Month: September 2017

Today, thanks to the internet, you all have a vast array of crisis management resources at your fingertips. One of our favorite sayings is, “every employee is involved in crisis management, whether you want them to be or not”. It’s true, and it’s one reason why we’ve made a selection of free resources available on the Bernstein Crisis Management website.

Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training is used as a textbook for PR courses across the country thanks to its reputation as the definitive “how to” guide for anyone who may have to deal with the media.

Our Crisis Communications Preparedness Checklist, which provides eye-opening insight into exactly how ready any given organization is for a true crisis situation.

Jonathan Bernstein’s “30 Lessons from 30 Years of Crisis Management”, an article that brings you a collection of priceless information and insight from a veteran thought leader in the field.

A Public Affairs Preparedness Checklist meant to test whether you’re ready to contest in the arena of public policy and governmental relations.

To find all of these resources and more, visit the Bernstein Crisis Management website.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc., an international crisis management consultancy, author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is vice president for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

We love to connect with readers on LinkedIn! Connect with Jonathan | Connect with Erik

While some crises come out of the blue, and every crisis management effort involves some form of in-the-moment adaptation the vast majority can at least be predicted in terms of category. For example, every organization should have plans in place for a category of events titled “natural disaster”. You don’t know exactly what that disaster might be, but that shouldn’t stop you from preparing to face them.

In his “10 Steps of Crisis Communications”, Bernstein Crisis Management president Jonathan Bernstein talks more about this important part of preventing issues:

1. Anticipate Crises

If you’re being proactive and preparing for crises, gather your Crisis Communications Team for intensive brainstorming sessions on all the potential crises that could occur at your organization.

There are at least two immediate benefits to this exercise:

• You may realize that some of the situations are preventable by simply modifying existing methods of operation.
• You can begin to think about possible responses, about best-case/worst-case scenarios, etc. Better now than when under the pressure of an actual crisis.

In some cases, of course, you know a crisis will occur because you’re planning to create it — e.g., to lay off employees, or to make a major acquisition.

There is a more formal method of gathering this information I call a “vulnerability audit,” about which information is available here.

This assessment process should lead to creating a Crisis Response Plan that is an exact fit for your organization, one that includes both operational and communications components. The remaining steps, below, outline some of the major topics that should be addressed in the communications section of the plan.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc., an international crisis management consultancy, author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is vice president for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

We love to connect with readers on LinkedIn! Connect with Jonathan | Connect with Erik

There mere thought of being interviewed by the media leaves most people sweating. And frankly, it should. The vast majority of people, including those who are currently assigned to be their company’s spokesperson, are simply not ready to talk to the press in a crisis situation.

One of the most common pitfalls we see is a sense of confidence built up by doing a number of ‘good news’ interviews. Most trainees who come to us with this type of experience feel great about their skills…until about 3 minutes into our crisis-related media training course. The questions are not the same, the level of aggression from the reporters is way amped up, and those softballs you were tossed when you were doing the ‘good news’ interviews go right out the window. Being truly prepared to deliver crisis interviews means learning what to expect, keeping up on the latest tactics, and practice, practice, practice to keep your skills sharp.

If you’re the person responsible for communicating in your organization, or would like to become that person, this list of 33 media training tips from Udemy and Elena Verlee will make a good additional to your study materials.

[Click image to enlarge]

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc., an international crisis management consultancy, author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is vice president for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

We love to connect with readers on LinkedIn! Connect with Jonathan | Connect with Erik