We recently joined Pinnacle Worldwide one of the world’s leading organizations of independently owned public relations firms. Through our affiliation with Pinnacle, when we need feet on the ground in cities throughout Europe, North America, Latin America and the Asia Pacific region we will now be able to offer our clients experienced local public relations practitioners that we trust.

At a recent Pinnacle meeting in Washington DC, I was fortunate enough to listen to a presentation by Roger Conner, Vice President, Communications for Marriott, on crisis communication. He had some interesting things to say that I think are worth considering.

The first issue is that crisis can no longer be simply defined. A crisis can range from an act of nature to a terrorist attack to plummeting stock values to food poisoning. And in every situation, the need to act is immediate. Roger calls his strategy TLC – Timing, Leadership and Content. He said the new acceptable level for a first public response is 10-15 minutes. Wow. How many of you have a plan in place that would allow for the transmission of accurate, unemotional information and a response to media in that amount of time? This is what he calls “world-class crisis management”.

Perhaps you don’t need that level of preparation, but are you prepared at all? Here are some things to consider:

• The old Crisis Communication manual of the past is dead. If it takes that long to read through it, you’re in trouble. You will not be timely. A plan should be short and clear.
• What is the chain of communication? How quickly can company leaders be contacted and informed?
• What is the chain of approval? How quickly can a response be crafted and approved for release?
• Is legal counsel part of your chain? Well, there’s your sticking point. Just kidding. Sorta. Those of you in PR know what I mean….
• Are your leaders trained to speak publicly? Do they know what they should and should not say in a crisis?
• Can your leaders speak “people speak” vs. “corporate speak”? Corporate speak won’t fly in a crisis. Every crisis involves pain in some way and your spokesperson needs to be empathetic.
• Only talk about what you do know. Don’t be afraid to say what you don’t know.
• Keep your messages simple and fast.
• Don’t rely on one mode of communication. Over the past 8 months, I have learned about almost every crisis or big breaking story through Twitter. Be sure you have a plan to reach lots of different audiences quickly.

Roger’s presentation was a timely reminder that things happen quickly. Preparing for those potential ‘things’ now can save you and your company from a whole lot of headaches later.