Crisis Communications_Plans and Exercises

Out of
Danger
Comes
Emergency Management & Safety Solutions
Opportunity

Plans and Tabletop Exercises to Build An
Effective Communication Strategy 1
April 2011 www.ems-solutionsinc.com

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Opportunity

Agenda
•  Definitions
•  “We’re not in Kansas any more”:
The Communities we Live in
•  Two Critical Aspects of a Viable
Communication Plan
•  Communication exercises
•  “In case of emergency, break glass”

April 2011 www.ems-solutionsinc.com 2

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Definitions


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Crisis Management
•  Crisis management is the process
by which an organization deals with
a major unpredictable event that
threatens to harm the organization,
its stakeholders, or the general
public.
•  The three most common elements
that define a crisis:
–  A threat to the organization.
–  The element of surprise.
–  A short decision time.


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Reputation Management
•  Reputation is the opinion (or “social
evaluation”) of a collection of entities
towards a person, a group, or an
organization. It has three elements:
–  Defined by others.
–  Highly effective mechanism of social
control.
–  Fundamental instrument of social order.
•  What is “reputation management”?
–  Borne from the computing age, where the
fluid nature of that media requires the
constant monitoring of your reputation.


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“We’re not in Kansas any more”:
The Communities we Live in


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Three Different Communities
•  “Real world”:
–  Small towns.
–  Big cities.
•  “Virtual” world:
–  Online communities.


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Small Town
•  Small population, frequent
face-to-face interactions, and
positive identification.
–  There is no question who
said or did what.
•  Reputation accrues not only
throughout one's lifetime, but
is passed down to one's
offspring:
–  One's individual reputation
depends both on one's own
actions and one's inherited
reputation.


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Big Cities
•  Community members come
and go. We know a small
fraction of people compared
to the whole:
–  Small subgroups provide
some implied reputation
management.
•  Reputations are managed
with more formal tools:
–  Laws/criminal justice
system.
–  Elections/elected officials.
–  Racial or ethnic prejudice.


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Online Community
•  Instant communication,
24x7:
–  There is no hiding, covering
up, or holding back.
•  Everything is available for
public comment in a
moment.
•  Everyone is a “reporter” in
the virtual world.
–  Cell phone photos and video
are released to a global
audience in moments.

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Going Viral in the Virtual World
•  Tony Howard, BP CEO:
–  “We’re sorry for the
massive disruption it’s
caused to their lives.”
•  Later he said:
–  “There’s no one who
wants this thing over
more than I do. I’d like my
life back.” (May 31, 2010)


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Two Critical Aspects of a
Viable Communication Plan


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Communication Matrix
•  A simple and valuable tool for any team to
develop is what we call a communication
matrix.
–  Identify all of the stakeholders that you will need to
communicate with after any incident.
–  Name the internal “owner” of that communication
relationship.
–  Specify what tools will be used to communicate
with each stakeholder.


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Communication Templates
•  Pre-written “scripts” that contain the basic outline of
what information might be needed, and then could be
quickly modified with current and pertinent
information during an incident.
•  Once the templates have been written, get all of the
formal approvals now, before an event occurs. Pre-
approval may need to include legal counsel, senior
management, investor relations; your company may
require other approvers.


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Consider Two
Styles of Messages
1.  It happened only to you. The incident only
happened to you and the rest of “the world” is
fine. Imagine such events as a fire, workplace
violence situation, water pipe break, etc.
2.  It happened to everybody. The event is
widespread or regional in nature, and many
people are affected. This could include
earthquakes, hurricanes, severe winter storms,
etc.


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Communication Exercises


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Communication Exercises
•  Communications exercises can be done for
just the Communications team, or as part of a
larger Incident Management Team exercise.
•  Begin by determining what the team wants to
get out of the exercise experience. Start with
what we call the “silly little question”: Why are
we doing this exercise?
–  This conversation will help you to develop the
specific exercise objectives for the team.


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Communication Objectives
•  To assess the ability of the communications
team to develop timely communications:
–  “Validate the communication matrix: stakeholders,
owners, and tools. Note areas for improvement.”
–  “Utilize the new communication templates. Assess
tools and process for timeliness. Note areas for
improvement.”
–  “Assess the ability of the team to monitor and
respond to social media sites such as Facebook,
Twitter, Digg. Note areas for improvement.”

