Crisis Communication and Reputation Management

A crisis is considered as anything that threatens the continuity and viability of a business.

Crisis management involves:
• Identifying a crisis
• Planning a response
• Responding to a sudden event that poses a significant threat to the firm
• Limiting the damage
• Selecting an individual and team to deal with the crisis
• Resolving a crisis

Your crisis plan

(source: http://ongoingoperations.com/business-continuity-plan-crisis-management-plan/)
Your crisis plan should identify the process of responding to an event that might threaten the operations, staff, customers, reputation or the legal and financial status of an organisation. It should cover strategies to minimise the potential impact of identified crises by limiting any damage and minimising any losses that your organisation might face, and ensuring the continuity of the business.

Prepare a crisis management plan with strategies that are:

• documented
• written in a clear and concise manner, preferably in action bullet points with key steps to be taken
• communicated often to staff
• available readily to all staff
• prioritised so that in or following a crisis, actions are taken in order to most effectively minimise damage and ensure business continuity
• tested in emergency run throughs and in staff training and brainstorming sessions 
• taking into account lessons learned from the past
• reviewed and updated regularly to take into account your business' changing circumstances

(source: https://www.nswbusinesschamber.com.au/Members/members-askushow/Planning-and-strategy/Growth-Development/How-to-prepare-your-business-for-a-crisis)

To prepare for crisis, conduct a SWOT analysis - the first step to preparing a general crisis response plan.

A SWOT analysis examines an organization's Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. This is best done with a group of key employees, volunteers, or supporters of your organization. Special attention should be paid to the weaknesses and threats you identify. Examine those threats and weaknesses to identify which crises are most likely to confront your organization.

Then brainstorm what would happen to the organization were the crisis to take place. What would be the cost in terms of money, assets, reputation, or the well-being of staff, clients, and volunteers? How could these effects be minimized ? Asking these questions will start the process of formulating a crisis response plan. 

Form a crisis management team as a core part of your crisis response plan.

- 

Decision maker

- Spokesperson

- Internal communications manager

It is vitally important that leaders and decision makers remain as calm as possible.

• How am I feeling? (Overhwlemed? Panicked? Confident? Scared?)
• How are my feelings affecting my actions?
• What is in my control, and what is not?
• What information / advice do I still need to make good decisions?
• Am I prioritizing effectively?
• Is our response true to the organization's mission?
• Is our response considerate of the health, well-being, safety and interests of our clients, staff, volunteers and others affected by the crisis

When crisis is over, answer these questions:

• What were the early warning signs of the crisis?
• Could we have recognized it sooner?
• What were the organization's weaknesses and vulnerable points that led to the crisis?
• Did we follow our crisis management plan and, if so, was it effective?
• If we did not follow our crisis management plan, why not?
• How effective was our response?
• How effective were our communications?
• Did we have the right people on our response team?
• How well did our leaders function?
• What could we have done differently?
• How can we better prepare for a similar situation in the future?

(source: http://www.strengtheningnonprofits.org/resources/e-learning/online/managingcrisis/default.aspx?chp=1)