Crisis Management Key #1: Define What Constitutes a Crisis Before a Crisis Happens

Note to readers: Over the course of a 30 year career in public relations, I've had the opportunity to manage scores of crisis communication situations... from relatively minor scenarios all the way to the death of a public official and the resulting investigation by ABC 20/20. Along the way, I learned that there are five keys to managing a communications crisis… proven techniques that I'm happy to share with my readers.

Believe it or not, many organizations slip into a communications crisis without even being aware that it is happening...until it's too late to get in front of it. Equal measures of poor internal communication, management denial or just plain ignorance of what the news media will cover can combine to paralyze an organization as a crisis develops.

I counsel my clients to have a crisis communications plan in place and to have all managers familiar with it. And the heart of a good crisis communications plan is the definition of what I call "triggering events". An organization that is able to pre-define a crisis situation is an organization that will be able to manage it effectively.

Of course, triggering events will vary depending on the nature of the organization or business. But just to get you started, here are several events that I believe are universal in their applicability:

1) The death or injury of any person on company premises

2) The arrival of police at the company... for whatever reason

3) The loss of regulatory or accreditation status or any form of regulatory intervention

4) The arrest of a company employee for any reason

5) Service of a lawsuit of any kind on the organization or company

I could go on and on with examples of triggering events... but I think you get the idea. Think inside and outside of the box to identify possible negative events and incidents and put them on the list of your triggering events.

Remember, the only purpose of defining triggering events to know when to activate your organization’s crisis communications plan. Whether it's 30 minutes or 24 hours, any time for planning and preparation can spell the difference between being part of a news story or becoming the victim of a news story.