Calm
Nothing is wrong, which is exactly when the deciding work happens: the plan written, the lists built, the spokesperson trained, the stories banked, the relationships made before you need them.
How the
work
gets done.
There is no such thing as a communications problem. There is a real problem that communications either resolves or reveals.
The strategic
communications
process.
Six steps, run in order: this is the foundation of every engagement we take, from a quiet repositioning to a contract fight.
A strategic communications strategy is a plan for reaching the people who decide your outcome: who they are, why you need them, what they need to hear, who delivers it, through which channels, and when. Most organizations own the tools. Very few own the plan. A tool without a plan of attack does not put out the fire.
-
1
Assess resources
An honest inventory before anything is promised. Who can write, who can speak, what channels you own, what lists you hold, what budget exists, which relationships are real, and where the gaps are. The plan is built from what you actually have, not what a template assumes.
-
2
Outline scope, goals & objectives
What winning looks like, written down. Goals that support the mission of the organization, tested against a simple standard: specific, measurable, assigned to a named person, realistic, and on a date. A plan without an owner and a deadline is a wish.
-
3
Research the audience
Map every audience that can move your outcome: members, voters, regulators, funders, electeds, press, and your own leadership. Each one needs something different from you before it will act, and the map tells you what that is. Where the stakes justify it, this is where survey research and testing come in.
-
4
Frame the issue & develop messages
The message architecture: the core position, the proof behind it, and the version each audience needs to hear. One organizational voice, so the institution sounds like it knows itself. This is the step most organizations skip, and the one a crisis exposes first.
-
5
Identify channels & run the outreach
Match each audience to the medium it actually uses, then execute on a written calendar: earned media, paid programs, direct member channels, community outreach, and face-to-face contact where it counts. Specific, repeated, and sequenced, because order is most of the strategy.
-
6
Evaluate, measure & adjust
Track whether the message is landing and be honest about the answer. Listen to the audiences, watch the coverage, read the numbers, and adjust the plan while it can still be adjusted. Then the cycle starts again, one step smarter.
The six stages
of a crisis.
A crisis is any event that disrupts normal operations, threatens the people you are responsible for, draws media or government scrutiny, and puts your public standing at risk. It arrives as an immediate surprise, an emerging threat, or a sustained attack. Whatever the form, it moves through the same six stages, and every one of them can be worked.
Warning
The signals stage. A budget fight forming, an investigation opening, a grievance turning public. Most crises announce themselves to anyone who has been watching, and this is the cheapest stage to act in.
Impact
The event arrives. The first hours decide whether you are the source of facts or the subject of speculation. Verify, notify, activate the plan, and speak in one voice.
Scrutiny
The wave: press, elected officials, social media, and the second and third swells most organizations never plan for. Message discipline, centralized control, and a spokesperson who does not wing it.
Repair
Coverage fades before trust returns. Public education, community outreach, and the policy fixes that answer the fair criticism on the merits. This is where reputations are actually rebuilt.
Learning
The after-action: what happened, what the response cost, what the plan missed, and what changes now. Done properly, the institution exits a crisis more capable than it entered.
Our crisis
response,
step by step.
Three rules govern everything. Be calm: the story will either hurt you or it will not, and panic helps neither. Be professional: reputations are made on first impressions. Be prepared: the communications and the relationships have to exist before you need them.
-
1
Verify the situation
Is this really happening, and is it really a crisis? What is the actual problem underneath the story? Know the facts before anyone speaks.
-
2
Notify the right people
Quickly, and only the people who must know: leadership, counsel, the crisis team, and the partners who will be asked about it before the day is out.
-
3
Assess & activate the plan
A summary and timeline of the facts, a legal read of the implications, the issues identified, and every affected audience mapped with the message each one needs.
-
4
Organize assignments
Every responsibility attached to a name, a path for information to move between them, and every stakeholder told who owns what. Centralized control of the response, from the first hour.
-
5
Prepare & approve every word
Statements drafted, reviewed, and authorized before release. When mistakes were made, say so up front: it is never the crime that ends a reputation, it is the cover-up. Your lawyer reviews statements. Your lawyer does not write them.
-
6
Release through the right channels
Nothing ad-libbed. Your own people hear it first, through channels you control, so they spread your message instead of the rumor. Media get written statements. Officials get direct contact. Resist every combative instinct, and be transparent.
-
7
Obtain feedback & evaluate
Listen while it is happening: your people, your allies, the coverage, the comments. Watch for trends, and be honest with yourself about what is landing and what is not.
-
8
Rebuild public trust
Public education and outreach to the community that watched it happen, and the policy changes that prove the lesson took. Trust returns on evidence, not on statements.
-
9
Monitor & adjust
Keep watching after the coverage stops, evaluate the plan against what actually happened, and fold every lesson back into the strategic process. The response ends where the plan begins again.
Be ready before
it happens.
Be ready when
it happens.
Crisis communications is to everyday communications what an emergency room is to a hospital: a specialized capability that has to be built, staffed, and rehearsed long before anyone needs it. This is what we put in place during the calm.
Media & interview training
Spokesperson selection and a trained backup, on-camera interview practice, bridging techniques that retire “no comment,” and press conference discipline down to who stands where.
Tough-question rehearsal
The questions you hope nobody asks, asked, on camera, until the answers hold. What happened, who is in charge, how deep does this go, did you have forewarning.
Vulnerability assessment
The case against you, written by us before an opponent writes it. Every exposure identified, ranked, and paired with the response it would require.
Full working profiles
The crisis binder that actually works at 2 a.m.: contact trees, audience maps, channel access, approval chains, statement templates, and a bank of your organization’s proof points and stories, current and ready.
The standing crisis plan
Roles and responsibilities assigned ahead of time, rules and a framework for decisions under pressure, and one organizational voice agreed before anyone is shouting.
Drills & tabletop exercises
The plan run against a scenario before it is run against reality, with leadership in the room. Plans that are never rehearsed are scenery.
One system,
two speeds.
The crisis response is not a different discipline. It is the strategic communications process run under compression: every step of the response draws directly on a step of the plan. This is why prepared organizations sound composed on their worst day, and unprepared ones sound like they are meeting themselves for the first time.
Assess resources
You already know who can speak, what you own, and who to call. Verification and notification take minutes, not days.
Scope, goals & objectives
The crisis plan activates with roles, rules, and decision authority already agreed, so nobody negotiates the org chart mid-incident.
Research the audience
The audience map becomes the notification map: who is affected, what each group needs to hear, and in what order.
Frame the issue & develop messages
Statements are adapted from an architecture that already exists, in a voice the public already recognizes, and approved fast.
Channels & outreach
The channels are warm: your people hear it from you first, reporters already know your spokesperson, and officials take the call.
Evaluate, measure & adjust
Monitoring runs through the wave and past it, and the after-action feeds the next version of the plan. The system closes its own loop.
This is what we mean by solving problems. The plan makes the response fast. The response proves the plan. And both of them exist so that on the day the story turns, your organization is the calmest voice in the room.
Tell us what
you are
facing.
Initial conversations are confidential and direct with a partner. If we are not the right firm for your situation, we will say so and point you somewhere better. If we are, you will have a scope and a number quickly.
Active crisis? Complete the form and flag it urgent. We will do our best to respond the same day, including weekends.