You’ve just woken up to a buzzing cellphone. Just as you reach to silence it, you notice that dozens of text messages have come in while you slept.

Brace yourself: your organization is in an active crisis, and you’re going to need to guide the team through it. 

While it might seem far-fetched, the reality is that no organization is immune from crisis. No one can predict when a certain product will experience a recall, and how that might send shockwaves through an entire industry; or when a celebrity spokesperson’s personal life becomes front page news, affecting every one of their nonprofit partners. No one can predict when a natural disaster will leave an entire country in need of emergency support, or when the results of a political election will leave local officials and small businesses in crisis response mode.

Preparing for any one of these situations must begin long before the crisis takes place. However, most organizations brush aside the importance of planning until they find themselves at the center of the storm. 

To situate your organization for the best possible outcome in trying times, we suggest living by the classic Stoic virtue: You Don’t Control What Happens; You Control How You Respond. As history has shown, it’s often an organization’s response to an incident that will determine whether its stakeholders view the organization in a negative or positive light after the incident.  So, preparation is key to your success. 

To help with your own preparation, here are a few of the action steps we share with our clients when developing issues management and crisis communications plans:

• Manage Issues to Reduce the Chance of Crisis. Many organizations fail to identify potential issues and manage them properly, which can lead to manageable issues elevating to the level of crisis. To prevent that from happening to your organization, consider the various situations that could threaten the integrity or reputation of the organization, and create a plan for action when you see them arise. Failure to deal with certain issues rapidly and forthrightly can lead to a much larger crisis, and that could have a devastating and long-lasting impact on your organization.
• Track the Trends. Identify a representative from within your organization who can assist you in tracking key issues and trends, exploring issues as they arise and keeping a pulse on potential situations that could harm or threaten the organization. If they see something alarming arise, you’ll have a head start on pulling your go-team together.
• Have Your Go-Team in Place. Appoint a small team of highly trusted individuals across your organization who would be called on should an issue arise that meets the level of potential crisis. This team is aware of their role and understands that they may be called on at any moment to support the crisis response strategy. You may even choose to convene this group a few times a year for crisis response drills, to ensure that they’re even better equipped to respond when an actual crisis arises.
• What You Say Matters. During a situation, your response and talking points should express integrity, transparency, openness, accountability, and commitment. Your job is to provide as much relevant and accurate information as possible, without sharing more than you are able in that moment. While there are advantages to a cautious approach to communications in difficult situations, there is also a great danger in not communicating quickly enough and being perceived as unresponsive as hiding something. The more quickly and prudently we begin to communicate, the more likely we are to gain control of the communications, and the situation.

Bottom line: No organization is immune from a crisis erupting at any moment.  It’s how you prepare, plan, and coordinate in the moments of calm that will determine if you’re able to weather the storm when it rolls in. 

This is week 44 of the Finding The Words column, a series published every Wednesday that delivers a dose of communication insights direct to your inbox. If you like what you read, we hope you’ll subscribe to ensure you receive this each week.