A 12-point Crisis Communications Checklist

Author: Doug Babb
May 12, 2008




 Organizations reacting to a crisis have the choice of suffering from chaos or controlling their destiny through contingency planning. When reputations are on the line, create a crisis communications checklist to minimize uncertainty and anarchy. Planning and preparing ahead buys time.

Businesses and organizations may sit back in great comfort knowing there is no crisis on the horizon. Communicators would be wise to act as if one is around the corner, even though the specific threat is unknown. A great deal of advance work on tactics may be achieved before incidents occur, helping to get a quicker start when action is required.

Create a contingency plan by looking at scenarios of possible threats, such as labor issues, personnel matters, product or service quality issues, financial bumps, executive leadership changes or natural and human-caused emergencies. Under these scenarios the key messages may not be obvious, but key preparations may be made. Ask the following...
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Related Lines of Business:
Crisis Communications
Reputation Management