blackboard for reference. Your plan does not need to be this detailed, this is only for you to
reference).
Step 1: Establish the Crisis Team.
Before a crisis strikes, think through who needs to have a seat at the table. Consider ALL the
aspects of your company — management, operations, internal (including labor relations in union
environments) and external communication, customer service, legal. The crisis team could look
like this: President of the company, head of communication, legal counsel and heads of the
department(s) impacted by the crisis. During the crisis, this team bears the responsibility for
making decisions and spearheading communication. In the plan document, include each
individual’s name, title, home phone, cell phone and other pertinent contact details.
Step 2: Identify and Prepare the Spokespeople.
A crisis situation should not be the first time a spokesperson speaks to the media. Identify the
person who will be the official “voice” of the company should a crisis develop and make sure
that person is trained accordingly. (Note that the spokesperson may not be the same in every
situation. You may need to train a few spokespeople. Also have a “backup” person identified …
just in case.)
Remember that you need to communicate offline and offline. With that in mind, evaluate your
online ...
This document was created panel after an in-depth panel discussion that covered how different companies, airlines and government departments handled situations of crisis and particularly, their use of social media. This 9-page guide covers the role social media plays in a crisis and outlines key points to consider when such events occur.
Overview Presentation. Introduction to business communications. Strategic communications planning to assist with business development and sustainability. Goal: Your public will know you, trust you, like you and think of you as the best person in your field to do business with.
THE ROLE OF CRISIS PREVENTION FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE BIGGEST POLISH COMP...Dariusz Tworzydło
The article constitutes a presentation of the results of research devoted to the current trends in crisis PR. The authors of
the work made an attempt to diagnose crisis prevention in a cross-section of two dimensions. On the one hand the perspective of business (survey of companies) was presented and on the other hand experts' opinions (survey of the leaders of public relations agencies) were shown. As a result of analyses a point model of an immune system, which takes into consideration the key instruments of crisis methodology (developed procedures in form of communication management book, dedicated anti-crisis structures in an organization, crisis team with a fixed membership and a system
of communication trainings) was designed. Diagnosis of prevention measures of the leaders of Polish business — based on the years 2007–2017 showed major deficiencies in the degree of companies' preparation for the risk of crisis.
Snakes on a Plane and Your Crisis Communications PlanThomas Ciesielka
How to effectively create a crisis communication plan, including:
• How to prepare you and your team to effectively manage a communication crisis
• Help leadership, staff, third-parties respond in a united and proficient way to a crisis
• Tactics to best communicate critical and privileged information to the media,
stakeholders, and the public
• The importance of creating a crisis communication plan and how to start one if
none exists; starting points for evaluating your current crisis communication plan
Survive the Unthinkable Through Crisis PlanningWhat is a Crisis.docxmabelf3
Survive the Unthinkable Through Crisis Planning
What is a Crisis?
A crisis is a situation that has reached an extremely difficult or dangerous point.
A crisis is an event, revelation, allegation or set of circumstances which threatens the integrity, reputation, or survival of an individual or organization.
Crisis management means
· having a plan in place,
· having identified who will do what,
· and having practiced the plan for most conceivable events.
No organization can just "wing it."
You need to develop a crisis management plan.
You need to develop variations of the plan to cover any emergency your company might be expected to encounter.
The goal of the plan itself is to ensure your people have the tools to get the crisis under control as quickly as possible to minimize the damage.
It's about Proactive vs. Reactive
Crisis Communications Planning is the process of managing the strategy, messages, timing and distribution channels necessary to communicate effectively with the media, employees, core constituencies, clients, customers and stake holders.
The focus of the crisis communications function is to facilitate the rapid de-escalation of the crisis through timely and effective communications methods.
Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act
The idea behind success, in a dogfight, a business situation, or a crisis, is to complete loops of decision making that are faster than those around you, such as your adversaries.
We want to shorten the life cycle of our decisions without increasing the failure rate of the decisions made.
If we have no preparation, if we don't take into account all the elements of the environment, including the possibilities of problems that haven't occurred but may, then we are
· either too slow in our decisions to be careful, and this allows the other guy to do things faster and thus better than us,
· or we are either too hasty in our decisions, and this leads to costly errors.
