This post is the ninth ‘Lessons Learned’ from my experiences in several Worst Case Drills (WCDs) held in 2024. Each ‘Lessons Learned’ focuses on one specific issue revealed in the WCDs that affects communicators’ ability to communicate in a crisis. Feel free to use this information to improve your own planning or response actions. I hope it helps!
WCD Lessons Learned 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
#5: Can you send content to stakeholders?
#6: Adapt, adapt, adapt – adopt, adopt, adopt
#8: JIC/Liaison Cooperation is Key
A quick reminder: Effective drill performance is NOT the end goal of drills: 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!
There’s 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!)
Promote Effective Social Media Use
A key objective of most WCDs is demonstrating an ability to manage the message on social media. In well staffed exercises, a member or members of the JIC are assigned the role of responding to social media injects, using posted content from the JIC. Obviously this role is limited by available JIC staff. In most exercises the Simulation Cell (SIM Cell, or Truth) ensures that at least the JIC receives a representative impression of the challenge in effectively utilizing social media.
In a WCD, directions to the people performing this task are pretty straightforward: Read each inject, answer if possible/directed, track the sentiment and report it for additional content generation. If published releases or FAQs are available to respond, do so. It’s a minimalist approach, but remember that WCDs are short-term and short-staffed. Effective social media management is its own industry, for good reason.
A reality of some WCDs, heard from more than one SOSC: An SOSC-run JIC may not focus on extensive social media use on day 1. They often focus on first-day basics of providing response initial information through traditional media channels first, and ensuring that Unified Command and the JIC function smoothly together. This consideration makes sense when focused on a WCD, evaluating whether the PIO and JIC Manager can effectively work together to assimilate different people and organizations into the JIC, satisfy the initial demand for information and build a sustainable response social media process.
The problem: It looks completely different in an actual response. No need for gory details, but the longer you wait to engage with persons of interest on social media, the more ground you’re giving to the horde. You’re letting people who care about their own interest or bias more than the affected community, provide their own (twisted, slanted, biased, inaccurate, insert adjective of choice here) information.
When you don’t engage directly with people you care about, or who care about you, they’re likely going to receive bad information from these (insert adjective) sources of information. They’re trying to make sense of what happened and what you’re doing about it, but you’re leaving them in the hands of the horde. Instead of providing good information in a format that works on their platform of choice, you’re leaving them to sort through bad information. Your failure to provide important information to interested people can result in long term damage to both your relationships and reputation.
The Solution: Social media management requires rapid information flow. To prevent the disappearing hours between incident occurrence and JIC social media initiatives, the RP simply must lead in ‘pre-JIC’ social media use; it’s your reputation and interested people are your friends!
Improvement Plan: Can you answer the following questions?
- Who manages your organization’s social media? Are they available for responses? Are their services scalable to handle a high level of activity? Are they familiar with Incident Command, and have they attended a WCD?
- What content do they need? Will they receive all approved content from beginning of the response (pre-JIC) so they can use it as needed? Do they have permission to use all approved content as needed, and the ability parse out information to meet specific needs?
- What content do you have? If you’ve conducted an incident assessment which identifies key stakeholder concerns, the accompanying FAQs/Key Messages can serve as initial social media content.
- Are you recycling good content? The initial concern-specific FAQs/Key Messages can become introductory posts to expanded content addressing each concern. Initial posts can encourage readers to watch for subsequent posts.
- Who runs your organization’s website and social media channels? Are they able to support a high level of posting activity? Are they familiar with Incident Command, and have they attended a WCD? Can they coordinate activities with JIC Social Media initiatives when launched (day 2)?
- Have you established a reporting process? Is there coordination between your Web and social media personnel and the JIC to ensure ongoing determination of key issues, common messaging and coordination of schedules?
- Can you use content freely? Effective social media use may require a different (faster and looser) approval process to ensure availability of appropriate social media content in a timely manner. The regular measured pace of content approval isn’t built to sustain the fast pace of dialogue on social media accounts.
- Inventory, inventory, inventory. Prepare, prepare, prepare.
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.