This post is the fifth ‘Lessons Learned’ from my experiences in several Worst Case Drills (WCDs) held in 2024. Each ‘Lessons Learned’ focuses on a specific issue revealed in the WCDs that affects communicators’ ability to communicate in a crisis. I plan on posting one per week for the next several weeks. Feel free to use this information to improve your own planning or response actions. I hope it helps!
Lessons Learned I’ve posted to date:
#1: The approval dragon lives!
#2: Don’t do your old job in your new job
#3: Effective initial actions ensure effective initial messaging
#4: Build cooperation in the JIC
I’ve included a ‘Mini’ Improvement Plan for each Lesson Learned, to help you ensure your readiness in an actual incident. Each action should fit into a coffee break, unless it reveals the need for more work – no guarantees then! (But contact me if you need help!)
A quick reminder: Effective drill performance is NOT the end goal of attendance: Effective RESPONSE performance is. Don’t fixate on ‘winning’ a drill; focus on being ready for an actual event. If a review of your drill capabilities reveals shortcomings, don’t wait for the next WCD. Fix it now!
5) Can you send content to stakeholders?
Stakeholder communication is a fact of life in a Worst Case incident. A large group of concerned stakeholders will expect to receive information from you directly. They will want to know what is happening NOW. Not communicating directly to them will impact their opinion of your organization, the effectiveness of your response and their willingness to trust you. Not a great starting point!
Despite this importance of communicating with stakeholders, WCDs seldom test your capability to disseminate information directly to them. They test your ability to draft and approve Press Releases and Incident Updates, possibly post them on a dark site to demonstrate your capability. But drills seldom include distribution to external stakeholders.
There is valid justification for not doing so. The drill environment is restricted to internal actions only. External impact and response activity are simulated. This keeps WCD costs down. Deployment is expensive. Outside activity might also draw unwanted attention from members of the public.
WCD participants are regularly reminded not even to talk about their WCD when outside the drill area. This is good advice: I once attended a terrorism exercise where participants were firmly reminded not to talk about the scenario in public areas of the host hotel. Hotel guests had overheard conversations about the simulated anthrax release and were trying to check out and flee the premises.
Given this enforced privacy, it’s obvious that sending created content to outside stakeholders in a WCD should be avoided. So we have this ‘abracadabra’ moment when drafted and approved information is magically ‘sent’ to stakeholders. A critical element of effective response isn’t actually being tested.
How does the JIC speak directly with stakeholders?
Social Media: A powerful tool for delivering message to individuals. The message can become mixed and uncontrollable. The ‘sender’ is often the ‘poster’ or the ‘commenter’ instead of the JIC. You don’t always know what your stakeholder are actually receiving. More on social media strategies in a later post!
Print and broadcast media: Absolutely a great multiplier of your message. But they’re also a ‘filter’ between what you provide and what they publish. You don’t have control over what or who they add or delete from your story.
Email distribution: If your objective is to speak directly with your affected stakeholders, you have to deliver your messages directly to them. This is typically done via email. While email is a powerful tool, it’s dependent on your ability to provide email addresses for all stakeholders who will want to receive response information from you.
How do you capture and communicate with your own stakeholders?
You actually already are. You already have access to people who are important to your organization. You just need to find them.
They’re on multiple lists within your organization, used daily to accomplish key business objectives. They’re client lists, vendor lists, government relations lists, employee lists, lists of marketing resources and so on. These lists exist. They’re updated for daily use and they each identify groups of your stakeholders. So find them and use them when you need them! A stakeholder list doesn’t accomplish much if you can’t access it or use it.
You don’t have to test it. You already know your email platform will send emails. Still, you need to make sure that you have accurate, updated stakeholder lists when you need them.
How do you test a distribution that never happens? Test the Process.
Find your stakeholder lists.
- Which lists? Start with the usual suspects: media, elected officials, employees, customers, vendors, regulators, shareholders, etc.
- Who owns the lists? Who uses them?
- Match the person to the directory
- Media: Public Affairs
- Elected officials: Government Relations
- Employees: Human Resources
- And so on….
- Ensure access and usability of each list
- Gather 24/7 contact information for each list owner. Explain that you may need ‘their list’ immediately, at any time.
- Gather 24/7 contact information for IT Staff. You’ll need them for website or social media support as well.
- Ask IT Staff to ensure a rapid upload of each directory onto selected email platforms.
- Lease, don’t buy!
- Let list owners own the lists. They’ll keep their lists updated because the need to for their own use. Just make sure you can access the list when you need it!
- For both List owners and IT staff, be sure they understand why timely and accurate lists are so important, and don’t forget to thank them for their help.
Your first and most critical audience
Do you have access to your Response Plan’s Incident Notification List? It’s a key requirement of your organization’s Response Plan. It’s a list of organizations that will be contacted directly by telephone at the inception of the incident. Contacts include response organizations, regulators, critical facilities such as schools or hospitals, as well as neighboring facilities and businesses. They typically include a small list of local or regional media as well.
Because they are the first notified (sometimes even before you are! Another topic…), contacts listed on the Notification List are your first and most critical audience. They know what has happened and they are likely sharing it with their own stakeholders. But unless you have their email addresses, they won’t be provided additional information or updates about the response.
Improvement Plan:
- Set up your list-leasing process with list owners and IT Staff
- Review the Incident Notification List to be sure you can provide information to the listed contacts.
- Make sure the Notification List includes email addresses. They usually don’t.
- Create a current copy of the list, in a compatible (email directory) format.
- Open the list and call a few of the phone numbers for local notifications. Are they correct?
- If not, dedicate time to verify each number AND obtain a durable email address.
- Send your finished list to IT staff to ensure rapid uploading for use.
- Buy your list owners and IT staff donuts? Coffee?
Interested? Want more information? Contact me!
On a related note: Does your Crisis Communication Plan provide guidance and tools like this that are needed for effective stakeholder communication in a crisis? Do you worry or wonder about its capability and currency? Here’s how you can be sure:
- Ensure coordination between plans. Review both Crisis Communication Plan and Emergency Response Plan to be sure they play well together.
- Assess your Crisis Communication Plan’s capability. I use 30 specific measurements.
- Recommend Plan edits. Draft the edits needed in Plan or policy language.
- Implement Plan edits. Add or edit content needed to maximize Plan effectiveness.
- Enjoy a newfound peace of mind. Both you and your plans are ready for the worst!
I’m happy to work with you to ensure your success! Here are two steps you can take right now:
Contact me NOW! The first person to contact me to mention this post will receive a credit for 8 hours of my Plan review services.