Planning for day-to-day communications can be challenging enough, let alone planning for whatever dire situations you can dream up. So why bother with crisis planning?
In times of pressure, having clear processes and procedures helps your team stay focused and responsive. Think of it as the communications equivalent of a fire drill.
How to Identify Conflicts & Crisis
If you had to list every bad thing that could happen to your organization, what would you write? That kind of thought process can feel daunting. Instead of trying to think of every possible scenario, let’s borrow a trick from literature.
Stories are often framed around a few major types of conflict, and these same patterns are a great way to think about real world crises in your organization.
| Literary Conflict | Communications Lens | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Man vs. Nature | Weather Events | Storms, tornadoes, earthquakes, freezing temperatures, heat waves, floods, hurricanes, wildfires, climate-related crises |
| Man vs. Man | Interpersonal Conflict | Violence, defamation, harassment, doxxing |
| Man vs. Self | Internal Crisis or Tragedy | Employee or community member death, governance scandals |
| Man vs. Society | Politics & Culture | New policies, health emergency, civil unrest |
| Man vs. Technology | Tech Risks | Hack, cyber attacks, tech failure, AI ethics, data breaches, privacy leaks, |
Which Conflicts are Worth Planning For
Identifying and prioritizing which conflicts to plan for depends on your organization! Start by looking at your past experiences or asking your team about crises they’ve faced before. How did they communicate (or not communicate) during those times?
You don’t have to plan for every possible crisis. But organizing your thinking by categories of conflict can bring structure to a chaotic time.
To help you focus, here are some starting points:
- Hosts events
- Offers daily walk-in services
- Operates in areas with frequent extreme weather
- Works with marginalized communities who are vulnerable to hate crimes or violence (survivors of domestic abuse, LGBTQ+ individuals, unhoused people, prisoners, religious minorities, immigrants, people with disabilities, and racial minorities)
- Has public-facing figures who are expected to adhere to organizational anti-harassment policies
- Works with aging populations
- Works with marginalized communities
- Has public-facing figures in staff, leadership, or community who’s lost would impact the larger community
- Works with marginalized communities
- Has been in the news (locally or nationally) or has high-profile leadership
- Has faced public criticism, boycott, or cancelation
- Receives federal or state funding
- Works with sensitive data such as PII or health information
- Maintains databases of donor, customer, or employee information
- Works with marginalized communities
How to Develop a Crisis Communications Plan
Remember decision charts and decision trees? Crisis planning can feel like that—lots of branches, lots of possibilities. Since a single crisis often becomes an all-hands-on-deck event, planning ahead requires collaborative decision-making.
Here’s a suggested process:
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Strategize
Using the section above as a guide, identify which types of conflicts are strategically important for the organization to prepare for.
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Leadership Buy-In
Schedule a meeting with leadership to confirm which scenarios require communications plans. Gather information on key team members who should be included in the planning process.
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Collaborative Planning
For each conflict, identify key team members and bring them together to outline a response strategy, assign roles, and define action steps.
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Documenting
Develop a written version of the plan and store it in a shared digital location. so all team members can access it.
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Debrief
In the event you do have to use a conflict plan, after the dust settles, debrief with your team about challenges and room for improvement.
How to Generate Leadership Buy-In
Getting approval from leadership may look different at each organization, but here are some key points to help make the case:
- A crisis communications plan helps the entire team stay calm and make smart decisions under pressure.
- The communications team is part of the organization but must work closely with other departments during a crisis. Without a clear plan, the response can become confusing or ineffective.
- Ask what happened during the previous communications crisis? What could be improved? Who was involved? What should be included in the plan?
How to Facilitate a Group Planning Session
Most of the answers to “What should we do during a crisis?” will come out of this meeting. Here’s how the communications team or lead can help facilitate it:
- Share an agenda before the meeting that explains why planning for the selected crisis scenario is important.
- If appropriate, try a role-play exercise to spark discussion
- Prepare a list of possible communication actions to show the group, such as choosing not to respond, posting on social media, or sending an email alert.
- For each scenario, define the tipping point, for example, when does a storm become “severe weather,” or when does a customer complaint require a direct response versus a general one? Also, who is best on the team for making that decision?
- If someone suggests holding a team meeting, ask for specifics: Who should be included? What’s the goal of that meeting?
- Would an email, text, social media template be appropriate? Who will make it? Who will approve the template?
- Where will the crisis plan documents live digitally?
Conclusion
Crisis planning may start with existential questions like “What’s the worst that could happen?” But preparing for the worst will give you the confidence you need to respond effectively when it happens.
Start by identifying the most likely types of crises your organization could face. Then, decide which actions your team will take and what resources you will need in place if those events happen.
Best case scenario: You never need to use your crisis plan.
Worst case scenario: You’ll be ready — with a thoughtful, clear guide to help you move forward.