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The Essential Ingredients for Successful Crisis Management

July 2003

Dr. David Perl, Chief Executive of Docleaf gives his views on what it takes to emerge with your reputation intact following a highly visible crisis.

The Key Components
Managing a crisis need not be complicated, however, in the heat of the moment, it is all too easy to forget the basics. In no particular order of importance, I have listed what I believe are just some of the key components that need addressing:

Be prepared
Respond fast - the "golden hour"
Say sorry
Demonstrate care and compassion
Be there
Be open and honest in your dealings with the media
Be Prepared

As with anything in life, a little preparation goes a long way, whilst a lot of practice will go even further. Dealing with a large scale crisis can be a life threatening event for an organisation and you do not want to be on the learning curve during the crisis. From my background as a medical practitioner, we often used the following phrase when it came to learning new techniques and procedures: "see one, do one, teach one". A good starting point would be to appoint a crisis response team, train them around a robust set of procedures and then conduct regular drills and simulations. Testing your plans should be conducted on an annual basis as a minimum. Consider involving specialist companies when it comes to areas that you are not capable of handling competently yourselves.

The Golden hour
In medicine, we talk of the golden hour, whereby if someone suffers serious injuries, their chances of survival are much greater if they get to a well equipped hospital within the first hour. Crisis managers often refer to the same term, whereby if a company responds fast in the immediate minutes and hours following a crisis then their chances of weathering to storm are greatly enhanced. In order to ensure a standing start, do check your contact notification system as part of your planning and preparation.

Saying Sorry
Its understandable for an organisation not to want admit liability and in the past the act of saying sorry has sometimes been felt to be an admission of guilt. When something tragic has happened, it is human nature to want to offer your sympathy and express sorrow of what has occurred. All too often I have heard those impacted by a crisis state that they litigated because the corporate entity was uncaring, not compassionate and just did not say sorry.

Care and Compassion
As with saying sorry, it is vitally important that people harmed or bereaved by your crisis are treated with the utmost care and compassion. When it comes to providing emotional support, do not assume the authorities will do this for you, even more so if your crisis takes place overseas, where differing attitudes to death, bereavement are going to further challenge your crisis response. Major airlines now train up "care teams" of staff who can provide some of this practical and emotional support to friends and families caught up in the aftermath of an aviation disaster

Be there
If the crisis is big news, then make sure a senior company director is seen to take ownership for the crisis. A great example of this, although many years ago, was when Sir Michael Bishop, chairman of British Midland, immediately went to the crash site following the crash of one of his aircraft on the M1 motorway following the Kegworth air crash. It is surprising the number of people who still remember him appearing on the evening news, responding fast, taking ownership, demonstrating care and compassion and showing fine leadership skills

Never lie to the media
Much has been written about the importance of good communication when dealing with the media in a crisis. By their very nature, an investigative journalist will instinctively know if you are being economical with the truth, or worse, lying. A useful phrase to keep in mind when dealing with the media "tell it all, tell it fast and tell the truth", although how you tell the truth could be open to interpretation. When putting across your message, think more about what your audience wants to hear (be it an angry customer, a concerned employee, a bereaved relative or a determined pressure group ) over and above what you want to say.

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The articles which appear on this web site are written and/or edited by Dr. David Perl, Chief Executive of docleaf®, unless otherwise mentioned. Articles are copyrighted to docleaf®. Permission to reprint will usually be granted for no charge. Write to info@docleaf.com. The articles represent the opinions of the authors and all information is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind.

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