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PUBLIC RELATIONS

Jonathan L. Bernstein
Chairman & Founder Bernstein Crisis Management, Monrovia, CA.
They are top crisis management consultants ready to share expert
advice with over 30 years experience with clients worldwide.
Jonathan is a self-admitted “Internet nerd,” who has pioneered
strategies and tactics for Internet-centered crisis and reputation
management. He is the publisher of Crisis Manager, a first-of-its-
kind email newsletter written for “those who are crisis managers
whether they want to be or not,” currently read in 75 countries.
We all are vulnerable to crises

Every organization is vulnerable to crises. advance work in order to minimize damage.
The days of playing ostrich – burying your So if you’re serious about crisis preparedness
head in the sand and hoping the problem and response, read and implement these 10
goes away – are gone. You can try, but your steps of crisis communications, the first seven
stakeholders will not be understanding or for- of which can and should be undertaken befo-
giving because they’ve watched what happe- re any crisis occurs.
ned with Volkswagen, Chipotle, FIFA, and Lan-
ce Armstrong. THE 10 STEPS OF
If you don’t prepare, you will incur more CRISIS COMMUNICATIONS
damage. When I look at existing crisis ma-
nagement-related plans while conducting 1. Anticipate Crises
a vulnerability audit (the first step in crisis If you’re being proactive and preparing for
preparedness), what I often find is a failure to crises, gather your Crisis Communications
address the many communications issues re- Team for intensive brainstorming sessions on
lated to crisis or disaster response. Experience all the potential crises that could occur at your
demonstrates that organizational leadership organization.
often does not understand that in the absence There are at least two immediate benefits to
of adequate internal and external communi- this exercise:
cations: You may realize that some of the situations
z Operational response will break down. are preventable by simply modifying existing
z Stakeholders will not know what is hap- methods of operation.
pening and quickly become confused, angry, You can begin to think about possible re-
and negatively reactive. sponses, about best-case/worst-case scenari-
z The organization will be perceived as os, etc. Better now than when under the pre-
inept, at best, and criminally negligent, at ssure of an actual crisis.
worst. In some cases, of course, you know a crisis
z The length of time required to bring full will occur because you’re planning to create it
resolution to the issue will be extended, often — e.g., to lay off employees, or to make a ma-
dramatically. jor acquisition.
z The impact to the financial and reputati- There is a more formal method of gathering
onal bottom line will be more severe. this information I call a “vulnerability audit,”
z The basic steps of effective crisis com- about which information is available here.
munications are not difficult, but they require This assessment process should lead to
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