When you are at the center of a crisis, your visibility exposure is increased. If you do not have visibility into what others are saying, your exposure greatly increases. How you communicate can create a second crisis, and while the crisis is usually very short-lived, the consequences are not.
This brief summarizes key points by Jim Satterfield (Firestorm President, COO and Co-Founder) on how to manage the chaos created by a crisis.
“What should we do now?” “What should we say?”How you answer the question “What should we do now?” can have far reaching implications for your company or organization. Preparedness and Resiliency are key brand attributes for every company. Crises come as surprises. Control of events and message are lost. Impacts accelerate. Public scrutiny intensifies.
Are you ready? How do you know? Are you sure?
In a crisis,
The above dynamics work aggressively against traditional empirical management decision processes. Decisions must be made quickly with limited and often incorrect information.
A crisis is not business as usual. A crisis is business as unusual.
Crises have a short duration, but have consequences that can determine the viability of a business or organization for years to come. If you are explaining, you are losing.
Crises have impacts – for good and bad. Every crisis starts with a combination of opportunity and danger. Where the risk/crisis conundrum balances depends upon your initial critical decisions, your crisis communications, your monitoring of events, and your adjustments made to strategy and actions as events develop. Your company’s reputation, brand, legacy, and profitability hang in the balance in a crisis. Crises are personal. Every crisis is a human crisis. It is your company. It is your people. It is your brand. It is your reputation. It is your career. Doing the wrong thing or doing nothing can create a point of no return.
In crisis, we assist senior management in developing or implementing a Crisis Management Plan. We provide advice and insight to help managers make crucial decisions, and communication experts to assist with social media communications and public relations. Our Senior Team is ready to help your senior team.
As the leading crisis management company, our founders, executives, principals, and Executive Council are available to assist as needed. We put together the right team for you.
