Crisis Communication Skills

What do the 2010 British Petroleum spill, the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH 370, and the financial crisis of 2008 have in common? They were all unexpected crises that rocked the world and created seemingly insurmountable Public Relations (PR) challenges for the organizations involved.

This course provides participants with the opportunity to identify how a crisis can impact an organization and what should be done to mitigate its effects. The course focuses on how to prepare the communication function to respond rapidly and effectively in the event of a crisis in order to be able to manage perceptions in the media and online.

By attending this course, you will learn best practices in crisis communication management, situation analysis, risk assessment, crisis team formation and responsibilities, protocols, and resources to be used such as crisis manuals and communication tools.

Course Methodology

The workshop is designed to be interactive and participatory with the occasional use of various educational and training tools. The course also relies on the use of real-life cases aimed at helping the participants translate the theory into application in an effective and efficient manner.

The course is built on four learning pillars: concept learning (lectures and presentations), role-playing (group exercises), experience sharing (roundtable discussions) and exposure to real-world crises and policy choices that participants may confront.

Course Objectives

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Identify the different types of crises and their aspects

• List the various principles of crisis communication

• Devise crisis management processes aimed at mitigating potential crises in their organizations

• Demonstrate the benefits of using the media in a crisis situation

• Evaluate and prioritize the dimensions involved in crisis communication management

• Analyze and interpret results achieved through crisis communication management

Target Audience

This course is targeted at team leaders, supervisors, and managers of public relations sections as well as any staff member who may be involved in managing communication issues during a crisis.

Target Competencies

• Public speaking

• Verbal and non-verbal communication

• Influencing audiences

• Building rapport

• Motivating subordinates

• Organizing and leading projects

Course Outline

• Introduction

  • Definition of a crisis

  • Overview of communication

  • Various types of crises

  • Key aspects of a crisis

  • Evolution of a crisis

• Principles of crisis communications

  • Setting your clear objective

  • Responding quickly

  • Accepting responsibility

  • Appropriate messaging

  • Profiling your audience

  • Showing and maintaining credibility

  • Coordinating with others

  • Continuous monitoring

• Crisis management process

  • Pre-crisis phase

    • Crisis Management Plan (CMP)

    • Crisis Management Team (CMT)

    • The spokesperson’s role

  • Crisis event phase

    • Initial response

    • Reputation repair

  • Post-crisis phase

    • Lessons learned

    • Follow up with communication

• Crisis communication and media

  • Media and communication

  • Media as a partner in crisis response

  • Social media and crisis communication

  • Social media as a beneficial tool or a challenge

  • Dynamic use of social media in crisis communication

• Dimensions of crisis communication management

  • Standard operating decisions dimension

  • Victims management dimension

  • Trust and credibility dimension

  • Behavior dimension

  • Professional expectations dimension

  • Ethical dimension

  • Lessons learned

• How to measure your results in a crisis

  • Measuring outputs

  • Measuring the impact

  • Measuring outcomes

  • Steps for a measurement program

    • Defining your objectives

    • Defining your audience

    • Defining your criteria and benchmarks

    • Deciding upon your timing, budget and measurements tools

    • Analyzing results for conclusions and recommendations