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What is crisis management?
Crisis management is the process of dealing with a negative or emergency situation that has the potential to harm an organisation, its employees, external clients and other stakeholders.
Why does crisis management matter?
Left unchecked any disruptive influences can have potentially catastrophic consequences, especially so in today’s multi-connected world.
Plan ahead
Given this, it makes sense to identify potential threats before they happen to deal with them.
Using a set of best practices and previous experience will pay dividends to prevent or lessen the damage.
A public relations agency with crisis management experience could be invaluable in protecting an organisation’s reputation which might be at harm, even when it is not at fault.
Other steps to be taken include regularly reviewing the crisis management plan, testing the crisis management plan and having a clear chain of command.
If the worse happens
Expect the unexpected, as the saying goes.
Indeed, due to the very nature of a crisis, each situation is unique so there’s no one-size-fits-all solution.
Implement what is relevant from your crisis management plan swiftly to demonstrate that your organisation is in control of the situation and has the best interests at the heart of those who might be negatively affected.
Burying your head in the sand by not answering calls or responding to emails is unadvisable as the rumour mill will go into overdrive.
Lessons learnt
Even if it is a bruising experience, in fact especially so, take what you’ve learnt in case it should happen again.
A post-crisis review will highlight what was successful, what didn’t work, were there any unexpected circumstances. It should result in a new crisis management plan that is improved and ready to be immediately implemented when required.
