ANATOMY OF A CRISIS RESPONSE: A CHECKLIST

By James E. Lukaszewski, APR, Fellow PRSA

As Published in Public Relations Journal, November 1987 (Revised June 2000)

Copyright © 1987, 2000, James E. Lukaszewski.  All rights reserved.

A recent, informal study of more than a dozen multinational corporations reveals that top company executives respond to crises with a relatively universal order of behavior. Public relations professionals, therefore, who understand the way these executives navigate their organizations through a crisis will be more effective at counseling top management and implementing corporate strategies should a crisis hit. Moreover, studying this common response may even reveal options not altogether obvious under pressure and stress at crisis-time.

Order of Action

The telephone study reveals that the principal considerations and steps for responding to a crisis are similar for almost all companies. They include, in order:

• Responding to the actual event, primarily to people's needs (victims', employees', owners') and to the situation (contain the problem, establish safety parameters, assess and respond to damage);
• Notifying required government agencies and appropriate manufacturers or vendors;
• Establishing internal procedures for managing the crisis until it is resolved.
• Communicating and addressing internal and external concerns and issues, including employee communications, customer/vendor communications, community relations - among them, community perceptions, legal questions, and corporate responsibility issues, and media relations. (Note that media relations appears at the end of the chain of executives' initial concerns, in marked contrast to the media's demands to be informed early in the process.)

Executive Response

Interestingly, the study also reveals a common pattern of attitudes, behaviors, and actions exhibited by executives within corporations in crisis. Managers, it seems, pass through four distinct phases as they accommodate, deal with, and resolve the disaster situation:

RECOGNITION. There may be smoke, an explosion, a telegram, or an unexpected media call, which, along with the knot forming in the executive's stomach, indicates that a crisis is underway. The recognition phase progresses in stages, which, when completed, lead to information control and management.

• Surprise. The sense of helplessness and irritation is immediate and frustrating. Also comes a sense of grief and a feeling of dread in knowing that the worst may not yet be known.
• Concentration. A leader is identified, a steering group chosen, and the group sets to work. The information and decision structure for this group often follows the army's field medical-crisis management configuration:
  • Fire control: to handle spot information problems, some of which can be quite serious.
  • Police control: to keep proprietary information secure and control access to property, people, and facts.
  • Medical services: to treat and minister to the corporate body to ensure that it survives its current injuries.
• Containment. Internal processes freeze as managers try to understand what has happened and what it all means.
• Control. Unlike other types of events, the speed of actions in a crisis doesn't allow the media time to develop other sources; they must rely on corporate or government authorities for information. Managers come to recognize that, used effectively, this control can be a critical operational advantage for effective communication. When the corporation doesn't talk, though, credibility with the media breaks down.

DEFINITION. With successful completion of phase one, executives are better able to manage information. Now they must move toward managing attitudes. The definition stage helps create an atmosphere for truthfulness, where the reality of the situation can be digested in preparation for action.

• Fear. Executives reach the healthy realization that matters are extremely serious: people are affected, threatened, perhaps even dead. They anticipate the upcoming issues of responsibility, even blame.
• Facts. Managers' need for information grows. They must understand what has happened before the organization talks to - or decides whether to talk to - anyone.
• Focus. Work is begun on specific tasks, while extraneous ideas, actions, and distractions are intentionally minimized.

STRATEGIC PLANNING. All eyes now turn toward resolving the disaster with minimal disruptions in service, revenue, and facilities. Appropriate internal and external resources are called to help maintain the organization's reputation. These include everything from building support among key audiences, to controlling and coordinating corporate issues and messages, to keeping peace in the corporate family and keeping the channels of communication open and active. Plans begin to come into focus. Managers consider how to publicly react, counteract, initiate, and preempt; keep issues and questions focused and localized; prepare for opposition or adverse reception of messages; monitor the media, forcing balance by correcting the record when necessary; bypass the mass media with direct communications; and track effectiveness of the communications strategy. Three processes are involved:

• Forecasting. Surprises can be virtually eliminated if all aspects of the disaster are anticipated. Even if the worst doesn't happen, the company can move through the crisis more smoothly. Moreover, forecasting can set the scope of the media's speculative playing field.
• Facilitating. Topics for discussion and communication pipelines are identified. Audiences are put into priority and alternative scenarios are explored. The corporate bureaucracy now moves from reflection to action.
• Follow-up. Procedures to tie up loose ends are also put into place, as executives look to mark the end of the disaster.

REACTION. Response strategies and specific spokespeople are finalized. Execution of the plan begins. Experience suggests that spokespersons and responses must have these unique attributes to deal effectively with the crisis:

• Stoicism. Those involved must remain impassive to the excitement and tension of events.
• Steadiness. Rock-hard concentration for spokespeople is, not surprisingly, imperative.
• Stamina. Crises can last for hours or, less commonly, for years. Those involved must accommodate fatigue and retain their responsive edge at all times.
• Sensitivity. Understanding the people, politics, and problems involved, as well as the ramifications of corporate and individual actions, are key for getting through the crisis. Though many spokespeople have a sense of message (i.e., What am I going to say?), successful spokespeople also must have a sense of audience, conveying that the organization cares about individual needs. It can be as simple, for example, as making sure that employees and supervisors get their information ahead of outsiders.

Copyright © 2000, James E. Lukaszewski. Permission granted to reprint with attribution.