Are You a Crisis Waiting to Happen?

If an issue or crisis arose tomorrow, how well would you handle it?

Be honest with yourself.

Ask yourself these questions:

Do you have a plan or structure in place that would guide how you triage an issue?

Where is that plan? Is it the right plan for what might arise? Would you have access to the plan if offices were shut or access to your servers went down?

Should it be a written plan or an organizational structure with clearly defined rules of engagement?

Is there an already-established team that could be immediately notified and sent into action? No matter where they are. Is it the right team? Do they know their responsibilities? Do they have the authority to make decisions?

Has your structure and plan been pressure tested? Do you know it will work if you’re called to enact it?

If you don’t have good answers to these questions, you’re putting your organization at risk.

Because here’s the thing. In today’s volatile environment, it’s not a matter of if an issue will land in your lap; it’s when.

I’ve been working with companies for decades to build or shore up their crisis response capabilities and help them manage high-stakes issues. And I can tell you two things always bear out.

One, the organizations that fare the best are those that are the most prepared.

The worst time to figure out what to do when an issue or crisis arises is during the issue or crisis. You won’t have time. Things move too fast. If you’re forced to figure it out in the moment, you’re at a huge disadvantage. I promise you, it’ll be painful, and the outcome won’t likely be ideal.

It could even be disastrous.

Some companies spend decades building stellar reputations that are washed away in a mere 48 hours because they get caught flat-footed and mismanage an issue.

Second point, it’s almost never the crisis that damages the organization.

Most of the damage comes from the way they handle it.

People will often understand and even forgive companies when bad things happen. There are even instances where a well-handled issue leads to more trust in the organization.

What people won’t often forget or forgive, though, is when a company behaves or performs poorly during a crisis.

If they’re slow to respond. Come across as callous. Make decisions or say things privately or publicly that exacerbate the situation.

If they blame others. Allow themselves to speculate on unverified information. Are insensitive to the people affected by the issue.

If they say too little or too much at the wrong times. Worst of all, if they become defensive, irritated by, and dismissive of any criticism they might face.

Any or all of that can inflict a deeper level of damage and mistrust than the issue itself.

So how do you make sure you’re well prepared?

First, if you don’t already have one, establish a crisis team.

Every organization is different, but here are the kinds of people who should be on it. And it should be a tight group. The balance you want to strike is the fewest people possible, without leaving out anyone who’s critical to a core business function.

One of the key members of the group will be your CEO, president, owner – whoever’s in charge of your business. Maybe that’s one person. Or maybe it’s a few, if decision making is collaborative in your company.

You also need someone – or several people, if necessary – from operations. People who know what critical functions are necessary to keep the business running. People with knowledge of your logistics, information systems, facilities, and business processes who would have the authority to make decisions about how to operate (or maybe shut down) certain business functions in the event of a disruption.

For larger organizations, you’ll also want to include an HR lead, your legal counsel, and your communications lead. Every organization’s team will look slightly different, and some will necessarily be larger or smaller. But these are the core folks.

Once the group’s established, it’s critical that you have a way to assemble them quickly.

With one push of a button, you should be able to send out an alert that directs your team members to join a pre-selected, secure phone or video line where the team can quickly assemble to triage the event. You want to make sure the right people can be brought together regardless of where they are. Because crises often hit at inconvenient times and beyond business hours.

Now the team can quickly begin to assess the situation.

Sorting out facts from conjecture is going to be a key challenge. Because a lot of information washes over you in a crisis – especially in those first 24 hours. And much of what you think you know in the early stages will be proven false or inaccurate later. So be careful not to get over your skis and start talking about things you aren’t certain of.

Getting together quickly allows your team to get a jump on assessing what’s true and not true. And to quickly understand the potential impact to the business, to employes, customers, clients, and other constituents. In as close to real time as possible. This is important – because in a crisis, sometimes every minute counts.

This team will also contribute to creating any reactive or proactive communications that the communications lead will craft.

Message development and decisions about what to say when is a whole subcategory that I’ll go into at another time, but my advice here is that it’s always better to prepare the communications you might need, even if you don’t end up using them, or use them reactively at some point. Having them at the ready is a tremendous advantage. And if you never have to use them, think of it as insurance.

One more general note before we leave the subject of communications. Regardless of the situation, your communications during an issue or crisis should be clear and concise. Factual. And focused on the actions you’re taking to investigate and address the issue.

People will judge. They’ll look to see if you’re on top of it, if you’re a responsible, compassionate organization that does the right thing – or whether you’re shirking your responsibilities or fumbling around the dark. The perceptions you forge when handling issues tells people a lot about the kind of company you are and can build or erode trust going into the future.

You’re also going to want to establish live feedback channels to help you assess how the situation is unfolding.

Who on the ground, or at the epicenter of the issue, can send information your way to keep you abreast of developments? Are your salespeople getting questions from customers? Your reception desk? People in the field, in your stores or worksites? What’s the chatter on social? Do you already have a way to monitor where people might start to comment on what’s happening or attack you?

Again, having those monitoring and feedback channels up and running before an issue hits is imperative.

It’s also critical to identify all of the constituents you might need to communicate with in an emergency long before an emergency hits.

Employees. Board members if you have them. Customers. Clients. Vendors and suppliers. Government or regulatory agencies, if that’s your world. Other influencers.

Put them on a list or in a database you can easily access remotely. Get their contacts. Define the best ways to reach them. Is it a personal call? A text? An email? Who in your organization has that relationship and is the best person to make that contact? This should all be set up in advance.

Again, decisions can be made later about whether or when to contact any of them. But if you need to, and you can’t quickly locate how to get in touch with them, you’re going to burn a lot of time and effort that’ll be in short supply. If you can’t communicate with people who might need to hear from you during an issue, you’re going to create a lot of disruption and unnecessary angst – and maybe even lose some trust or business in the process.

This is just the tip of the iceberg.

If you want to know more about best practices when managing issues, or if you want to participate in one of my exercises where I put your crisis response team through the paces to identify strengths and weaknesses and shore up gaps – drop me a note. Also, look for some deeper virtual training courses on this subject I’ll be offering in the coming months.