Crisis Readiness

Readiness is critical to controlling a crisis, and the CCA team helps clients protect their credibility by preparing for a crisis before it strikes.

We know that a crisis may or may not be the result of a specific incident. It may be triggered by a physical event that isn’t managed correctly, or it may be caused by sudden revelations about a situation or conditions that have been ongoing for months or years. Because how you react and communicate with stakeholders determines the severity and duration of a crisis, we focus our readiness efforts on the communication aspects of a crisis, rather than the physical response, and work primarily with key executives, rather than addressing technical solutions.

Our approach to crisis readiness is based on the formula of plan + skills + test = crisis readiness.

Plan
We guide your team in the development of a comprehensive crisis communication plan, or in the audit of an existing plan. To be truly effective, this plan needs to be unique to your organization, and be created by your team. CCA’s experienced consultants will provide guidance to make sure that the plan is intuitive and easy-to-use in the heat of a crisis, and that is focused on clear, transparent, and immediate communication with the most critical stakeholders.

Skills
We then work with top executives and the personnel from across your organization who are closest to the key issues to prepare them to execute the crisis communication plan in any situation. In a series of preparation labs, we use “live-ammo” role playing, on-camera Q&A, and other hands-on techniques to give participants the tools they need to think like a stakeholder and respond effectively under even the most challenging circumstances.

Test
Both the effectiveness of the plan and your team’s ability to execute it must be thoroughly tested. We guide your team through a series of crisis management drills designed to test various aspects of your readiness. These drills, which range from tabletop exercises to full live-action experiences, always use authentic scenarios, which are so well researched and checked for accuracy that participants sometimes have difficulty distinguishing them from reality.

Of course, the real test of crisis communication skills is whether or not they work in the face of unfortunate events. Ours do, and they have been put to work addressing Alaskan oil spills, pacemaker failures, massive corporate restructurings, the release of life-threatening materials, and the loss of public trust. Our clients have also used these straightforward pre-emptive strategies to prevent regulatory action, Congressional hearings, and litigation.

In addition to guiding clients through the plan + skills + test process to ensure their readiness to communicate in a crisis, we also provide high-level Crisis Strategy services to clients dealing with current or impending crisis situations.