Marketing & Communications Briefs

Crisis Communications: From Firefighting to Fireproofing

February 22, 2024

Our roundtable discussion with Members of the Marketing & Communications Center on What’s Up and What’s New in Crisis and Issues Communications? showed how much the work of crisis communications teams has been changing. Anticipating issues has become more important, internal and external communications are integrating more, and AI is a new assistant—all of which requires new skills.

This is part 1 of the insights from the discussion. Read part 2 here.

Trusted Insights for What’s Ahead^®

The focus has shifted from not only putting out fires to preventing future ones

Companies seek foresight into evolving issues to preempt or soften the impact. Most of our roundtable participants spends 40-80% of their crisis-related worktime on handling current crises and the rest on monitoring emerging issues.

In addition to monitoring systems, companies also try to extinguish risks at the root. For example, they put safety governance policies in place and encourage employees “to say something if they see something.” When it comes to responding to social issues, companies take more deliberation time to determine the appropriate response and not regret actions later. They often prioritize an internal response which can be tweaked for external sharing if needed.

It’s harder to prove the value of preemptive work. An averted disruption doesn’t reveal what would have happened without foresight and preventive systems, leaving communications teams to figure out ways to show evidence of their work’s value.

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 “Before things blow up—we call that ‘to the left of boom.’”

“[...]we've been proactive about assessing risks and leveraging our government relations and other resources to read tea leaves and prepare as much as possible, while dealing with daily issues.”

“An additional practice we use is meeting at the beginning of every year with the C-Suite to ask them about issues they see coming that year, and sharing with them the trends we're seeing as well. We call them Horizon Planning meetings, which makes them sound nice. We then take the information we glean and use it to head off, mitigate, or prep for these issues should they occur.”

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Companies are keeping track of many issues: ESG, Inclusion, unionization—and elections

The elections already consume companies’ attention. Companies track geopolitical and environmental risks, supply chain issues, unionization, legislative and political developments, and potential reactions to stricter “return to office” rules, but many are also looking ahead to the presidential elections. Some are “hyper focused on the political environment leading up to November.” But there are so much variability and many potential outcomes, prompting an attitude with some of “don’t overthink or overdo it.”

Companies are preparing an elections response plan. 65% of roundtable participants say that the election campaign this year could cause issues for their company and that they have or are creating a response plan. Some feel like reliving history, and they try to apply learnings from the last election.

An important focus is employees. Companies increasingly work with employee resource groups (ERGs). It can be useful to say in internal announcements “in consultation with XYZ ESG group.”

The work of “crisis” communications teams has outgrown the label “crisis” to include issues management

In many organizations, the label of “crisis communications” teams hasn’t changed although their work has expanded from managing current crises to proactively preempting them.

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 "Our crisis team in Global Regions actually changed their name to External Comms and Issues Mgmt.”

“We rebranded our team to Corporate Reputation Management to help the organization better understand the unique capabilities we bring to their efforts.”

“[...] the groups outside of communications we're connected to and that's elevated the value we bring to the organization. We've shifted the perception that we're a crisis team to being informed data-driven counselors on the front end of business decisions. That's helping shift more of our percentage to proactive identification and diminishes what may have previously felt like a crisis to being a managed response.”

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Having constant internal and external “seismograph” systems in place is key for preemption

Companies use multiple sources of information, both internal and external ones, to stay updated on relevant developments.

Cross-functional internal intelligence updates are key. Deliberate efforts for regular (e.g., bi-weekly) internal exchanges on external developments and events such as social risks, PR crises, legislation, and litigation with a variety of teams are crucial for staying on top of emerging issues. The mix of teams might include communications, legal, government relations, media relations, PR, brand, Inclusion, cybersecurity, business continuity, and more. 

Information exchanges are especially important for matrixed and siloed organizations. Organizations with teams in different regions can keep each other posted on relevant local developments which can help prevent crises by applying learnings from other regions.    

The exchange goes both ways. Communicators are valuable contributors of intelligence for their internal partners by sharing what they see externally, for example media coverage and company’s reputation. The combined information provides a more complete picture.

External experts such as PR agencies or cross-industry associations are valuable intelligence partners. They have a bigger perspective on issues given their work across companies and industries.

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 “We've got a very tight Comms, GR and Issues team, and I can't say enough about ensuring that synergy among those teams.”

“Agree 100%  - [...] the alignment and daily information-sharing are critical.”

“[...] capturing things before they blow up can be done by connecting across geographies, across business units, partners and peers is vital.”

“In addition we use the same external consultancy for PR and GA and our combined team meets weekly with their combined team to ensure alignment.”

“'connecting the dots' is vital inside the business but also connecting with peers across industries gives you insight into situations arising that you might not spot yourself. And equally, connect across the business.”

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