A-C-T N-O-W: A Strategy for 
Effective Crisis Communication

Part 3: Caring and Sharing in the Heat of the Moment

by Cheryl Reimold

In the past two issues of IEEE-USA Today's Engineer, author Cheryl Reimold introduced readers to the importance of crisis communication strategies in the workplace. Her articles have focused on one such strategy: A-C-T N-O-W. Click on the hotlinks to access Part 1 and 
Part 2. The final installment follows.

STEP 1:  Anticipate disaster

STEP 2:  Care about people affected

STEP 3:  Tell what you know immediately

STEP 4:  Note your next steps

STEP 5:  Offer help to reinforcements

STEP 6:  Write press kits and other pieces of public information

Successful communication strategies involve several steps taken during three distinct timeframes:

• Anticipation and preparation steps taken before a crisis occurs

• Steps taken during and immediately following crisis

• Steps and actions taken over the long term

In spite of even the best preparation, crises occur. After your immediate response, the A-C-T N-O-W crisis communication strategy outlines actions you can take over the longer term.

STEP 4: Note Your Next Steps

A crisis has occurred despite your best preparation. You have taken the necessary steps in the initial wake of the disaster, and now you can retreat briefly to prepare a longer communication program. Plan this program carefully by taking these critical actions:

• Check your priorities — Care, compassion and safety come first. Your first act at any point is to see whether you can do anything more to help the victims or prevent further disasters. If you are asked to answer questions while you are helping people, tell the truth: you are taking care of people right now and will get and give all of the facts later. No one will accuse you of making the wrong choice or skirting the issues.

• Plan updates — Plan your explanations and updates to the public. Remember, you are addressing people: workers, spouses, parents and children, not "the media." You are not trying to outsmart, outguess, or evade reporters. Rather, your goal should be to speak through the media to the people who have been affected by the crisis. If you keep people your focus, you will give honest, thorough and meaningful accounts and updates.

• Prepare for the five Ws — You will build good media relations by calling frequent news briefings and involving reporters from local and national papers, radio and television stations and the wire services. Reporters will want different types of information at different times and for different reasons. Some will want basic facts first and background and more in-depth analysis later. Some will want less background and more frequent updates. All reporters, however, will expect you to cover the five Ws:

1. Who — Who was hurt or involved? Who knows what happened? Who understands this problem?
2. What — What happened? What could happen as a result? What are we doing about it?
3. Where — Where did it happen? Where can effects reach? Where are our sources for help?
4. When — When did it occur? When will I have the information I need? When will we take our next steps?
5. Why — Why did it happen? Why didn't we stop it?

If you don't have the answers to these questions, find them. Get details about the product or event from engineers, designers, operators, attorneys or anyone else who might have them. Learn the remaining facts from everyone involved — from company executives and outside experts to customers, bystanders and even the media. You can bet reporters will check sources and verify facts, and you want to know at least as much as they do.

Always be scrupulously honest. Do not try to hide potentially damaging information about your company's performance or product. Remember, you are not the media's only source of information. If you lose credibility early on, you may never regain it. Furthermore, mistaken attempts to cover up company flaws may eventually bury the company itself.

• As you formulate answers to the five Ws, keep the latest facts, figures and other specifics in a notebook that you can refer to and update. Make your answers clear and precise, with all technical terms explained in "plain English."

• Rehearse your answers to the five Ws. Chances are that when a microphone is thrust under your chin, your composure will slip a notch. Being ready with answers will help you maintain the confidence you will need. Also, think about how you can use questions as bridges to get your message across. For instance, when you answer a question, note that you also want to look at the bigger picture or take a different approach and then deliver your own message. Be sure you have these "bridge comments" prepared and rehearsed as well.

• Prepare a written statement to read and distribute. Make your statement a single paragraph, if possible. Say what you believe happened, what it means, and what your company is doing about it. Include any other message your company wants people to hear.

The media can help you get your message across, if you approach interviews as conversations between decent people rather than as battles. You need the media even more than they need you, because they will ultimately be the ones who will tell the story to the world. The way in which you approach them and work with them may determine whose story they tell — and how they tell it.

STEP 5: Offer Help and Thanks to Reinforcements

Take the time to write letters and send faxes and telegrams to the people who are helping the victims. They will appreciate your recognition and will be more willing to go the extra mile for you. Remember a primary law of human interaction: people tend to respond in the way they are treated. Many companies have ignored this law and have paid the price. Those who approach the public with an aggressive attitude of self-defense spark fear and anger in the public. By showing compassion, company representatives will elicit a more sympathetic public response.

It's important to keep in mind, though, that to show compassion, you have to feel it. Feigned sympathy is more offensive than none at all.

STEP 6: Write Press Kits and Other Public Information Pieces

As soon as you can, prepare a press kit that tells the public what they want to know. Your press kit should include at least a press release and a backgrounder or fact sheet. If you have other information pieces that can help tell your story to the world, such as endorsements from respected professionals, add them. But don't hold your press kit up for these additional pieces. Get the facts on paper and get them out. You can always add updates and other information later.

Your press release should be short — one page, if possible — and should give the essential facts as you know them. Use company letterhead and label it "For Immediate Release." Include a contact person at the top, followed by daytime and nighttime telephone numbers. Give your release a headline and then write the release in short paragraphs. Ideally, your title should say what happened and what you are doing about it. For example, "XYZ Corporation Takes Three Steps to Stop Chemical Spill In Mill."

Start your first paragraph with the place and date, and then tell what happened, when, where, and to whom. If possible, include a direct quote from a company officer. Limit your first paragraph to three sentences. Use the next two or three paragraphs to tell how and why the disaster happened, if you know. If you do not know, consider what questions you, as a member of the public, would have and try to answer those. Use the last paragraph to tell what the company's next steps will be in dealing with the disaster.

Your backgrounder is an expanded press release. It gives a historical perspective to the event and answers some of the questions your press release might raise. Reporters generally turn to backgrounders for longer articles that appear after the initial story.

Open your backgrounder with a summary statement of the event: what happened — and why, if you know. Then give historical or technical information that will help people understand the event. Try to anticipate and answer questions readers might have. Include biographical information on the company officers, if it might be appropriate. Use subheads to separate different types of information.

In all cases, do not try to hide or gloss over available information. If you don't reveal a fact, someone else will — possibly with a different slant or undertone. Just tell the truth and answer every question you can anticipate.

No company wants a crisis to occur. But with careful planning and action taken before, during, and after such an event, companies can actually avert some, minimize others, and ultimately act in the best interests of everyone involved. No one should expect anything less.

Cheryl Reimold is Editor-in-Chief of IEEE-USA News and Views and president of PERC Communications, a consulting firm that provides writing services and offers courses on writing and other communications skills to businesses and associations. Visit her website at http://www.allaboutcommunication.com.