The preparation checklist that you should go through consists of three key phases:

1. Initial Response to Incident
2. Assessment and Strategy
3. Implementation

Phase 1: Initial Response to Incident

During this phase, you need to identify the source and cause of the incident. Notify key managers and actors for the incident, i.e. key employees. When the key actors are briefed on the situation, preform an initial assessment or status report and prepare an initial response to the incident. Potential outcomes and ramifications are then estimated to define key problems.

Phase 2: Assessment and Strategy

This is the longest phase of preparation. It requires crucial action for crisis prevention. An incident management team is formed whose task is to assess key problems , risks and priorities. However, for the team to succeed, each member must be assigned a very specific role and responsibilities. Additional information is subsequently collected, and necessary action is performed. If needed, contact additional consultants and advisors.

After these initial steps, involving technical details, are completed, you need to assess the potential health and safety risks to all your stakeholders.

Additionally, incident analysis is required. In analyzing the incident, identify the central stakeholders who will be most affected, as well as their possible concerns and expectations. You need to analyze ongoing market issues that may escalate and affect your organization.

One aspect that cannot be overlooked, under any circumstance, is media coverage and social media – the level of public exposure determines how the crisis situation will be presented. False information or bad communication can harm your company’s standing and reputation in a heartbeat.

CRISIS COMMUNICATION – WHAT TO DO

In short, during crisis communication with the media, it is important to look at the incident/crisis through the “outer lens” (media report the event through the eyes of their audience), establish the facts of the event and provide journalists with information about 5W (Who, what, where, when, why and how?), then determine the sequence of events and facts that are not yet known and identify the stakeholders (who is affected and how?).

Extremely important for external communication is to communicate quickly, but accurately – speed must never go to the detriment of accuracy; appoint a spokesperson (if possible) for external communications, make a statement of status to confirm known facts, keep records of all media inquiries, and be available. In internal communication, it is important to provide advice to employees and explain what happened.

CRISIS COMMUNICATION – WHAT NOT TO DO

There are also practices that do not belong in the realm of good communication at all: cessation of communication – tell the media what you are doing and when you expect more information, indulging in speculation or presenting unconfirmed facts – an honest answer like “Let me find out and get back to you” is more appreciated. Also, never say “no comment” – it translates as “you’re right” or “we’re hiding something” and as a last point – don’t panic – or at least don’t show that you’re panicking!

The final part of this assessment includes estimating the effect of the potential incident. Damage assessment for both the best and worst case scenario is needed, as well as probability fo subsequent events.

U ovoj fazi, uspostavlja se strategija koja mora pokrivati korake u slučaju da se kompromitira obećanje tvrtke ili brenda prema potrošačima, zaštitu dugoročnih strateških ciljeva, opcije odgovora i posljedice te ciljeve i odluke koje odgovaraju na potencijalni incident.

Phase 3: Implementation

Implementation is the third and final phase of preparation. This phase implies that a completely structured workflow, communication plan, responsibilities and action plan is already in place. By this time, a system of measuring and supervision is ready. The final status reports are made.

In this phase, the incident is finally over. The focus is now on restoring your regular business – most importantly by identifying all the measures taken throughout the entire process, singling out the steps that need to be remedied.

1. Identification – identify the incident and find the route cause.
2. Initial assessment – assess the initial damage caused by the incident.
3. Investigation – get fully acquainted with the incident and informed about how the problem was cause.
4. Team mobilization – warn, mobilize and organize all the teams involved in the process. Each team has its own domain of action, but it is vital that everybody works together.
5. Repeat assessment – a repeat assessment of the situation must be made to identify and rectify errors that were possibly overlooked earlier.
6. Response strategy – follow a previously agreed upon strategy that involves incident response.
7. Communications – define and create internal and external key messages for each key audience and stakeholder.
8. Implementation – apply each step of the incident management process.
9. Closure – close the entire process and end the incident situation.
10. Review and improve – review the ultimate outcomes. Identify guidelines and strategies to minimize the damage done and to make improvements.

