7 ways in which strategic communications is critical in crisis management

I firmly believe that the value of strategic communications has never been more than it is today. And by strategic communications, I mean – the purposeful use of communications by an organization to fulfil its mission, as defined by Hallahan and others (2007)

There is some confusion as to what strategic communications is and some see it as an interchangeable term for public relations. However, Hallahan et al (2007) explain that public relations is one of six relevant disciplines involved in the development, implementation, and assessment of communications by organizations. Others are: management, marketing, technical communication, political communication, and information/social marketing campaigns.

In my experience, every strategic communications practitioner is by default a PR person on some level but not every PR person is a strategic communicator.

Unfortunately this nuance may not be apparent until there is a fundamental disruption to the organization’s operating model and it becomes apparent that no one – absolutely no one – is interested in (tone-deaf) marketing campaigns or organizational (blah-blah-blah) monologues.

Bearing in mind that many business leaders and decision-makers are unaware of the nuance of strategic communications as a unique skill set, the underlying expectation is often that every PR or external relations leader/practitioner should be capable of pulling together relevant knowledge from within and outside the organization at a very high-level and helping to make sense of it for the benefit of the organization. It however does not work that way in practise.

A full-blown crisis is often what differentiates a strategic communicator – as he/she would naturally step into the space and proactively bring forward societal perspective and business/sector-relevant information from the external environment for the benefit of the business.

To understand this better, it may help to look at some definitions.

Public Relations

The practise of public relations is described by the IPRA as being the “decision-making management practice tasked with building relationships and interests between organizations and their publics based on the delivery of information through trusted and ethical communication methods.”

Others describe it as “a conduit, a facilitator, and a manager of communication, conducting research, defining problems, and creating meaning by fostering communication among many groups in society.”

Strategic communications is all of this and more. ..

Oxford Bibliographies (referencing Hallahan et al 2007) describes it as:

An umbrella term to describe the activities of disciplines including public relations, management communication, and advertising. It explores the capacity of all organizations – including corporations, not-for-profit organizations and government – for engaging in purposeful communication. The strength of the approach is its emphasis on strategy rather than on specific tactics and its focus on a holistic view of communications”.

It would be difficult to cover all it means to be a strategic communicator but the following are some of the proprietary skills and attributes that are most valuable in crisis management.

7 critical skills of strategic communicators in crisis management

1. Maintain the external ear of the organization – The strategic communicator actively follows relevant developments and proactively brings that context into internal conversations. In crisis management, keeping the external perspective in view – is very critical as the organization is being influenced by events outside of its walls. Retaining a purely internal view will be disastrous. The strategic communications professional is trained and skilled to bring in that broad and timely external view in the context of the business/organization.
2. Make sense of external information coming through – In crisis management, the strategic communications professional interprets the information coming through and presents it in a way that enables effective decision-making
3. Based on external information and internal business knowledge, the strategic communicator generates scenarios of how developments in the external environment could progressively unfold and impact on the business/organization and its operating model by keeping abreast of conversations from a broad spectrum of stakeholders including the general public.
4. Diligently watch over the tone and language of the organization to internal and external stakeholders. At a time when everyone is on edge and hyper-sensitive to words and actions – the strategic communicator helps to find and maintain the right balance.
5. Help to manage risk in what the organization says and does – bearing in mind that the crisis Black Book will be very unforgiving to those who get it wrong.
6. Proactively write a timely and relevant position paper – (This is a skill that has served me well over the years). Leaders welcome input from those who proactively bring in relevant external knowledge, highlight emerging trends and developments and break it down into consumable sound-bites for the benefit of the enterprise.
7. Create a framework that aligns organizational thinking in a direction that enables a focus on what is most important. Facilitate the development of a dynamic and trigger-based strategic communications plan that keeps the organization on the front foot at all times.

The ability to operate in this way would depend on the following enabling attributes.

• Autonomy – A certain measure of independence and autonomy to proactively weigh in on critical conversations.
• Assertive – Professional confidence (not cockiness) based on highly developed skill, knowledge and expertise to get the attention of leaders and decision-makers.
• Understanding of the business –The ability to make sense of external information by virtue of having a deep understanding of what is directly, indirectly or potentially relevant.
• Ability to influence without authority – The strategic communicator is often not the decision-maker, so ability to influence without authority is a critical success factor.

The practise of strategic communications is therefore very broad and nuanced and largely dependent on individual ability to draw on a broad spectrum of skills, knowledge and disciplines to leverage on relevant external information – towards enhancing crisis response and resilience capability.

It is a skill that can be learnt but is not easily taught. The ability to grow and excel is based on personal will, passion and commitment.

It is not about managing media headlines or driving social media campaigns but more about supporting business strategy and taking a holistic and unconstrained view of communications.

Crisis management can be simultaneously unforgiving and rewarding. When on track, the heat around certain issues begins to subside. Effective problem-solving delivers almost immediately tangible results by deescalating tensions and issues as the crisis evolves.

However, an unrelenting tailspin of issues within the broader crisis context is a clear indication of being completely off-track. At that point – it’s not so much about what is happening externally but more about the internal understanding, interpretation and response.

The strategic communicator plays a big role in helping with that interpretation process.

Key Areas for strategic communicators to focus on in a crisis:

• Managing social media risk for the organization
• Navigating minefields around employee communications and engagement.
• Providing a robust external view of emerging and relevant conversations, patterns and trends to support the crisis management strategy and continuity plan.
• Social listening to understand the direction of conversation that could potentially influence policy making around your business or sector. And I mean by using the very low tech approach of actually checking relevant hashtags and manually scrolling through the comments. (As many of the high-tech listening tools miss out on nuance).

I have found (fact-checked and cross-referenced) twitter conversation and traditional media headlines to be a very useful and low cost tool for gauging public sentiment across a broad spectrum on relevant issues. Actively following and researching into the issues and sentiments around public and stakeholder conversation helps scenario planning and ability to build probable worst-case scenarios that could very well emerge as most-likely in the near future – as we have consistently seen over this period. 

A common mistake made during crisis situations is for leaders and decision makers to focus almost exclusively on the impact on their operations i.e. financial performance, payroll commitments etc and omit to keep an eye and ear out on the unfolding crisis and multiplier effect across sectors and society segments within the larger context.

Many erroneously ignore public sentiment or omit to stay abreast of events that – at face value may seem unrelated to their current situation. In short – they take a very narrow and internal view of the crisis from the lens of self-impact. The role of the strategic communicator is to broaden the line of sight and shine light on all blind spots. (whether obviously relevant or not).

Ultimately, the core motivation for any seasoned strategic communicator should be to preempt (or mitigate the shock and impact of) external surprises in an ongoing crisis situation.The ability to effectively help the organization to achieve the -NO-SURPRISES- goal is a required skill in progressive phases of a crisis.