Crisis communication is not a matter of if you’ll need to prepare for a crisis, but when you’ll need to prepare for one.
A crisis can be positive for the organization, or it can be potentially harmful. If you’re prepared for the attention and you have a strong message, you’re better off than you are if you ignore it and hope for the best.
The first step in preparing for a crisis is developing a plan for how to handle a crisis and identifying who will serve on the primary response team. For Kansas United Methodists, the primary crisis team is the bishop, director of communications, legal counsel, and senior conference leadership. The district superintendent who supervises the church involved also is part of this team and it changes depending on where the crisis is located. If the crisis is a natural disaster, the conference’s disaster response coordinator also is a member of the team.
Determine a pattern of communication that’s going to be memorable and easy to accomplish. Who gets the first call when a crisis happens? The second? How does the team get together to discuss the situation?
When I’m notified of a situation, I work to learn as much as I can about what happened and what we know about the situation. That may involve researching a specific church or individual on my own as well as talking with the main players in the situation who are available.
Once I have my facts in front of me, I start formulating our response. Because we are a religious organization, our first message is always concern and compassion for those involved in a situation. Second, we address the specific situation, keeping our comments to the facts. If the situation involves legal action or a law enforcement investigation, there may be things that cannot be divulged. It’s important to be up front about that. Acknowledge that you can’t comment on those items and provide assurance that you are cooperating with the investigation and that you and the organization take the situation seriously.
We determine who will be the spokesperson and go over the talking points in preparation for calls.
In a positive crisis, we develop news releases and make contact with local media to arrange for interviews. This is especially important when the United Methodist Church is involved in changing the community, such as disaster response and recovery work or large-scale community service.
Hands on Topeka is an example of large-scale community service. This annual event in Topeka, Kan., is planned and executed by area lay and clergy who put together teams from congregations to go out into the community to clean up parks and beautify neighborhoods. Through advertising and public relations efforts, the visiblity of the United Methodist Church has increased in the Topeka area and people in the community look forward to joining United Methodists on the projects.
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