Communication: The One Critical Factor That May Break It Or Make It In Crisis!
A blog post about the role of communication in a time of crisis.
You ever wake up in the early hours of the morning with a feeling of fear and anxiousness, with heartbeats like a fast drum, feeling throat pain, high body temperature, and difficulties with breathing? OMG, Rona, is it you? What should I do? Where should I go? In this state of panic or hysteria is where a crisis can lead us as human beings. According to the business dictionary, a crisis is a critical event or point of decision which, if not handled in an appropriate and timely manner (or if not handled at all), may turn into a disaster or catastrophe. In the business world, a crisis can occur at any time and may come from unexpected directions. No matter the crisis, as a communication executive, you should always be prepared to handle the situation.
Being honest, were you prepared for COVID-19? When you heard about the outbreak of this virus in China, have you thought it would hit us like this? When COVID-19 approached Curaçao, did you have a crisis communication action plan in place? For one reason or another, many businesses are not preparing for a crisis. I think that it is not possible to be 100% prepared for a pandemic like COVID-19. As a communication executive, you need to prepare for a crisis, even if it is a provoked crisis or an unexpected crisis. If you don’t take this seriously, you may be setting yourself up for failure. Mind you, the consequences of the absence of proper communication during a crisis can be numerous, think about the sense of fear among employees, confused and unhappy stakeholders, operations breakdown, bad reputation, and financial breakdowns. In this blog post, I would like to share my thoughts with you about some relevant matters related to crisis communication.
Be always on top of it
Even though crises don’t occur every day, you still need to be prepared for them, because they can show up when you least expect them. Don’t let a crisis get you off guard! As a communication executive, you should be part of the crisis management team of your organization. This team needs to have periodic sessions to analyze different scenarios that can harm your company. Besides these sessions, as a communication executive, you need to be aware of everything that is happening around your organization. Do the necessary exercises to have a proper platform in place to help you monitor what is going on in the world, inside and outside your organization. Do the right assessment to understand whether these occurrences may have a local impact, and how it can impact your organization. Be very critical and cautious about this exercise!
Think about the role of communication during crises
When you have a list of different scenarios that can harm your organization, think about the role of communication in times of crisis. Whatever organization you are serving, whatever your previously outlined organizational and marketing objectives, in times of crisis, it is recommended to focus your communication primarily on the gathering, coordination and timely diffusion of information to relevant stakeholders. One of your main goals during a crisis should be to protect and defend your organization and its reputation.
Have a crisis communication plan in place
After thinking about the role of communication during a crisis, the next step should be to prepare a crisis communication plan, which may be your roadmap. Your crisis communication plan can consist of these components: the definition of what you understand under crisis, the purpose of your crisis communication, your communication goals, your audience, the guidelines and communication procedures, your communication strategies for specific audiences and evaluation. You should also include a list of different scenarios that may harm your organization, and how you plan to respond to them and a list of templates for direct responses. Later on, you can adjust this basic crisis communication plan to whatever crisis.
Coordinate your team
An important aspect to think about when planning your crisis communication is the answer to the question, who has the last word in a time of crisis in your organization? People can fall in panic, get lost, and start acting in each other's roles, forgetting who is leading the ship. Try to avoid misunderstandings between your crisis management team members, in your organization, and other stakeholders. One of the most important things that you need to do is to make sure that everyone knows their place and who is the leader and who has the final word in times of crisis. Besides, you should also point out who is the spokesperson in times of crisis. This person should know everything that is going on and should be well prepared to represent your organization in times of crisis and pressure. So, before any crisis breaks out, make sure that the person assigned to be the spokesperson in a time of crisis is well trained.
Be prepared for crisis
When you have your crisis communication plan think about this question: Do you have the required resources to communicate? Organize your communication team and make sure you have the right people on the right spot. Besides, ensure that you possess the necessary technology and channels to communicate with your audience in a crisis. Get to know your audience and know how to get in contact with them when a crisis breaks out. If you don’t have the right resources in house, make sure you have a trusted external partner that can assist you in communicating during a crisis.
How to communicate in a time of crisis
Last but not least, I want to share some tips with you about how to communicate in a time of crisis. A crisis can make everything upside down. We don’t need to ask anyone about that during this COVID-19 situation. But, the way you communicate may be determinant for the outcome of your crisis communication management.
Stay calm: Be diligent, but don’t panic! Make all the necessary efforts to stay calm and in control of things. If you lose it, you won’t be able to manage your communication as you should.
Communicate on time: Make all efforts to communicate on-time. Choose a proactive and not reactive communication strategy. Be ahead of the curve!
Be relevant: Make sure to communicate all relevant information to your stakeholders. Be specific and avoid spamming your audience.
Be honest and transparent: Even though you are scared of the consequences of communicating something, it is better, to be honest, to avoid rumors, misunderstandings and fake news. Be transparent, tell the truth, and build trust with your stakeholders.
Be empathic: A crisis may affect everyone in different ways. It can cause people to break down and even fall into depression. Be empathic when communicating, be open, be supportive, and let people express their feelings.
Use two way communication: Avoid to use one-way communication. Be open for feedback! Your audience may be a valuable source of relevant information.
Be a messenger of hope: Besides using communication to provide information, use it as a tool to motivate and support your audience; give them a sign of hope amid crisis.
The excitement of communication during a crisis
You know, a crisis is not funny at all. But, being well prepared and on top of things can make this job so exciting. The feeling of waking up every day and thinking about how I can use communication to facilitate this process and make things lighter is so awesome. So, besides all the distress caused by COVID-19, one of the positive things I will keep from it is the rediscovery of my love for communication, the one critical factor that may break it or make it through a crisis!