Steve Hather, Group Chief Risk Officer u Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company notes that special attention needs to be paid to four dimensions of a company’s preparation stage:

• Perspective – looking at the situation from the right and appropriate perspective
• Plan – making a specific plan
• People – engaging responsible actors to implement the plan
• Practice– practicing the plan in to boost confidence and trust among your employees

PERSPECTIVE

Even the world’s best methods for preventing crises cannot prevent every possible situation. Preparedness can create a false sense of security and even a state of denial when an incident seems likely to occur. It is therefore very important to maintain a realistic perspective: each company has to be aware of the possibility that a crisis can occur. It also has to pay constant attention and be up to date, developing the systems already in place.

Every company should have clearly defined ‘triggers’ which – when set off – make the right people aware of the incident in time. That way, by utilizing relevant resources and expertise, a quick solution may be found.

However, sometimes in a crisis situation, simply stating facts, defending standard procedures and pointing to results isn’t enough. You must look at the situation from the perspective of the key stakeholders involved in the crisis situation. In that moment you need to pay attention to their emotions, expectations, worries, and show compassion for their predicament.

When an incident becomes a crisis, you must remember that standard PR methods and tools do not always work in crisis situations. PR works by presenting an unfavorable situation in the best possible way, so that the problem would sound more acceptable to the public. However, PR methods never solve the root of the issue. A proper crisis management strategy removes the problem and effectively communicates a solution for it.

PLAN

There are various types of plans you could integrate into your crisis prevention strategy.

These types of plans are frequently used (but also relative to the type of your business):

• Incident Response Plan
• Product Recall Plan
• Crisis Prevention Plan
• Crisis Management Plan

“An incident response plan allows you and your team to think about and test your reactions when the incident does occur.”

A product recall plan is usually in the domain Quality Control, the head of which is only concerned with the technical side of the incident. However, when the incident escalates, the entire situation transfers to the crisis management team. At that point, the crisis management plan is activated. A crisis prevention plan should be in sync with the product recall plan, to prevent further escalation.

Plans are written guidelines which direct your team toward key questions. They enable a quick, appropriate response to contain the incident while staying ahead of further developments. Each type of plan listed above involves guidelines and tools which ensure that teams asks the right people, the right questions, at the right time; and, that team members respond swiftly, making decisions that lead to appropriate action.

PEOPLE

All plans and strategies are useless without the promising, capable and experienced people who put these plans into action.

For your plans to work effectively, you must organize special trainings which offer more than just reading material. Plans should guide people through key processes – the investigations, assessments, strategies and communication, which prevent an event from escalating into a crisis. Your employees must crucially understand these processes and plans.

Naturally, the role of the CEO is of great importance when an incident or crisis occurs. In crisis situations, all eyes point to the CEO, their actions and public appearances. It is quite often that unrehearsed public appearances cause further damage.

There are several skills that leaders need demonstrate to the public during an incident or potential crisis; Steve Hather lists these skills:

• Stay calm and think logically.
• Have a broad perspective.
• Manage teams effectively.
• Develop and routinely revisit existing strategies.
• Communicate effectively.
• Act with deliberation.

PRACTICE

To prevent the possibility of employee unpreparedness in a crisis, adequate training needs to be provided for everybody. This includes realistic simulations of crisis situations.

Each incident or crisis is different. Your teams need to be ready for various types of situations. By practicing a variety of crisis situations, your team can build confidence and get more familiar with the plans and processes to follow, increasing your effectiveness when a crisis occurs.

INCIDENT MANAGEMENT AND CRISIS PREVENTION TOOLS

In addition to the dimensions of preparation and adequate employee training, there are also specific tools used as frameworks for assessing, analyzing, and identifying next steps in crisis situations.

As the main ones we emphasize:

1. Problem analysis tool
2. Market sensitivity assessment tool
3. Incident impact analysis tool
4. Specially tailored crisis communications tool

The problem analysis tool answers a number of questions that lead to an initial assessment of the severity of the problem and the chances of overcoming the problem quickly, determines the nature of the problem from an external perspective, assesses the severity, size and urgency of the problem, as well as, the outcome of the situation as well as the worst case scenario.

