Crisis Communication Training for Business
Crisis Communication Training: A skills development program
for effective organisational response during a crisis.
Turning potential crises into opportunities for stronger reputation
When bad things happen to good companies, it’s already too late to ask,
“Now what do we do?” We need a plan before a crisis strikes.
Better still, with Crisis Communication Training, a business can analyse where
the potential crises are and cut them off before they become a problem.
In a world obsessed with brands and image, it is dangerous to forget about corporate reputation. Each organisation is surrounded by stakeholders who have an interest in its activities; an individual browsing a supermarket shelf, a doctor considering prescribing a pharmaceutical product or a community examining plans for a new factory in the neighbourhood – stakeholders will be more influenced by the way a company conducts itself than by any glossy advertisement. This is particularly true in times of crisis.
Reputation conducts training workshops, providing your team with processes and principles for effective crisis communication. The session covers structures for a crisis team, managing the crisis team and the facilities it needs, information flow and handling the media. A mini crisis simulation can be built into the session, providing an opportunity for the team to put into practice the skills they have been exploring during the day.
Our Crisis Preparedness workshop covers:
- An issue versus a crisis
- The aims of crisis communication
- A crisis communication plan
- A crisis communication team
- Managing stakeholders
- Managing messages in the media
Participants leave the training session with:
- A risk analysis template
- A tool to identify key stakeholders.
- A template for a crisis communication protocol including contact databases, first advice procedures, monitoring, reporting
and evaluation. - Other training materials
Crisis Media Training
Reputation also provides a course for media spokespersons in a crisis:
- The media and journalists including online media
- Understanding what makes news
- Responding to media inquiries
- Messaging (soundbites)
- Handling difficult/ aggressive questions
- Exercise 1 – a practice press interview recorded and played back with critique
- Exercise 2 – a practice radio interview recorded on camera and played back with critique
- Exercise 3 – a practice TV interview recorded on camera and played back with critique
- On-going media relationships including follow-up or appeal
- Issues such as ‘off-the-record’ or ‘No Comment’
Our Approach to Training
- We research your business, industry or business sector and your issues before each program.
- Programs are structured to meet deliver maximum return on each participant’s time.
Handling an issue or crisis can be management’s biggest challenge. It can represent significant risk to a company’s reputation, impact upon daily operations, traumatise staff, adversely affect customers and damage short and long-term financial performance.
Likewise, many issues test the capability of management on a day-to-day basis; staff morale problems, information leaks, legal challenges, deteriorating customer confidence, rumour and speculation in the media are among the more vexing challenges facing management today.
There is no escaping the fact that in the 21st Century, the public will demand to know what is happening in a crisis and how management is coping. Companies can try to deny this and suffer the consequences or responsibly manage the situation.
We have been supporting companies and other organisations in a range of communication functions, including preparing for and responding to a crisis or serious issue that threatens their good name and brands. We’ve been doing this for more than 30 years.
Increasingly, we are delivering programs in an online virtual environment opening up our training solutions and services to a broader audience spread across Australia and around the world.
Contact us to find out more about our solutions.