Crisis Communications Planning – Protecting Your Organisational Reputation
Overview
There is a saying – if it can go wrong, it will go wrong. And all organisations, no matter how large or small, can be hit by bad publicity. It might be sudden, an accident or attack; a problem that won’t go away, or the poor handling of an emergency. It might be your fault, or it might not. Whatever the cause, how you deal with a crisis can make or break an organisation.
This workshop will help you know how to prepare for the worst, but also help you stop an issue becoming a crisis. It will consider good and bad practice with reference to past and current examples.
Objectives:
- Considering risks and defining an issue and a crisis
- Stakeholder management
- Dealing with the media
- The need for speed and accuracy of your response
- When to speak to the media and how to do it
- Bringing it all together in a crisis communication plan
Training outcomes:
- Understand the need to plan for a crisis, including the preparation of a crisis communications plan
- Review how and why the media (both on and offline) react to negative stories
- Identify key stakeholders, create appropriate messages, and recognise which media channels to use – and how and when to use them
- Identify the need for speed, accuracy and co-ordination while responding both online and offline
- Gain the skills and confidence in managing communications during a crisis
Agenda
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Trainer’s Welcome Address
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Defining an Issue and a Crisis
- What is a crisis? Types of crises.
- Can you stop an issue or risk becoming a crisis?
- Horizon scanning and assessing risk.
- Why communicate in a crisis?
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Comfort Break
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Impact of a Crisis
- What damage can a crisis do, especially if not handled well.
- How to handle a crisis. The need for speed, accuracy, co-ordination and leadership.
Stakeholder Management
- Who are the stakeholders? Including an exercise to map stakeholders.
- Importance of internal stakeholders and their role as ambassadors.
- How do you communicate with stakeholders?
- What channels do you use?
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Comfort Break
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Dealing with the Media – online and offline
- How and why the media (online and offline) respond to a crisis.
- How you should respond – online and offline, including on social media.
- How to engage with the media. What is the journalist after?
- Do you need to speak to the media?
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Lunch
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Messaging in a Crisis?
- The need for ‘situational awareness’, accuracy and co-ordination when communicating in a crisis.
- Versus the need for speed to stop the spread of misinformation and losing control of the narrative.
- The need to streamline the approvals process and pre-agree templates.
- What are your messages in a crisis?
- The Care formula and the need for concern.
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Break
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Holding statements and longer statements
- The common pitfalls and good practice.
- Exercise: drafting a holding statement.
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Bringing it all Together in a Crisis Communication Plan
- The elements of a crisis communications plan – including potential threats, audiences, channels, messages, roles and responsibilities
- The vital appendices to a crisis communications plan – including contact details and log ons
- Testing and updating the plan – how and when
- When to implement the plan
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Trainer’s Summary and Close
*Programme subject to change
Get in Touch
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- Public Sector £550 + VAT
- Private Sector £620 + VAT
- Voluntary Sector £480 + VAT
Trainer
Kate is a former journalist, who now specialises in crisis media management. She is an associate trainer at the Cabinet Office Emergency Planning College and for the Chartered Institute of Public Relations. Her journalistic experience includes working in newspapers, for the BBC and for commercial television. Kate is a BBC-trained video-journalist and has made features for BBC Radio 4. She has also taught print and broadcast journalism at the University of Sheffield and is the director of an award-winning PR agency.
