[Editor’s note: This guest post from crisis pro Janie Jordan highlights the importance of avoiding negative language in your crisis communications. While it’s more natural for many people to use words like don’t, not, won’t, or can’t when describing …
Do Your Crisis Management Firefighters Practice Their Skills?
Planning is important, but plans require practice to be used properly in a crisis Imagine you came upon a firefighting team just arrived at the scene of a fire, all milling around with leaders shouting conflicting orders, firefighters not recalling …
Know These Leadership Diseases So You Can Avoid Them
[Editor’s note: The author of this post, Paul Biddle MBE, has 23 years in UK Law Enforcement along with multiple tours of Iraq & Afghanistan. In other words, he knows some things about real world crisis management and crisis leadership. …
Further Misadventures in Fake News
[We came across this post on internet technology expert David Strom’s ‘Web Informant’ blog and thought our readership of “crisis managers, whether it’s in your job description or not” would find this in-depth explanation of several extremely manipulative strategies …
When Crisis Comms is the Right Thing to Do
[Editor’s note: This post is quite interesting as it examines a topic that’s not often approached in the public eye. If a company in crisis knows it’s going out of business regardless of how things play out, how should …
“Woke-Washing” Is Not The Solution For A Bad Reputation
[Editor’s note: Much like the hashtag fails we saw lead to crisis management disasters so commonly a few years back, the trend of “woke-washing” — trying to champion popular causes to demonstrate what a good company you are while …
The Ugly Side of Public Relations
[Editor’s note: This guest post comes to us from Australia-based crisis pro Tony Jaques’ Managing Outcomes e-Newsletter. While part of public relations and crisis management work inevitably involves assisting those who have made mistakes, we agree with Mr. Jaques …
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot Steps In It With Hot Mic
A hot mic captured Mayor Lori Lightfoot calling a Fraternal Order of Police vice president an “FOP clown” during Wednesday’s City Council meeting, but she later apologized and acknowledged it was inappropriate for her “to say that out loud.” As Fraternal …
Crisis Management Case Study: Exploding Fireplace Recall
[Author’s Note: The general public seldom gets to see what goes on behind the scenes of a significant product recall. It ain’t always easy!] The Crisis Home Products manufacturing (name disguised), based in the Midwest with operations throughout North …
Tips To Help You Sort Through Today’s Polarized Publics
More and more often while working with clients we see examples of how extremely polarized audiences have become today. While gauging public reaction to your crisis communications is a recommendation any expert will give you, fewer mention the fact …
Smart or Risky? Starbucks Instructs Employees On Crisis Comms After Former CEO Announces Presidential Bid
Like it or not, when someone’s represented your company publicly for many years that association sticks around after they retire. That’s a lesson Starbucks is learning the hard way after former CEO and chairman Howard Schultz announced that he …
3 Tips on Public Speaking from the Experts
Improving your ability to deliver the often-intimidating media interview or public statement According to Psychology Today, people are more afraid of public speaking than death. I see you nodding your heads out there, and to be honest when I first …
What Do You Do When The Media Goes Too Far?
This article, written by Bernstein Crisis Management president Jonathan Bernstein, has only grown in relevance since it was written. More often than not when we’re assisting clients with breaking crisis response there are reporters involved, and a worrying percentage of …
Wells Fargo And The Dangers Of A Tarnished Reputation
Explaining why a slow trickle of “small” bad news keeps companies facing major crises in the headlines Why do seemingly minor issues result in damaging headlines for organizations facing crises? In this interview for NPR’s Marketplace, Bernstein Crisis Management VP …
How to Spot a Crisis 101: What is a Crisis?
Spot a crisis early to minimize damage How do you spot a crisis? Clients are frequently surprised when they bring us in because of what they’ve deemed a “potential problem” and we inform them they’re heading straight for a full-blown …