Effective Crisis Management: Communication and Containment Strategies (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: What to do in a case of crisis? Two main words, two main words you have to remember and it's easy to remember them because they both start with a C. If you think of crisis, you have to think of communication and containment. Communication, well, it's obvious. You have to communicate in a case of crisis. There's no chance to hide. You can't hide in a case of crisis. The press is going to find you. They will track you down. So you have to provide the information, but you have to stay on top of the information. You've got to feed them. It's not necessary just to answer their questions. You have to give the information. That's very important in a case of crisis. So don't hide. Communicate. Containment means that you really have to keep your crisis small. Put it in a container. Make sure that it doesn't grow. It doesn't turn into, from a small crisis, into a big mushroom or a cauliflower. Because if you don't communicate, it might be possible that the press will start to speculate. They will write anyway. They'll make their TV program anyway. So in case of speculation, this will happen. I heard that there's two people dead. It might not even be true. So avoid the speculation through communication. And then you'll contain your crisis. Communication and containment. How do you communicate? Well, three main issues you have to assess. First of all, make sure you've got the information. It's easy. As soon as you are aware of the fact that there's a crisis, you have to start gathering information. If by chance a journalist calls you, for instance, ask for five, ten, fifteen minutes, top, in order to gather your information. Make sure that you're on top of the knowledge. Feed them with the right information. Secondly, especially if there are human victims, people who got hurt or worse, people who died, make sure that you show your sympathy. Make sure that you show that you care. Your company, your organization cares about the people who got hurt. Very important. Show your human face. And if there are human victims, number one actually becomes, number two, sorry, actually becomes number one. Whatever question they throw at you, first thing you have to say is that your heart goes out to those victims or the relatives or the families of those victims, people who got hurt, and express your hope that they will get better. So information, sympathy. And a third issue is that you have to show the public what you are going to do. How you are going to solve this crisis or how you are going to avoid it in the future. You have to take your responsibility. So responsibility, what are you going to do? How are you going to solve this problem, this crisis? And what are you going to do to avoid it in the future? Information, sympathy, responsibility. If you show these three elements in your crisis communication, then you are doing a very good job.