For crisis communication, preparation guarantees orientation
· In a crisis, you job is not to minimize the stockholder expense, it is to maximize the company's chances of survival. You need to limit the cost, but also you need to limit the damage to the company's reputation and credibility.
· You need to react as quickly as a crisis breaks.
· By acting quickly, and doing immediately the things you are eventually have to do anyway, you maximize your chances of staying ahead of events where you have some chance to influence the story.
What's the DEAL?
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.
In a crisis tell it all, tell it fast and tell the truth.
Other things to remember:
· Never try to lie, deny or hide your involv.
Effective Crisis CommunicationChapter 3 Lessons on Effective CEvonCanales257
Effective Crisis Communication
Chapter 3 Lessons on Effective Crisis Communication
Ulmer, R., Sellnow, T., and Seeger, M. (2019). Effective crisis communication: Moving from crisis to opportunity. Sage Publications. Thousand Oaks, CA.
Lesson 1 Determining your Goals
Often broad statements that help guide
Could be to reduce the impact of the crisis
Keep the organization’s image intact or maintain customers
Helps reduce uncertainty during crises
Linking to organizational values helps harmonize
Important to determine, rank, and identify potential obstacles to goals.
Lesson 2
Develop True, Equal Partnerships with Organizations and Groups that are important…
Partnerships defined “Equal communication relationships with groups or organizations that have an impact on an organization”
Established through honest and open dialogue
Partners may be advocates for or antagonists against
Effective partnering begins before crisis occurs.
Establish relationships with stakeholders before!
Lesson 3
Acknowledge your stakeholders as partners when managing crises
Stakeholders are external and internal groups that can have an impact.
Effective strategies include making a list of potential stakeholders.
Employees
Competitors
Creditors
Consumers
Government Agencies
Community
Activist Groups
Media
Lesson 4
Develop Strong, Positive Relationships with Primary and Secondary Stakeholders
Primary – Those most important to success and interact with most often.
Secondary – Key groups that do not play an active role but are still important to success.
Types
Positive – Both listen, understand, and communicate with each other
Negative – Antagonistic relationship, not open to listening or communicating
Ambivalent – No true partnership, each work with each other, but no one listens
Nonexistent – Organization is not aware of stakeholder and does not communicate
Lesson 4
Develop Strong, Positive Relationships with Primary and Secondary Stakeholders
Communicating with underrepresented groups
Culture-Neutral Approach: Everyone acts on and accesses CC information in similar manners.
Problem - Not everyone had a car to evacuate Hurricane Katrina
Culturally-Sensitive Approach: Messages should be tailored to the cultural characteristics of groups.
Person, Place, Time, Occasion, Literacy Level, and Message to name a few
Culturally-Centered Approach: Most appropriate – Includes underrepresented groups in the process.
Means partnerships must happen.
Lesson 5
Effective CC means listening to stakeholders
First mistake is to attempt to engineer consent through spin.
Get the information out, but then make time to listen to concerns.
Public Information Sessions
Q&A
Public meetings can become difficult.
Vocalized anger must be acknowledged and legitimized.
Once you have listened, then determine which audiences to focus on and how to address their concerns.
Lesson 6
Communicate early, Acknowledge uncertainty, Assure the public you will keep communicating
Communicate Early and Oft ...
John Hellerman presented "Creating Thought Leaders: Influence GCs and Get Hired with Strategic Thought Leadership" at LMA's Southern California chapter on March 20, 2013.
1. The Importance of Crisis Communications
April 23, 2005
By John Hellerman and David Lohr, Esq. of Hellerman Baretz Communications
A shipment of your grapes is tainted with cyanide and hundreds of people are injured. A speedboat full
of explosives crashes into your cargo ship or oil tanker with disastrous effects. A Stinger missile is
smuggled into the country in one of your shipping containers and is used to down a commercial airliner.
While these scenarios may seem unlikely, the fact is that the new era of global terrorism creates a risk
that many businesses previously never considered. Many think the government's terror warnings are
political or overly alarmist, but when imagining the worst-case scenario, the question remains: is your
company prepared to handle the public relations nightmare that even a bantam connection to a terror
attack or other disaster would present? How will your business survive when it finds itself linked to a
front-page tragedy?
Because of the wide-reaching effects terrorist attacks have, terrorism presents communications
problems that a "normal" crisis would not. Most significantly, the crisis here is most likely not your fault.
