We live in an age of dynamism and changes happen every second; this rule applies without exception. It is in the best interest of everyone that things go smoothly, but there are times when an inevitable crisis could happen and affect an organization.
It is natural to panic during a crisis. Though emergency notification systems help in such times, effective communication is equally important. The right information must be passed on to the right people at the right time.
Following are a few pointers that will be helpful when you are creating your emergency action plan, and are writing effective messages in a crisis situation for the overall good of everyone. When creating your emergency action plan,
Before a crisis strikes, it is always beneficial to anticipate one. Being prepared for the worst might sometimes actually help in averting a major eventuality.
The next step is to identify the crisis communication team within your organization. A crisis communication team will ultimately be responsible for providing information to the affected parties. Training of members of this team is very important. The two significant aspects they can be trained on include:
THE RIGHT SKILLS: Matching people with the right skill set to the right assignment is critical. It may be the case that someone could be very good at handling an audience of 1,000, but might get nervous when the same communication needs to be made to the press. Hence, the mapping of skills with the kind of crisis communication a person would be handling becomes important.
THE RIGHT TRAINING: Sometimes, it might be the case that you need to train your spokespersons specifically on crisis communication. This involves the techniques of explaining and delivering effective and accurate messages wherever needed.
The pre-assessment of a possible future crisis, which is typically part of an emergency preparedness plan, also can help communication when the eventuality actually happens. Once the organization has identified the possible sources of vulnerability, it can develop communication messages for those situations in advance. These messages can then be immediately utilized when the crisis strikes.
Such statements which are prepared in advance are known as holding statements. These are not static or rigid, and can be modified from time to time depending upon the perceived threats to the organization in the future.
Once the preplanning part of crisis communication has been completed, the post-crisis part becomes important. Teams need to be aware of what kind of information the organization’s stakeholders are seeking. Accordingly, the right information should be channeled and sent across to them. The messages developed by the crisis communication team have to be in sync with the demands of the stakeholders.
