A Crisis Communication Plan is fast becoming a must-have resource for organisations big and small. 

So, what is a Crisis Communications Plan, and how does it come into play during a crisis? 

A Crisis Communications Plan is an organisation-wide document that spells out roles and responsibilities during a crisis, protocol for action, and even details best practice models for moving forward. It is unique to each organisation, but the commonalities mean that a company can ensure all of its team are trained to handle a negative situation, and that the voice of the company is one, rather than many.

It comes into play as a guide for dealing with situations. By setting protocols, it helps ensure consistency of message; and it also helps to give focus to the teams involved.
What are the key elements of an effective Crisis Communications Plan, and how can we craft content for each of these elements? 

A Crisis Communications Plan has many elements. But the most important are the roles and responsibilities, communication channels, protocols, and approaches to possible scenarios.
Crafting relevant content for each is an in-depth process. It should involve interviewing team members at all levels of the organisation; to better understand internal processes and communication standards. 

Ultimately, we seek plausible and actionable plans for times of crisis which resonate well with the organisation. But these come from within first.

Additionally, we need to learn from past mistakes. Maybe the organisation has had previous issues which we can learn from. What worked well, and what didn’t. Furthermore, we can look outside of the organisation to understand how other businesses, be it within the same industry or further afield, have worked on addressing crises of a similar nature.

Once the content is crafted to the detail required, the most important step becomes training the teams to understand how to respond, and how to work together to survive the situation.

How often does an organisation need to review its crisis communications plan? With that, what are some of the ways that an organisation can communicate the plan internally to staff? 

There is not a fixed time, but a good systems auditor would ensure that a review is at least annually. I personally believe that the plan should be reviewed more frequently; as changes happen within an organisation, key personnel change, or as major external crises offer us key learnings to help strengthen our own plan.

Staff meetings, periodic training sessions, and internal newsletters / communiques are important tools to help communicate the plan. Just like a regular fire drill, we need to keep the team involved. For her hires, the plan should be discussed during their induction, and then followed up during other appropriate team opportunities.
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Image Credit: http://askaprexpert.com/?tag=crisis-planning

I recently came across an interesting article: Is a traditional university degree the equivalent of getting trained for the typing pool? The article itself didn’t give me much in the way of answers, but the TITLE certainly sparked the right question.

I think back to when I was at high school, last millennium; graduating university with a degree was a guarantee for a job. Yet, for my dad’s generation, having High School Certificate (Fifth Form) was a guarantee. Boy, how things change. Now (a generation or so later), as paradigms continue to shift, a degree is no longer a guarantee. A Masters degree is no longer a guarantee. Perhaps, a PhD?

The globalisation and McDonaldisation of tertiary education has created some unique paradigm shifts: first, degrees are more accessible, both offline and on, thus generating many more graduates. The once-prized piece of parchment is now somewhat more ubiquitous, thus making its holder less of a tall poppy, and more of the norm. 

Secondly, with the rise of Coursera and other platforms for education, we are shying away from traditional degrees, and embracing “sound-byte-style” education – picking and choosing the best of what is available to meet our needs, rather than the best of what a singular university has to offer. This often culminates in interesting learning, but an incomplete qualification in the traditional sense - meaning CV’s are filled with online study achievements, and less BA’s, BCom’s, and the like. 

So back to the question though, is a traditional university degree the equivalent of getting trained for the typing pool? Possibly yes, as the inflexibility and monotony of a traditional degree becomes less relevant in today’s workplace, and increasingly fails to meet the needs of learners the same way it did 30 years ago. But really, it’s just time for Universities, and employers, to change their thinking, and look beyond the paperwork to see the holistic patterns to personal and professional development.

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Image Credit:

https://www.wgu.edu/blogpost/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-online-universities.html

In short, YES & NO! 

Confusing, right?

Let’s look at it idealistically first. Yes should be the answer – we should always aim to keep our stakeholders happy. They have both direct and implied rights, and as such, the goal is to ensure that our obligations as an organization, to them, are always met.

But in reality, this is both impractical and impossible. The wider the diversity of stakeholders that we have to entertain, the harder it is to keep their respective interests in alignment with our own, not to mention, in alignment (or not in conflict) with theirs as a broader group.

Ensuring that all stakeholders are “happy” is a tough ask, so what we should strive to do is both find a balance where we try to address as many stakeholder interests and requirements as best as we can, remembering the context is the success of our organization first, and then ensure that our communication with stakeholders is transparent and regular.

Communication becomes key. If our communication with stakeholders is always prompt, transparent, and open, then we, as an organization, are doing what we can to best manage their expectations. We might not be making them happy, but we are keeping them in the loop, which is far more important.

So, let's start opening these doors today!