10 Essential Steps for Effective Crisis Management by Evan Nearman (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: Hi, this is Evan Nearman, founder and CEO of crisis management firm Red Banyan. Today I want to talk about 10 steps to effective crisis management. Step one, be prepared. What's the best way to do that? Do what we call a crisis audit. Most people think crises come out of nowhere and you never could have seen them coming. Not the case. In almost every situation, a good crisis manager or crisis management firm can work with your organization in order to pinpoint where you'll be most vulnerable. Number two, avoid analysis paralysis. What often happens in a time of crisis is folks are uncertain about what they should be doing, and as a consequence, they do nothing. That is a recipe for disaster. So whatever you do, if you find yourself under fire, avoid analysis paralysis. Step three, act early by bringing on a crisis manager. It could either be someone who you've got internally, who's been trained and is experienced, or you enlist the help of an outside individual or crisis PR firm. There's absolutely no substitute for experience when it comes to managing a crisis, and when your organization is under threat and under attack, that is not the time for someone to be getting on the job training. Number four, tell it all. If you've got bad news, tell it all and tell it early. Get that information out there and don't let it come out in drips and drabs, which is ultimately just going to prolong your pain. Number five, own your situation. It is not a good strategy to start blaming the media, blaming your competition, or blaming everyone but yourself. During a time of crisis, whether or not you're directly responsible for it or if a series of circumstances have put you on the defensive, either way, now's the time to be authentic, to own it, to take responsibility, and as long as you convey to folks that you're taking this seriously and you're going to do what it takes to make the situation right, you have an opportunity to pivot and put the crisis behind you. Number six, press the truth. What does that mean? That is the approach that we at Red Banyan advise our clients to take. Pressing the truth means not sitting back, not being reactive, but being proactive, getting your message out there, getting in the fight, engaging with the press, and making sure that you have a voice because if you're not willing to defend yourself and tell your story, no one is going to tell it for you. Number seven, move on from mistakes. Put them where they belong, which is the rearview mirror. You need to convince people with authenticity that you are a better company today than you were yesterday, even if you've made a mistake. To err is human. Organizations are made up of humans. If you make a mistake, it's okay. It doesn't have to be the end of your brand, the end of your organization. You can move forward. Number eight, share with care, post with purpose. This was the topic of a TED Talk that I gave several years ago. By that, I mean whoever's controlling your social media needs to ensure that every post that goes out from the organization, you need to be careful about what you're saying and you need to think through the strategic objective before you click post. Number nine, defend your reputation. Don't allow others to attack you and have it go unanswered. If you're not willing to defend yourself, no one else is going to defend you. If you have surrogates and supporters, mobilize them as well because you need them to get in the fight to back you up. Number 10, stay vigilant. You got to know what's going on, even though it's painful to read those comments or to see what people are saying about you. If you don't know what's being said in the conversation, you're not going to know how to react and what to do. Again, thank you for tuning in. These are 10 steps to ensure that you and your organization can manage a crisis.