Preparing Your Business for Unexpected Crises

Crisis training isn’t optional. It’s CPR for your reputation. Yesterday, I ran a half-day, issues & crisis-focused media interview workshop for my long-time client, Goodwill of South Central Wisconsin. I will die on the hill that every organization with public-facing operations needs to run updated media trainings, crisis simulations, and playbook reviews 3–4 times per year. Why? Because it’s no different than office/school fire drills or renewing your CPR cert. You don’t do them because you expect the worst tomorrow; you do them because lives, livelihoods, and millions of dollars are at stake if you don’t keep your response muscles fresh. Pay a little now. Or pay much more later. Here are the core elements of my crisis trainings, updated with feedback from 30+ fellow trainers, journalists, and comms pros: 1. Safe Space & Energy – Ice breakers and laughter lower the stakes so trainees can fail fast and learn. 2. News Value & Archetypes – Journalists hunt for conflict, hypocrisy, humor, contradiction (“man bites dog”), rags-to-riches, romance gone bad, David vs. Goliath. And they’ll cast you as hero, villain, or something in between. Know both before you walk in. 3. Prep Your Headlines – Pick 2–3 key points you must convey. Even if your interview is 30 minutes, it may be condensed into one 10-second soundbite or a single sentence. If you said it, it’s fair game — context or not. 4. Modes Matter – Decide: are you educating with nuance, or delivering tight soundbites? The worst interviews are when you mismatch. 5. Foundations – Bridging, blocking, flagging, hooking. And always have a call to action ready. 6. Don’t Repeat Negatives – If asked “why is your company failing at X,” never restate “we’re not failing.” That soundbite will haunt you. Reframe and redirect. 7. The Big Crisis Questions – What happened? Who’s to blame? What are you doing to make it right? Train for these — they’ll come every time. 8. Nonverbals – Solid colors. Hands visible. Lean in. Silence beats nervous rambling. 9. Mock Interviews ON CAMERA – Not an iPhone selfie. Real lights, mic, hostile rapid-fire Qs. Run two full reps per person. 10. Respectful Feedback – Watching yourself is awkward. In a trust-based room, it’s priceless. 11. On the Record ≠ Optional – Yes, there’s on background, off record, and Chatham House rules. But unless there’s rare mutual consent, assume everything is on the record. Mic is always on. 12. Refreshers – Media training is never “one and done.” Quarterly reps keep you sharp. 👉 That’s my list. What’s yours? What’s the one drill, exercise, or tactic you swear by to make crisis simulations stick? And if your team hasn’t dusted off its crisis plan in a hot second — or you’ve never pressure-tested your spokespeople under fire — it might be worth a quick convo with someone who’s been in the room (I’m always happy to chat). Because crisis comms isn’t theory. It’s muscle memory. And muscle memory only works if you keep training.

5 years ago our company almost died. In the span of a month, we lost nearly 70% of our revenue, as global air travel slowed to a trickle. Many companies in our sector did not make it. Here is how we survived . . . and hopefully some tips for other entrepreneurs in the future facing crises. 1). Know what matters most - and what drives it . . . Beyond taking care of our employees (which I discussed last week), what mattered most for the company was preserving cash. Within the first week of lockdown, I put together a very high level driver tree outlining the primary levers to preserve our cash. Many folks I speak with are worried that such an exercise is not going to be 100% correct, or that they can't estimate accurately the specific values of each bucket. That's not the point. I put together the "high level plan" knowing that while I probably missed a few things, I had roughly 80% of the levers correct. In a crises, this was good enough to get started. 2). Cut quickly and strategically Once we had a plan on paper, we had to move fast. Every day that we did not, we were burning precious cash and further jeopardizing our future. We identified our largest cost buckets, and set a savings goal. This did absolutely mean some very tough decisions with respect to a few team members, but we handled those consistent with our values and did not leave the individuals impacted in limbo. 3). Even in the darkest crises, opportunities may exist While our traditional business - a post-booking RM platform relying on high demand - was extremely challenged during the start of the pandemic, we kept our eyes and ears open to new opportunities with our existing customers. We tried to find ways that they could repurpose existing products for the current challenges that they faced. We also worked with them to solve new challenges brought on by the COVID disruption. Being flexible in this manner kept revenue flowing - revenue that would be vital to the survival of our company. 4). Do the legwork to get help. We benefitted from small business assistance programs set up by the US Government - without these we might not have survived. Holden C. deserves a ton of credit for pulling together all the PPP paperwork and dealing with the banks to get these applications in on time 5). Plan for the future We understood the dangers of focusing too much of our efforts on present-day survival. We dedicated a portion of our time preparing for the "post-Pandemic" world, thinking through how our tech stack could be most relevant. This strategy worked. We not only survived, but closed our Series A during the pandemic. Today the company is multiples larger than we were even at our peak pre-pandemic. COVID nearly killed us. All entrepreneurs will face existential crises during their journeys. Before going into "reaction mode", take a moment to plot your strategy. Then get to work. #entrepreneurship

Your Incident Response Plan will FAIL. That’s right, when you need it most – the plan will fail. Why? Not because it isn’t detailed enough… Not because it hasn’t been tested… Not because it didn’t check a box… It fails, because it’s fundamentally flawed. Why? IMO the core issue is – Cyber threats and bad actors are dynamic. Yet, most IR plans are static and rigid with steps 1 to done memorialized in documents. …written as if to combat a known and unchanging bad actor. Most IR plans I’ve reviewed -lol including some I've written in the past - were obsolete before they were even "done”. From my experience and during a crisis, teams scramble, not because they lack skill or dedication, but because their playbook is several steps behind the adversary. Most IR plans are linear and useless. So, how do we break this cycle and build a functional IR strategy? The answer lies not in crafting a more detailed plan, but in fostering a more adaptable one. Think differently… IR is NOT a plan, but rather a set of building blocks. These blocks – skills, tools, processes, and partnerships – can be dynamically assembled to minimize the damage. Skills: consider investing in ongoing, scenario-based education that emphasizes adaptability and problem-solving over rote procedure. Tools: Equip your team with flexible, interoperable tools that can be tailored on the fly to address emerging threats. Processes: Design processes that are guided by principles rather than prescriptive steps, allowing for quick adaptation to unforeseen challenges. Partnerships: Cultivate a team of external partners, from law enforcement to industry peers, ensuring you can quickly gather the right resources and intelligence. Let's pivot from drafting elaborate, wordy, static plans destined for obsolescence and failure. The future of IR is not in the plan, but in the preparation. Thoughts? #incidentresponse #IR #cybersecurity #preparation