Organizational Crisis Communication And Proper Preparation

By Gary Ward


Crisis communication is a way to defend an individual, company or organization where their reputation is being challenged by the public. These are unpredictable events where it can impact the performance of the organization seriously. It would also threaten the expectations of the stakeholders and may generate negative outcomes.

Preparation is important in minimizing the damage it will potentially have to let all people concerned know of what is happening. Failure to do so will make it harder and longer to achieve a resolution and may have more severe impact financially and on the reputation. Here are some steps for having a good organizational crisis communication in Washington city.

All potential crises which can occur must be anticipated by your team brainstorming for it or by knowing the possible outcome of a big decision. Doing this will make you realize they could be prevented through changing a few methods of currently existing operations. You would also have enough time to think for possible responses rather during an actual problem with lots of pressure.

Identify the team members that will handle situations like these including the head officers of all departments. You could also hire a consultant that specializes in this and another with specific knowledge related to the crisis. Legal counsels are not advisable because they are more concerned about the legalities than public opinion which is just as important.

Train some spokespersons authorized in giving official statements from your organization in advance so that they will be prepared and ready when a crisis breaks. There are those who are better at public speaking while others at written communication so assign the responsibilities accordingly. Good leaders may not be good public speakers so having a spokesperson is essential.

They must be trained properly to know how to give the necessary information to the interested parties. It is easy for people to focus more on other things they said rather than the important details which can help the company. The training will help them get ready and minimize the chance of being misunderstood by the media and stakeholders.

A notification system must be established allowing you to reach your stakeholders by using different methods. This is to assure you that they will receive the message because some of them do not always check their emails or text messages or even answer calls. There is a technology now that lets you contact them continuously until they confirm.

A monitoring system is also useful to track down what others are talking about you and the crisis currently being experienced. They are technologies available that can help you do this and these services are either free or not depending on the features you need. Monitoring their feedback will help you in adapting strategies and tactics accurately.

Develop holding statements which would be relayed to everyone involved whenever the crisis would happen after the possible ones have been anticipated. Clearly assess the situation when it happens before the prepared actions would be implemented. Then after it is finished, analyze the things you have learned and use them to prevent and prepare for another potential problem.




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