Freaking out is not a crisis management plan
Headless chickens running amok appear to be in charge of many organizations – including media outlets – in response to the spread of COVID-19 globally and its imminent status as a pandemic.
Freakout Crisis Management is not an effective means of responding to a crisis.
To most people, COVID-19 is not lethal health threat. But if your organization has operations dependent on products or people from an area heavily impacted by this coronavirus, you have potential need for significant crisis management/crisis communications to all impacted stakeholders, internal and external. How are you managing the interruption in a manner that will result in the least-possible impact on stakeholders? Are you communicating in a manner that demonstrates compassion, confidence and competence? Remember, your own employees are a critical audience and PR reps for your organization whether you want them to be or not.
That type of response requires a plan and people trained to implement the plan. And that’s not Freakout Crisis Management, that’s a Best Practice in Crisis Management.
Jonathan Bernstein
Founder & Chairman
jonathan@bernsteincrisismanagement.com