Canadian Government Executive - Volume 23 - Issue 09

Make sure all of your potential spokespersons are media trained with frequent refresher courses. Communicating is a skill like all others and needs to be worked on constantly. December 2017 // Canadian Government Executive / 27 Leadership team. It will have detailed plans for iden- tifying and communicating quickly and effectively both externally and internally. It will also have systems in place to moni- tor media and social media coverage in real-time to allow for rapid response and managing issues that weren’t anticipated. The plan is your backbone in a crisis. It is detailed. Make sure it is revisited quar- terly with updated contact information. Have you developed communications protocols for staff? Whether it’s the receptionist or workers in the field, when a crisis happens, any- one working for your organization is go- ing to be asked questions. They need to have tools to cope, including how to re- spond to media, the general public, other employees and stakeholders. It will also help them in casual conversations with non-staff who may be asking questions about the crisis. Given the social media networks out there, even regular people need to be treated as reporters of infor- mation. Word travels fast. Be disciplined. Have your identified spokespersons been media trained? Make sure all of your potential spokesper- sons are media trained with frequent re- fresher courses. Communicating is a skill like all others and needs to be worked on constantly. Make sure the person you hire to do the training has substantial past ex- perience as a working journalist — some- one who can anticipate what media will ask. Ask for credentials and references. Have you conducted mock crisis communications scenarios? Practice makes perfect. Hold mock situa- tions including media interviews. Make sure this is planned and conducted by an outside agency so everyone internally can participate. Although it won’t fully mimic the adrenaline and pressure of an actual crisis, it will help remove some of the ‘fear of the unknown for executives and allow for a healthy post-mortem evaluation with suggestions for improvement. Stay focused on being transparent. There is often a knee-jerk response in a communications crisis for a company or organization to build a bunker and say as little as possible. This is sometimes aided by their lawyer. Rather than making “say- ing nothing” your default position, ask your leaders and your lawyers to outline every- thing and anything you are able to say to the media without creating legal risk or negatively impacting the process. You need to protect your reputation in both a court of law as well as in the court of public opinion (which can often be less forgiving). Hire experts when it’s bad. This is your reputation we’re talking about. You will likely bring in a lawyer to protect you in the court of law, so bring in someone experienced in protecting peo- ple in the court of public opinion. Bring in someone experienced with crisis commu- nications before a crisis happens so they can analyze and report on your state of readiness. Even if you have great commu- nications staff, in a crisis, they will need support and perspective from outside your organizational bubble. Make sure you in- terview them about their crisis experienc- es, lessons learned, successes and failures. Check references. Then have them ready as part of your crisis team. When you bring this recommendation to leadership, there may be pushback and even outright resistance. It’s hard for people to comprehend the value of some- thing they know nothing about. But, at minimum, you can get yourself on record as raising it as an issue needing discussion and a decision. The fact is that if you wait for the thun- der and rain to start before thinking about your crisis communications plan, the best you can do is pray for the best. There is in- deed a chance you may survive the storm — but if you do, it will be luck. And luck isn’t leadership. It’s gambling. C onway F raser is the Managing Director of Fraser Torosay, a strategic communications company based in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. He is also a Gemini Award-winning former CBC journalist. Reach him at: conway@ frasertorosay.com