Dateline:  3/29/98

Every firm  that's been in business for more than a few years has had at least one client that has created difficult moments for the firm.  Whether a client commits fraud or denounces your firm or receives publicity that calls your firm's professionalism into question or an employee files sexual harrassment charges, as soon as the story breaks in the newspapers, your firm will be in the hot seat.  Don't wait for that to happen to put a ``crisis communications plan" into effect. A crisis response plan can make the difference in preserving your firm's credibility, reputation and revenue stream.  It's worth an investment--before you need it.

Prepare for the Unthinkable

Identify your spokespersons and give them extensive media interview training.  At a minimum, the Managing Partner of the office/firm, the financial officer of the firm, the human relations director, legal counsel, and the communications director (or public relations director, if you have one) should receive one-on-one coaching from a professional media trainer.  Prepare them for interviews from hostile reporters and with an audience of people asking hostile questions.  Make them feel comfortable, even if 60 Minutes is there asking the questions.  The goal is to give the skills to your emergency responders that will give them confidence under tension.  Remember to provide regularly updated phone numbers and beeper numbers or cell phone numbers to all members of the crisis team.

Create a ``black box".  While you can't anticipate most client emergencies, you can anticipate human relations or disaster related emergencies.  Prepare copies in advance of all important documentation related to types of emergencies you might have and store them in one audit trunk or file safe.  For example, copies of your personnel manual(s), various firm policy statements, telephone directories, lists of office locations and managing partners, mission and vision statements, product or service line descriptions, recent media releases, and the like could all be ready for quick reproduction and distribution on short notice.  Make sure that someone is assigned to keep this information up-to-date.  You may want to store a duplicate of it somewhere secure outside the office.

Review how other firms and companies have handled a crisis.  See what elements caused Niagra Mohawk Power (operators of Three Mile Island nuclear facility) and Texaco (race discrimination suit) and Exxon (the Valdez oil spill) to suffer lost credibility and open hostility from the public.  See why Johnson & Johnson (makers of Tylenol) and TWA (the flight 800 disaster) bounced back from grueling public criticism.  Try doing an Internet search on ``disaster management" or ``crisis communication".

If It Happens...

Make a professional communicator part of your crisis management team. You want to get your message out clearly and not defensively.  A public relations or communications specialist can help you find the right way to position sensitive issues and can draft speeches for the spokesperson.  Be sure each person on the crisis management team knows his or her role so well that no conferencing is necessary before swinging into action.

Prepare bullet point outlines.  Cover the 5 Ws (who, what, where, when, why and how) about the essentials of the situation and make sure all your key partners and spokespersons have the same information. It doesn't hurt to recount how the emergency came about and how quickly you responded to it.

Tell what you know as soon as you know it.  Firms that appear to ``stonewall" or dodge responsibility often suffer greatly in loss of good will and public opinion. Be proactive in bringing new facts or information to the media as soon as possible and help them to tell the story correctly. Think about how Johnson & Johnson handled the Tylenol crisis. They appeared to be leading the charge in finding answers and modifying their products to ensure safety. Providing a lot of information and showing that you are working to resolve the problem is the best damage control you can do.

Tell what you don't know.  You may not have answers to a particular question when asked.  But don't ignore it. Rather than saying nothing about it, acknowledge the problem or question and state that you don't have an answer yet.  Avoid letting the public or the media think you are withholding or hiding information. Think about the Exxon Valdez oil spill.  Exxon appeared to dodge responsibility and seemed to be secretive and indifferent.  The backlash was devastating.

Add extra phone support and train operators in how to handle calls related to the problem.   Provide them with information for referring calls correctly.  For example, reporters should be put through to the Managing Partner or communications director, concerned clients should be put through to a designated partner or their own primary partner contact, concerned staff should be connected with a designated human resources manager.  Instruct them to answer no questions related to the emergency, no matter how long they have been with the firm and how much they think they know.

Brief your senior professionals regularly.  Give them the facts of the situation and what the firm is doing to handle it.  Instruct them not to answer any questions related to the problem, but to refer anyone who asks to the right partner or spokesperson to handle it.  Provide them with information and statistics they can use to discuss the issue with professional and office staff.

Make use of electronic communications.  If you have an Intranet or LAN/WAN, distribute a daily briefing bulletin to keep all employees informed of events and progress.  Keep in mind that anything you put on the Intranet or network could find its way out of the office.

There are organizations, particularly the larger public relations agencies, that have specialists in crisis communications.  It might be worthwhile for your firm to hire a consultant to come in and help you set up an emergency plan for the unexpected.  Once the crisis hits, everyone will be too busy dodging bullets or trying to rebuild to think in terms of the bigger picture.

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The Types of Crisis and Their Typical Lifecycle Stages
From natural disaster to management turmoil to criminal events, this scholarly work describes the phases and stages of various kinds of business crises.

Crisis Management Thesaurus
A handy reference work that defines terminology used to describe crises and disasters.  Developed by the Corporate Response Group, Inc.

Post-Crisis Structured Management Response
Review this matrix that can help you formulate the steps to take immediately when you become aware of a crisis.  Developed by Crisis Management International, Inc.

Crisis Management and News Media Relations
How reporters decide to report--or not to report--can determine whether a crisis becomes a crisis. Get tips for how to defend yourself when you are the story from the book Winning with the News Media by  Video Consultants, Inc.

Institute for Crisis Management
A management consulting firm specializing in crisis management. Prepackaged sets of their ``Sudden and Smoldering Crisis" worksheets can be purchased from the web site.

Crisis Management, Crisis Communication
A collection of books and videos that can be used to inform your key partners and spokespersons about how to communicate under seige.

Disaster Masters
Most disasters are preventable.  Use the online check lists to get you started in thinking the right direction so you can be prepared for what you hope will never happen.

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Copyright 1998 by Kaye Vivian (kvivian@cloud9.net).  All rights reserved.  Permission to reprint is granted provided this article is not altered and the copyright notice remains attached