Conquering a crisis from within

Co-Authored by: Cid Santillan, Content Director and Elton James Gagni, Senior Editorial Associate

A crisis happens when you encounter an unexpected situation that robs you the sense of control and threatens the stability of your business. Everyone is susceptible to a crisis, no matter what business or industry you are in.

Take the COVID-19 situation. No one saw a pandemic coming and now everyone is struggling to make ends meet. Those who are well-versed in crisis management will be quick to jump into their war room to monitor and navigate through the situation. But how about the rest of your team? What actions do they need to take? Where do they even begin?

Speaking from experience, this is a situation that we are all struggling to control. Below are some guidelines that may be useful to you even after this health crisis. Read on to know how you, too, can cope.

Building your crisis elite force
Assemble the best elite force from your senior to middle management team, alongside your business continuity team. They shall be at the frontline of managing this crisis. They are your designated warriors whose sole responsibility is to keep track of everything that is happening. These are the people who have the capacity to quickly assess any situation and will not hesitate to make snap decisions, provided that there is careful consideration of the facts.

Your crisis elite force must be segmented to handle different functions such as monitoring of news, securing of financials, handling of logistics, even being a help desk for any questions, concerns, or clarifications.

Planning your course of action
Close coordination with the news frontliners is imperative to gather the latest news from key authorities and relevant government agencies. Monitoring your employees’ respective local government units is also essential to assess how the crisis is affecting their families. Consider this as an extra step to assure them that you are genuinely concerned for their well-being.

While this is ongoing, the rest of the elite force must be agile in developing action plans, escalation processes, and proper responses. Preliminary questions that must be answered first are: How do you keep your employees safe? Is it safe to continue having them come to the office? Do you need to temporarily shut down operations? Is work-from-home a viable option? How can you make it work and ensure continued service delivery? Once you have answered these, you are ready to address the rest of your team.

Controlling the narrative with the truth
Now that your crisis elite force is locked and loaded, properly assess the best communication channel to use in disseminating these information. In our agency, we went for an open forum like how we do our pop-ups or announcements. We gathered everyone, shared details and updates on the current situation, and discussed the company’s plans moving forward.

This may incite panic and fear among your employees, so it is your responsibility to relieve their stress by answering questions or concerns. The key is to stick to the truth and the facts. If you do not know the answer, be honest with them and get back to them when you have secured that information. You need to rally and empower them by staying on top of the situation and showing that they are your priority.

Olivia Pope from Scandal, the hit TV series that mainly tackled crisis management (Shoutout to all the Gladiators out there!), once said, “the biggest mistake that people make in a crisis is not knowing they’re in one,” and, “the truth is often our greatest weapon.” As our primary stakeholders, basically our work family, we owe it to our employees as well as our partners to keep them informed should our company be compromised in any way. Of course, this would depend on the gravity of the matter. Be sure to make that proper assessment cautiously and fast. Consistent communication is also key be it through email updates or comprehensive briefers as a means of helping them be better informed of the situation.

Assembling your crisis reserve squad
While your elite force is expected to take on much of the crisis heat, you also need to prepare a reserve squad who can take over when your first line of defense needs to take a break. This squad can focus on providing backup like monitoring simultaneous announcements and press briefings from different authorities. This is important to consider because it is during these situations when your employees’ mental health is truly at stake, most especially your frontliners. Mental health should never be compromised.

Rising above the crisis
Once everything starts settling down and people are getting their groove back, how now do you recover from this crisis? From evaluating the impact on the business to revisiting your entire business continuity plan, it is necessary to have this conversation for your ultimate comeback. Draw out challenges, list down learnings, and develop best practices that can be employed for business sustainability. You need to envision how the business will normalize its functions again. Planning how to get back on your feet is how you will rise from the ashes.

TeamAsia continues to make these calls because our work family needs to know what is happening and how we intend to move forward. We hope that these guidelines will help you connect with your team and effectively communicate your crisis.

Need help managing internal comms during a crisis? Talk to us at info@teamasia.com.