Crisis Communication

Dealing with Crisis

At some point in a company's life, a crisis is bound to happen. Whether Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson or Perrier, our text and class assignments presented many different types of crises and their eventual outcome. Some of the companies survived while others perished. And in each case, how different companies communicated their respective crises to constituents played a large part in the fate of the organizations.

To effectively handle a crisis, an organization must have taken precautionary measures prior to when the crisis occurs. By assessing the various risks, organizations can outline a plan and discover which constituents will be most damaged by a crisis. A formal plan including strategies for notifying employees and the media, as well as identifying a crisis headquarters must be documented.

Companies must gain control of the situation at the outset. A discovery process must take place followed by an educated public statement from the company's communication professional. Business must continue during crisis situations, so managers should be careful not to stray. Finally, the organization must learn from the crisis and make strides as to avoid a recurrence at some point in the future.

Avoid the Past

Roughly fifteen years ago, a major competitor of my company implemented a new business system. The system crashed within minutes of going live. The company had no contingency plan in place and millions of sales dollars and a huge lump of market share went out the door to other competitors. The organization was nearly ruined and struggled for a decade to regain business. Fifteen years later, my organization is about to implement a similar change. We, however, are prepared. "Plan B," "Plan C," and "Plan D" are all in place in the event of a catastrophe. We have learned from the mistakes of others and have taken great strides to prevent such an occurrence. But in the event something does happen, crisis teams and plans have been created.

A few years ago I had an internship with a grocery retailer. During a new store-opening the electronic food stamp reader malfunctioned. It was discovered that an administrative representative had failed to properly communicate when the system should be turned on. The other intern and I were placed in charge of handling the large groups of irate customers. Fourteen hours later the store closed for the evening and the crisis subsided. There had been no planning for such an event and the two of us were thrown into a hypothetical fire and were expected to put it out. While such an experience gave me knowledge for the future, it is an event that I would hope not to repeat in my professional career.

Links for Example

This link details the resignation of former FEMA head Mike Brown after the federal government's mishandling of Hurricane Katrina. It is a cruel irony that the head of an emergency relief organization was forced to resign after a catastrophe of such magnitude, but this example proves without a doubt the importance of sound crisis management.

The following video is a brief clip of Tony Shelton, President of Shelton and Caudle Crisis Communication Training offering tips on handling an organizational crisis:

Internal Communications

Communicating Within

Today's business offers a bevy of communication options. Whether it is e-mail, instant message, text message, video conference, audio conference, web conference, oh, and I cannot forget the telephone, employees are inundated with communication. While the aforementioned methods do benefit our organizations by making communication easier, managers must be careful to not solely rely on them. Face to face communication still does more to encourage and empower employees than any list of toys ever could.

Common issues arise in regards to internal communications. It is important to define these problems and make efforts to correct them. Many times the wrong people are in a certain "loop" while the right people are left out. This not only leads to misinformed employees, but could potentially alienate those who feel their opinions were devalued. Another issue is message misinterpretation. Each person processes information differently. If a communication is not conveyed explicitly in terms that the audience can understand, the message is lost. Noise always affects messages. Communication audits by an outside agency provide great insight to a company and their communication habits. This outside source brings objectivity to an otherwise subjective topic. An audit can help members on each side of a communication breakdown learn to improve and better prepare them for the future.

To effectively manage internal communications, organizations should make sure to do the following: Communicate upward and downward. This tactic will let employees know that someone is listening to them and not always just talking down to them. Face to face meetings remain invaluable to the morale of an organization. Exchanging feedback during these sessions helps each person feel more involved. And finally, company intranets and employee publications help employees stay in touch with their organization and help them feel a sense of belonging. Each of these factors can help companies engage and enlighten their employees, which does nothing but help internal communications.

The way I see it

An unfortunate reality of my company is that effective upward and downward communication is not present. The employee handbook says there is an "open door policy," but that is just fluff. There is no sense of communication other than a rigid, up-the-ladder approach. Not surprisingly, communication at my company is strained. There are instances of not being included in meetings of which I serve as a central information source. This lack of communication hurts the ability to successfully complete projects and move forward.

In a much different example, I cite my internship with Aldi Foods in 2006. The position was District Manager intern and the major focus was to shadow a District Manager's day to day responsibilities. Communication was upward and downward. DM's would easily communicate to store managers, assistant managers and store clerks. Clerks were encouraged to openly communicate with the DM's regarding any topic, serious or light. Employee morale across the organization was high and this welcomed communication played a large role.

Prime examples

This article shows an unfortunately true example of what happens when different departments in an IT company do not communicate well internally. Skewed perceptions between the different functions magnify the problem further.

The following video is a take-off of the Mac v. PC commercials. It features "Paper" and "Electronic" going back and forth about the use of technology to increase internal communication. In this case, "Electronic" has the upper hand, but it does highlight traits of each method.