Many companies have a crisis plan somewhere. It was usually written after the last close call, approved by the bosses and by legal, and then filed in a folder nobody has opened since. That’s fine, as far as it goes, but don’t expect it still to be relevant today, or to reflect the way that your business or your people have changed since the last time you looked at it.
A crisis can be potentially debilitating to a business and to its people. Having an effective plan is the best way to navigate it. But a plan is only the half of it. The other is knowing how to stay calm and in charge once the whirlwind actually starts.
You won’t get to choose the timing of your crisis, and you probably won’t get to choose the subject either. What you can choose is how ready you are when it lands.
Here are four things worth getting your arms around now:
Don’t act straight away. The instinct is to move quickly but taking a beat before you do anything tends to save you time, money and reputation down the line. Having a calculated plan beats a quick reaction. This pause can be the difference between an effective statement that does the job it was meant for, and one you have to walk back shortly after you put it out there.
Establish the facts. Not what people are saying is going on, or what somebody thinks they heard on a call, but what you know, what you don’t, and what you need to find out. Build a knowledge base and work from there.
Take the emotion out of it. That can be difficult to do when your reputation is on the line, but calm heads make better decisions. That is usually the argument for having someone else in the room who has been here before and has nothing at stake, other than helping you get out of crisis with your business intact.
Keep the team aligned. While working through the plan, make sure the team is on the same page. A united front goes a long way. The last thing the organization needs under pressure is disjointed communication.
The nature of a crisis is high stress, and none of this makes the crisis painless. The goal is to make it survivable. Setting yourself up for success might look less frantic than you think.