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Exercise Narrative
•  Once you have designed the communications
objectives, now you can select an exercise narrative.
•  Create a realistic scenario that will deliver the kind of
results you are looking for in the objectives.
•  To best exercise the Communication team, it should be
a “public enough” event to create issues that may:
–  Impact the company reputation and brand (both internally and
externally).
–  Create media interest in the story.
•  Pull a headline “from the news” as a potential story line.


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Exercise Deliverables
•  There are a variety of specific exercise deliverables you
might want to have your team develop and which
should be called out. Suggestions include:
1.  Create employee hotline message.
2.  Create employee text message (SMS).
3.  Create company website message.
4.  Prepare press release.
5.  Prepare for a press conference.
6.  Create Facebook, Twitter, and/or other social media
responses.
7.  Create client message.
8.  Create investor relations message.

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Employee Hotline Message
•  A very reliable form of employee communication.
These phone numbers are usually toll-free.
•  Employees would call this number to find out simple
information (such as if the office is open or closed)
and basic employee instructions.
•  For an exercise, set up a “dummy” hotline and have
the team develop and record the message.


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Text Messages (SMS)
•  If using an emergency notification system
(ENS), SMS might be the best and most
reliable way of communication after a regional
disaster.
•  However, it takes practice to provide enough
information in 140 characters or less.
•  An exercise goal could be to develop SMS
messages for employees participating in the
exercise, and then send them.

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Company Website
•  How are updates posted on the company
website? Which team makes the changes?
•  For an exercise, if a “dummy” webpage can
be set up, it is great practice to change the
page to reflect the company’s status through
the course of the exercise.
–  If that isn’t possible, ask the team to develop the
message and then post it on a status board in the
exercise.


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Press Release
•  A formal press release should be developed
for the exercise, either in response to media
inquiries or just as a matter of course.
•  This release should be developed, approved
through the agreed-upon channels, and
distributed to the team in the exercise.
•  This gives the team a chance to use the pre-
approved press release templates.


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Press Conference
•  This is a great conclusion to any exercise.
•  The pre-identified company spokesperson gets
up before a group of “reporters” to read the
company release and take questions.
•  Where do you get these “reporters”? Start with
those who know the story line. Simulation
Team members or other employees who have
been involved in the exercise design make
great “reporters.”

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Social Media Response
•  Develop Twitter messages and Facebook
postings (or other forums that you find) during
the exercise.
•  Post these messages on the communications
status board in the exercise so everyone can
see what you are developing in real time.
•  BE CAREFUL! There are no “development”
social media systems. Don’t accidentally post
exercise information to a real site!

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Client Message
•  Go back to your communication matrix.
•  You should have called out all of the owners
and the tools.
•  Develop several messages in the exercise and
deploy to the business units.
–  If you don’t provide the talking points, they will likely
make them up themselves. This is not an ideal
solution for customer communication.
•  Post all client messages on the communications
status board.

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Investor Relations Message
•  If you are a publically-traded company,
sometimes you need to get a message out to “the
Street” rapidly.
–  This is usually an integrated response between
Investor Relations, Legal, and your senior
management.
•  Use the pre-designed templates and modify them
in the exercise. Assess their effectiveness and
post.


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Remember This…

“There is no privacy. Everyone is the media. You can’t
hide anything – don’t even think about it… Everything you
do can be exposed – so think very hard about what you
want to be in the world.”

Gary Vaynerchuk

http://reputationprofessor.com/


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Communication in the “New World”
•  Think about how to live in this “new world.”
–  Your company and you are being pulled into it
whether you like it or not.
•  How can a Communications Team manage
the onslaught in this brave new world of
constant communication?
•  You have to be ready at a moment’s notice to
communication effectively and quickly.


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Thank you

Regina Phelps, CEM, RN, BSN, MPA
San Francisco, California
415-643-4300
www.ems-solutionsinc.com
Get our new book on Exercise Design @ www.ChandiMedia.com


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