There is no magic wand to make a crisis disappear. Of course, individuals and organizations wish there was, but the reality is that crisis mitigation usually takes time and careful planning.
Unfortunately, individuals and organizations often don’t want to take any action, even after a crisis communications plan has been created. Instead, they hope that maintaining the status quo will make the problem go away.
Here are a few things to keep in mind as you experience a crisis:
- Be proactive in your communications. Your goal is to shape the narrative, not react to it.
- Be frequent in your communications, even if you have no new updates. The idea here is that you need to be as transparent as possible.
- Hope is not a strategy. You often must take action to mitigate the situation and prevent it from happening again. Make this public.
- Repair your brand and reputation. What will you say and do following the crisis to regain the trust of your stakeholders? Certainly, staying silent and sitting on your hands won’t be helpful.