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While many companies today have or are preparing crisis communications plans, just as many have not even begun to think about such a plan. For most companies, it's not "if" a crisis will occur, but "when." Eventually, everyone faces a crisis of some kind or another. In order to keep things under control, you need to have planned for how crisis communication will be handled. This week's articles can help you get started... or refine what you already have.

Crises occur everywhere -- politics, entertainment, sports; no one is immune. (Item #1)   Here's what to do to ensure that your crisis will flourish and grow. (Item #2)   Crises can cost organizations millions of dollars to repair or can potentially put them out of business for good. (Item #3)  

How many public relations spokespersons does your organization have? (Item #4)   Social media should not be an afterthought in crisis communication. (Item #5)   Here are best practices and lessons created by crisis management researchers and analysts. (Item #6)  

As always, we look forward to hearing about your concerns with regards to business continuity. If you have a topic you'd like to see covered, please email me at bmellinger@attainium.net

Best Regards,

Bob Mellinger
President
Attainium Corp

Quote of the Week

"Sooner or later comes a crisis in our affairs,
and how we meet it determines our future happiness and success.
Since the beginning of time, every form of life has been called upon to meet such crisis."
- Robert Collier -

Articles

1. Crisis Communication: Now More than Ever, a Timely Topic
It may be a difficult fact to face, but the chance that corporate leaders will face one crisis after another has never been greater. How does it happen? Human error, lapses in judgment, failure to react in time, failure to anticipate, mechanical faults. And these crises strike more frequently these days than in the past.
http://knowledge.wpcarey.asu.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1741

2. Making a Crisis Worse: The Biggest Mistakes in Crisis Communications
The cheapest way to turn experience into future profits is to learn from others' mistakes. With that in mind, the following examples of inappropriate crisis communications policies, culled from real-life situations, will provide a tongue-in-cheek guide about what NOT to do when your organization is faced with a crisis.
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/docs/the_biggest_mistakes_in_crisis_communications.html

3. How Crisis Communication Plans Work
Like a disaster recovery plan, a crisis communication plan is a type of insurance policy for the long-term health of an organization. Failure to address and contain a crisis can have lasting consequences for an organization. With a plan in place, an organization is more likely to respond to a crisis quickly, take immediate steps to control the message and successfully regain the public's trust.
http://communication.howstuffworks.com/how-crisis-communication-plans-work.htm

4. It's an Inside Job: Internal Crisis Communications
Internal audiences are as, if not more, important than external audiences during a crisis, and yet those who aren't actually on the crisis response team often receive the least consideration when the stuff hits the fan. It is vital, during the crisis communications planning process, to formulate key messages not only for employees, but also for others who are close enough to the organization to be considered "internal" -- e.g., regular consultants and major vendors.
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/docs/its_an_inside_job_internal_crisis_communications.html

5. Crisis Communications and Social Media
While most organizations today are at least aware of social media and its potential uses in recruiting, project management and knowledge transfer, its use as part of an organization's crisis-communication plan is not as widespread -- yet.
http://www.hrexecutive.com/HRE/story.jsp?storyId=213035092

6. Crisis Management and Communications
Crisis management is a critical organizational function. Failure in this function can result in serious harm to stakeholders, losses for an organization, or end its very existence. Volumes have been written about crisis management by both practitioners and researchers from many different disciplines, making it a challenge to synthesize what we know about crisis management and public relations' place in that knowledge base. The best place to start this effort is by defining critical concepts.
http://www.instituteforpr.org/essential_knowledge/detail/crisis_management_and_communications/