Pub. 2 2012-2013 Issue 2

to walk to respect employees — but also recognize the fact that they are capable of what they are being accused of,” said Horsely. When A Crisis Occurs “In a crisis, the public wants to know three things: what’s hap- pening, what you are doing about it and what it means to them,” said Jones. You need to be able to answer those questions quickly, responsibly and accurately. “Something you need to be aware of is that the demand for 24-hour-a-day news is tremendous,” said Chief Burbank. “People will go out and find it and they’ll talk to anybody. I think more important than meeting every demand and being on every channel at every second of the day, is to find out what the most important message is that you can send. Focus on giving information, not just standing and answering questions.” Your Crisis Communication Plan Be ready for any situation, whether big or small, by developing a communications plan. Use the following list suggested by Gudako, or develop one of your own— either way, make sure you are ready with a plan of action for communicating before the crisis comes. 1. Talk to the leadership of your school and to people that are close to the situation to find out holistically what is happening. 2. Before you communicate, determine what your objectives are. (Are you trying to persuade thought by the people or motivate them to take some kind of action, or are you just answering questions?) 3. Identify who your audience is to help form a foundation of what your message will be. 4. Develop your message. It’s smart to develop three to five messages that you can keep going back to. 5. Determine your tactics to deliver your message (Facebook, Twitter, press releases, one-on-one communication, etc.). “Regardless of the crisis, you can develop lists beforehand of who you need to communicate to, whether it’s media, parents, teachers, or other stakeholders,” said Brough. “Depending on the crisis, the list you communicate with will be different, so create multiple lists for different scenarios.” Garret added, “Make sure you have home numbers, cell numbers, work numbers, email addresses… keep them in your phone, but also have hard copies of all your different contact lists.” continued from page 21 22