The market sensitivity assessment tool takes full account of local conditions, sensitivities, public perceptions and any other relevant indicators that could grow into a global concern.

The incident impact analysis tool helps deeply understand how an incident affects all relevant stakeholders, deeply understand the first step in developing action and communication, to meet the needs of relevant stakeholders, and to meet (emotional and practical) stakeholder needs quickly and effectively.

The tool for tailor-made crisis communications, along with other materials and integration with other communication campaigns and tools, is accompanied by “skeleton” questions: What do we know? When should we communicate? Who needs specific tested messages? Where will we place our messages? How will we create communication materials? Where will we distribute our communication?

Crisis communication can be defined as the exchange of information or opinion before, during and after a crisis situation occurs. A crisis situation is defined as a specific, unexpected and unforeseeable event which has a negative impact on a company’s or an individual’s reputation, public perception, business and similar factors.

The company’s response in these situations is crucial, since a crisis is not only the event itself, but also the way a company approaches it. Reckless action on the part of the company or its members can make a bad situation much worse. Incidents must be recognized and managed properly, so they do not turn into a crisis. However, if a crisis does occur, precise and specific management guidelines need to be followed to get a crisis situation under control.

WHAT ARE INCIDENT MANAGEMENT AND CRISIS RESOLUTION PROTOCOLS AND WHY IS IT NECESSARY TO HAVE THEM?

Incident management and crisis resolution protocols are systematic, globally consistent and sustainable incident management procedures, designed to create and maintain an effective and integrated structure for incident prevention and/or incident management until successful resolution. They ensure effective incident management to prevent escalation.

Protocol strategy:

• Prevent the occurrence of incidents by establishing and maintaining robust asset protection capabilities throughout the business system
• People, products, infrastructure, information and finance
• Fully aligned and integrated with our resources and stakeholders
• The health and safety of the public, our consumers, customers and employees is paramount!

The ultimate goal is to protect the company’s most valuable assets – public perception and reputation.

“Readiness for a crisis situation is key to managing it!”

There are three key stages of crisis prevention and management:

1. Readiness – that is, the level of preparation done for a potential crisis.
2. Managing incidents so they do not escalate into a crisis
3. Managing a crisis and normalizing the situation.

But how to prepare a company or organization for a potential crisis?

Your initial response to an emergency situation, even if it’s just identifying the incident, will play a great role in how effectively you will be able to manage and de-escalate it, before it becomes a crisis. The key to incident management and de‑escalation is proper preparation. The preparation process needs to include all teams and employees. Everyone needs systematic response training for emergency situations.

Steve Hather, Director of CrisisClarity, notes that special attention must be paid to the four dimensions of a company’s preparation stage:

• Perspective – looking at the situation from the right and appropriate perspective
• Plan – making a specific plan
• People – engaging responsible actors to implement the plan
• Practice– practicing the plan in to boost confidence and trust among your employees

There are three basic steps to preparing your team for emergency situations:

• Develop a crisis management plan that will help your team act in the event of a crisis.
• Organize crisis trainings which will ensure your team understands this crisis management plan, and build the skills needed to react properly in emergency situations.
• Conduct realistic simulations of crisis situations, practicing crisis protocols, so your employees can understand their practical application.

You also need to conduct a crisis preparedness check during the preparation process. This includes three key stages: initial response to the incident; situation and strategy assessment; and strategy implementation.

If an unforeseen incident occurs, you need to implement the incident management process, which helps get the situation under control.

“Preventing crises and resolving incidents is the key to a sustainable and successful business approach!”

INSTEAD OF CONCLUSION

A crisis is an unplanned situation which, if not recognized on time, can cause great harm to your brand or business. It may be temporary, but it can leave lasting damage. Every company or organization must be aware of the dangers of potential incidents which – left unmitigated – can quickly escalate into a crisis. This is why protocols need to be enacted to avoid a crisis situation.

The most significant part of crisis management is being prepared – tools and methods of identifying and preventing crises on time helps a great deal. This is how you can identify and stop a crisis in the making. Consequently, the crisis period is shorter and outcomes are less damaging to your brand and your company.