It's not your typical sex scandal or SEC investigation. Terror attacks affect everyone, and as a result,
attract everyone's attention. All eyes will be on your company. Some issues to consider:
If the attack could not have been prevented, how will you reassure people you will not be a
target again? (This is impossible to do, but nonetheless people want to hear it)
Even if the attack could not have been prevented, how could you let this happen? Outsiders to
the industry may expect safety precautions that they feel are reasonable, but that industry
insiders know are unrealistic/impossible/prohibitively expensive (hand-searching every piece of
luggage on an airplane). How will you address the public outcry that results?
Stylistic concerns: in what time frame should you communicate what message? Who would be
the best spokesperson for your company for what message? From where should the message be
delivered?
A well thought-out crisis management model will be divided into three distinct stages, used in concert
with each other to form a comprehensive counter-attack to the criticism you may face. While these
strategies are particularly germane to terror attacks, they are really applicable to any crisis situation. The
three stages are planning: identification, and management.
Planning
2. The first element of a sound corporate crisis management model is thorough planning - doing everything
in one's power to ensure that a crisis doesn't occur in the first place. An old Secret Service motto rings
true here: prepare for the worst, and hope for the best.
High-risk organizations (like shipping or container companies) need to step back and assess their
vulnerabilities with a creative eye, spotting every potential weakness in the system, no matter how
slight. Low-risk or "safe" organizations need to realize that there is no such thing as a "safe"
organization; with the threat of global terror, any company dealing with people or playing a role in the
economy is at risk.
A crisis communications audit takes all of this into consideration as a first step in composing your crisis
communications plan. This involves taking a comprehensive look at the business: its corporate structure,
its physical layout, and its service processes. Organizations then must create a response protocol -
everything from listing the members of crisis response team and their contact information to creating
messaging guidelines for different crisis scenarios; basically, integrated and extensive planning for who
does what. You may have heard the saying, "The Marines are who answer when the President dials
911." Similarly, your crisis communications team will be the first on the scene, each member with a
designated duty to secure the situation.
Once the plan is in place, it must be tested. Crisis communications planning is important, not necessarily
to see if the plan works but, instead, to see if it doesn't. Actual crisis strategies will always deviate from
plans, but a plan helps a company roll with the inevitable punches. Additionally, plans mitigate the
denial, anger and depression most executives (and institutions) experience - emotions that become
immobilizing if not dealt with properly.
Identification
Perhaps the most important function of a crisis communications audit is for it to serve as a tripwire for
your organization, so you can identify when you are in the midst of a crisis (it may not be obvious until
it's too late). Remember, a crisis is not about reality; it is about perception, and the way the public
judges your response to a perceived crisis can make or break your reputation.
It is for this reason that the company's actions in the hours immediately following a crisis are critical in
limiting the impact of the crisis; its goal is to identify and define the issues or situation before someone
else does.
For example, in October 2002, in an incident similar to the attack on the USS Cole in 2000, the oil tanker
Limburg, owned by the French firm Euronav, exploded and caught fire off the coast of Yemen, spilling
10,000 tons of heavy crude oil into the sea. Thousands more gallons burned. It was not ruled a terror
attack for nearly a month after the explosion.
Immediately after the attack, Euronav's director was getting the company's account of the incident out
to the media and the public: "We believe it was a deliberate act. It was not an accident," he said. While
officials from France, Yemen, and the United States wavered on their explanations for the blast,
company officials maintained that it was not an accident, but a terrorist act.
3. Because of the consistency of this message coming from the head of the company, while the cause of
the blast remained under investigation, none of the news coverage ever suggested that the blast and
resulting oil spill were caused by negligence on the part of Euronav.
Management
Because public opinion is all about perception over reality, public and internal communications' must
establish perceptions first. The public is very skeptical. More and more frequently, companies and
governmental agencies are "guilty until proven innocent." Arrogance, saying "no comment," and/or
responding with terse denials about questioned ethics are seldom, if ever, successful crisis
communications strategies. Unlike a court of law, in the court of public opinion the defense should
always take the stand. The press is driven by their need to tell a story. Failure to provide a coherent
explanation about matters under question means the media will fill their stories with messages
detrimental to one's own. Businesses should not stay silent and what follow are 11 recommendations to
managing communications through the media:
Designate one person to act as a spokesperson for the organization. This is rarely ever the
company's lawyer. The spokesperson is usually the CEO or other top executive. However, top
executives are not always the most effective spokespersons. For instance, sometimes technical
experts are best. Choosing a spokesperson is a critical decision that speaks volumes about how
seriously the company considers the problem. Do not have the CEO respond to a minor problem
- the press will think it is more important than it is. Conversely, do not have mid-level
spokespersons talk to the press if a tragedy occurred (i.e. major environmental damage, loss of
life, etc.) because the company will look callous.
