Crisis Consulting
Crisis management is how an organization or group
deals with a threat to itself, its stakeholders, or the public.
And crisis management is always about groups of connected people, never a single individual.
That means that your brain and body are programmed to stop thinking and start reacting to protect you.
And it’s almost never a good idea to go with your fight, flight, or freeze instinct when a crisis hits.
That’s because the crises you’ll encounter aren’t just about you. They affect your customers, your team, your employees, your boss, your investors, your community. We are never completely unconnected in a crisis. And if we let our instincts take over, we act in ways that only protect ourselves, and don’t consider the needs of the other people affected by the crisis.
That’s why companies in crisis struggle with people playing politics. The crisis makes everyone – very rightly – concerned about their jobs, their security, whether or not they’ll have health insurance next month, whether they’ll lose everything they invested. And their instincts push them to focus on self-preservation.
It’s not voluntary. Your body is programmed to react that way in a crisis, and your body sucks at nuance. It doesn’t matter if it’s someone pulling a gun on us, or a scandal threatening our corporate finances, or a sudden drop in the economy. We’re biologically wired to respond to any perceived threat that way. Your body’s stress response doesn’t differentiate between an immediate threat – like a gun to your face – and a non-physical threat to your business or finances. A threat is a threat, and you should expect to react the way you’re programmed to react. With out special training, it’s almost impossible to walk into a crisis without triggering those responses.
- Create communications strategies for major business transitions
- Investigate, identify, and address ethical issues, conflicts of interest, and executive misconduct.
- Increase transparency
- Identify competitors’ marketing strategies and develop counter-strategies
- Respond to viral customer service scandals and process high volumes of customer complaints
- Perform stakeholder analysis for critical projects
- Develop leadership transition plans
- Address and survive funding crises
- Perform tabletop exercises for natural disasters and customer service scenarios
- Coach individuals to prepare for interviews, press conferences, and debates
For more information about our crisis consulting, management, or planning services, contact us directly: