Ready for Anything: The Four Steps We Take to Prepare for Crisis Communications

Imagine you’re on an airplane when severe turbulence hits. Passengers grip their armrests, their eyes darting to the flight attendants for cues about how concerned they should be. 

In this moment of crisis, everything hinges on the crew’s response. A confident flight attendant who calmly continues their routine sends one message. A flustered, uncertain response sends quite another.

In any organizational crisis, leaders are the flight attendants. Your response sets the tone for everyone else’s reaction. And the key to projecting confidence when it matters most? Preparation.

When a crisis hits, your organization needs more than just advice – it needs a steady hand and clear vision. As your communications muscle, we help your team navigate the turbulence while keeping stakeholders confident through the journey ahead.

Yet, despite the critical nature of crisis preparation, a 2023 Capterra study revealed a startling truth: Only 49% of U.S. companies have a formal crisis communication plan. This gap between necessity and preparedness leaves organizations vulnerable precisely when they need strength the most.

This simple yet powerful approach highlights a fundamental truth: Crisis communications planning isn’t about predicting every possible scenario – it’s about building a robust framework that can adapt to whatever challenges arise.

Four Essential Steps to Crisis Communications Planning

Just as pilots follow a pre-flight checklist, organizations need a systematic approach to crisis communications planning. Here are the four essential steps that transform uncertainty into readiness:

Step One: Assess Your Vulnerability

“For many of our crisis planning clients, we start with a very simple, yet effective, exercise where we all get in a room and write down what could happen,“ says Allison McGillivray, associate at WPR. “There is power in getting these risks out of your head and onto paper. From there, we can plan.“

Create a comprehensive stakeholder map identifying who needs to hear from you during a crisis, including internal teams, external stakeholders and strategic partners. This foundation allows you to develop response protocols tailored to specific scenarios and audiences.

“Crisis is no time for org charts. The critical work of identifying who needs to hear what, when and how must happen in moments of calm,“ said McGillvray. “When a crisis hits, you need to be executing your plan, not creating it.“

Step Two: Build Your Crisis Team

Identify and train a core response team that includes executive leadership, communications, legal, HR, and operations representatives. Establish clear roles, responsibilities and decision-making protocols, ensuring everyone knows exactly what to do when a crisis happens. Remember to designate and train backup personnel for every critical role.

Step Three: Develop Your Response Framework

Create message templates, approval processes and communication protocols for various crisis scenarios, ensuring you’re never starting from scratch. Establish your primary and backup communication channels for each stakeholder group, along with clear guidelines for response timing and frequency.

Step Four: Test and Refine

Regularly test your crisis plan through simulation exercises and update it based on lessons learned. Practice builds confidence and muscle memory, ensuring your team can execute under pressure when it matters most.

Feeling a little flat-footed in the crisis planning department? Reach out to learn more about how we can help your organization prepare for turbulence ahead.