Develop message points based on facts. When responding to questions remember to
communicate the truth (as much as needed to fulfill the public's need to know) and to comfort
all affected audiences by exuding compassion and an understanding of their concerns.
Media train the spokesperson. Next to planning (and especially in its absence) media training is
the single most important factor in dealing with a crisis.
Communicate to internal audiences first. Making sure internal audiences hear the story from
organization leaders before hearing it from the media builds and enforces trust. A cohesive
company is much more likely to rebound from tragedy than one consumed by internal dissent
during a crisis, and internal support is critical because this audience is often used by the news
media to perpetuate unflattering messages.
Educate the media. The media are the intermediaries between the organization's story and the
public and the more they know and understand the salient issues, the better off the
organization will be. Messages should demystify complex arguments and provide as much
information as possible in order to create an on-going, beneficial dialogue.
Fix the problem. As the saying goes, "where there's smoke there's fire," and essential to any
crisis situation are the organization's efforts to fix the underlying problem causing it. This "repair
phase" is an ideal opportunity for a company to stake out a new position in the market place.
For instance, if a shipment is impounded for suspicion of tainted product, as a shipment of
4. Argentine lemons was last August, as part of its response to the situation (whether true or not)
the company should create new policies to ensure future success and take the lead amongst its
competitors in the market as an innovator. This is more than "spinning" the negative story to
the press. It is providing a material solution to the problem in order to save and even promote
the brand.
Think creatively. Look for alternative methods to solve problems, not necessarily through a
dialogue in the press. What are the politics of the situation? What position do the effected
parties hold in the community? Does the company employ a lot of people? Who do they know
and how can those relationships be leveraged? For instance, the publisher of a city's business
journal might sit on the community relations board of the regional trucking company. If a crisis
occurs that threatens the company's reputation, is it possible that the relationship can be
leveraged so that the journal provides balanced rather than negative coverage?
Aggressively argue and prove your case. Take the initiative rather than surrender it. One of the
biggest mistakes businesses make in crisis situations is that they "go dark" and let their critics
define the issues and determine the implications.
Use independent experts and third party allies to help the media and public understand the
issues at stake. If the event of a security breach at a shipyard for instance, representatives of the
Department of Homeland Security would help assuage public fears and presumably take much
of the media spotlight off individual companies operating at the yard.
Manage your expectations. Note the option in question seven above: "balanced versus
negative" coverage not "favorable versus negative" coverage. This is a very important
distinction. Expectations of management must be tuned to the fact that in most crises the best
coverage to hope for is balanced, the alternative being negative. Given the circumstances of
most crises, favorable coverage of a company experiencing one is extremely rare.
Hire professionals to plan for, identify and mange crisis communications situations. Many times,
companies defer to their crisis communications activities to their legal counsel. Unfortunately, the
results can be devastating. The law may save a company in the courtroom, but companies need the
public to purchase their products and use their services after the crisis (or successful litigation) is over.
Communications strategy should supplement and support the legal strategy and at the same time
remain independent. Therefore, in a crisis situation, if the company hasn't hired professional
communicators, this should be the attorney's first recommendation.
Conclusion
Obviously, you can't plan out everything in advance. Crisis communications are responses to an event
that already occurred. While good publicity in advance can help you bank reputation capital for a rainy
day, you can't always prevent a crisis. With effective and diligent handling, however, you can mitigate
the damage and keep your business on track when a crisis strikes.
==============
John Hellerman is a partner in Hellerman Baretz Communications LLC, a consulting firm specializing in
crisis communications, strategic media relations, and litigation public relations for law firms and their
5. clients. David Lohr is an Account Executive at the firm and a lawyer. For more information, please
contact John at 202.274.4762 or jhellerman@hellermanbaretz.com.