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　　Crisis Communications WritingPR SSPU

　　Crisis Communications WritingDefinition of a Crisis

　　10 Steps of Crisis Communications

　　Writing your crisis communications plan

　　Definition of a Crisis

　　Any situation that is threatening or could threaten to harm people or property, seriously interrupt business, damage reputation and/or negatively

　　impact share value.

　　Definition of a CrisisEvery organization is vulnerable to crises. The days of playing ostrich are gone. You can play, but your stakeholders will not be understanding or forgiving

　　because they've watched what happened withBridgestone-Firestone, Bill Clinton, Arthur Andersen, Enron, Worldcom, 9-11, The Asian Tsunami Disaster, Hurricane Katrina and Virginia Tech.

　　10 Steps of Crisis Communications1.Identify Your Crisis Communications Team

　　A small team of senior executives should beidentified to serve as your organization's Crisis Communications Team. Ideally, the team will be led by the organization's CEO, with the firm's top public relations executive and legal counsel as

　　his or her chief advisers.

　　1.Identify Your Crisis Communications TeamIf your in-house PR executive does not have

　　sufficient crisis communications expertise, he orshe may choose to retain an agency or independent consultant with that specialty. Other team members should be the heads of major organization divisions, to include finance,

　　personnel and operations.

　　2.Identify Spokespersons Within each team, there should be individuals who are the only ones authorized to speak for the organization in times of crisis. The CEO should be one of those spokespersons, but not necessarily the primary

　　spokesperson. The fact is that some chief executivesare brilliant business people but not very effective inperson communicators.

　　3. Spokesperson TrainingAll stakeholders — internal and external — are just as capable of misunderstanding or misinterpreting

　　information about your organization as the media,and it's your responsibility to minimize the chance of that happening. Spokesperson training teaches you to be prepared, to be ready to respond in a way that optimizes the

　　response of all stakeholders.

　　4.Establish Notification Systems Today, we have to have — immediately at hand —

　　the means to reach our internal and externalstakeholders using multiple modalities. Many of us have several phone numbers, more than one email address, and can receive SMS (text) messages or faxes. Instant Messenger programs, either public or

　　proprietary, are also very popular for business andpersonal use.

　　5.Identify and Know Your Stakeholders Who are the internal and external stakeholders that matter to your organization? I consider employees

　　to be your most important audience, because everyemployee is a PR representative and crisis manager for your organization whether you want them to be or not! But, ultimately, all stakeholders will be talking about you to others not on your contact list,

　　so it's up to you to ensure that

　　they receive themessages you would like them to repeat elsewhere.

　　6.Anticipate Crises

　　If you're being proactive and preparing for crises,gather your Crisis Communications Team for long brainstorming sessions on all the potential crises which can occur at your organization.

　　7.Develop Holding Statements While full message development must await the outbreak of an actual crisis, holding statements — messages designed for use

　　immediately after a crisis breaks — can bedeveloped in advance to be used for a wide variety of scenarios to which the organization is perceived to be vulnerable, based on the assessment you conducted in Step 6 of this process.

　　8.Assess the Crisis Situation Assessing the crisis situation is, therefore, the first

　　crisis communications step you can't take inadvance. But if you haven't prepared in advance, your reaction will be delayed by the time it takes your in-house staff or quickly-hired consultants to run through steps 1 to 7. Furthermore, a hastily

　　created crisis communications strategy and teamare never as efficient as those planned and rehearsed in advance.

　　9.Identify Key Messages With holding statements available as a starting

　　point, the Crisis Communications Team mustcontinue developing the crisis-specific messages required for any given situation. What should those stakeholders know about this crisis? Keep it simple — have no more than three main messages

　　for all stakeholders and, as necessary, someaudience-specific messages for individual groups of stakeholders.

　　10.Riding Out the Storm

　　Take a deep breath.

　　Decide if another communication to thosestakeholders could make the situation worse. If, after considering these factors, you think it's still worth more communication, then take your best shot!

　　Writing your crisis communications plan

　　STEP 1 - Establish crisis communication team rolesYour team members should: Be willing to undergo training and planning for their individual role. Be proactive, self-starters who can be trusted to jump into motion quickly,

　　confidently and competently when they are needed.

　　STEP 1 - Establish crisis communication team rolesYour roles should: Be very specific and non-overlapping. Reflect the types of crisis scenarios your local unit,

　　Wing or Region may experience. Leave no doubt as to who is in charge of what part of a crisis plan in action.

　　STEP 2 - Secure possible locations for command/media centerYour command center location should be: Available with little-to-no notice.

　　Already equipped with Internet connections,telephone lines and other appropriate technology. As centrally located as possible in your city.

　　STEP 3 - Maintain up-to-date contact informationYour contact list should: Be up to date at all times. Be available in printed and electronic formats.

　　Already be distributed to key personnel before anycrisis occurs. Include your local unit, Wing or Region crisis communication team and other

　　local, regional and national CAP officials.

　　Include local media contacts. Include command/media center contacts.

　　Always have a date label for when it was lastupdated. Always be labeled //FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY// due to the sensitive nature of the information. Be sure to warn users not to distribute it beyond the crisis

　　communication team!

　　STEP 4 - Anticipate crisis scenariosYour crisis scenarios should:

　　Be as detailed as possible. Be relevant to your area of the country. Include at least one natural disaster or other sudden scenario. Include a missing pilot or missing person scenario,

　　as these are quite common and occasionallybecome national stories.

　　STEP 5 - Develop action plans for your crisis scenariosYour crisis scenarios should:

　　Correspond with each of your pre-determinedcrisis scenarios. Include gathering and double-checking the facts. Convene the crisis communication team as soon as possible.

　　Establish the command/media center as soon aspossible.

　　Include applicable safety precautions for each

　　situation. Include pre-written press releases that can be easily adapted when/if the scenario comes to fruition. Include a timeline for response activities as

　　appropriate to each scenario.

　　STEP 6 - Compile a crisis kitYour crisis kit should include: Crisis communication team contact/role list

　　Potential command/media centers list Complete crisis contact list Printed out crisis scenarios action plans for response

　　Pre-written press releases that can beadapted as appropriate Complete local unit, Wing or Region member list CD with all of the above lists in electronic

　　format