Crisis communications is a topic that many organizations may want to put on the back burner – but a crisis can come up at ANY time for ANY entity.
In this episode of PR Explored, PR consultant Michelle Garrett talks with crisis communications expert Shawna Bruce, principal of M.D. Bruce & Associates Ltd., about how EVERY organization can prepare for a crisis, including the five things that belong in a crisis communications plan.
Show summary:
In this episode of PR Explored, host Michelle Garrett, a public relations consultant, welcomes crisis communications expert Shawna Bruce to discuss the critical importance of effective crisis management for brands and organizations. They cover how social media has amplified the visibility of crises, making preparedness more crucial than ever.
Shawna shares her experience from her 40-year career in communications, including her time in the Canadian Armed Forces and Dow Chemical. Specific examples of crises, such as the tragedies involving Boeing and Alaska Airlines and the aftermath of a tragedy involving hockey players are examined to underscore critical strategies such as accountability, transparency, and preparedness.
Key takeaways include the necessity of having a crisis plan, the steps to create and implement one, and the importance of transparency, timely communication, and empathy. They emphasize the role of video in crisis messaging and the significance of community and loyal customer bases, as well as the need for delegated authority, pre-approved holding statements, consistent messaging, and continuous plan updates.
The episode is a comprehensive guide for communicators on the essentials of crisis readiness and management.
00:00 Introduction and Welcome
01:00 The Importance of Crisis Communications
02:49 Shauna Bruce’s Background and Experience
06:13 Challenges in Crisis Communications
10:01 Current Crisis Examples
15:38 Case Study: Boeing’s Crisis Management
21:06 Effective Crisis Management Strategies
30:36 The Importance of an Issues Matrix
32:03 Community Outreach and Crisis Communication
34:02 The Role of Video in Crisis Management
37:49 Handling Crisis Information and Public Perception
39:05 Lessons from High-Profile Cases
47:37 Effective Crisis Communication Strategies
58:15 Final Thoughts and Best Practices
Show Notes:
Follow Shawna Bruce on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnabruce/
M.D. Bruce & Associates: https://www.mdbruceandassociates.com
FULL TRANSCRIPT:
Crisis Communications – EVERY Organization Needs a Plan
Michelle: [00:00:00] Hello everyone, and welcome to PR Explored. I’m so glad to be back Today. We talk about PR trends and topics, and nothing is a more important topic. I think then crisis communications. And we have with us a crisis expert today. Shauna Bruce is here. Hi, Shauna. Good morning, Michelle.
Thank you so much for being here. I’m, I’m a big, you know, I’m a follower. I’m a fan. We’ve known each other for a while now, and I’m so pleased to be, um, to, to have you here today as a
Shawna: guest. Well, I’m delighted that you’d invite me and I’m always so excited when I get to meet, meet people that I have followed and admired online for such a long time.
So it really, the pleasure is all mine today.
Michelle: Well, we are really lucky to have your time because. [00:01:00] We know that crisis communications has always been a, you know, a big, um, initiative that brands and organizations need to pay attention to. And I feel like it’s more important now than ever because we just see so many organizations, companies, brands, whatever we wanna call them, um, in a state of crisis.
And I just, I mean, I have some theories as to why it seems like it’s happening more often, but I’d love to hear just kind of your take on why we see and hear about so many more crises these days. Well, I think we’re
Shawna: just listening and seeing more because of the introduction of social media to our everyday lives.
When you think back, I, you know, if I reflect back on the first major event, uh, crisis event that was a mass casualty event in Afghanistan when I was still in the military, when I reflect back on that, I think about how we were largely able to contain and control the messaging for that until we were ready [00:02:00] to push things out to the Canadian public here.
’cause of course I’m here in Canada, uh, when I think back on that, that is not today how that works, right? You have a very short timeline and the reality is your crisis is already gonna be, the train is gonna have left the station and you’re gonna be running down the track trying to get that message in your, and get your narrative back because social media allows us to have.
All this instant journalism citizen journalists that pop up and take pictures or videos of things or post things that happen. So I, I really largely think that social media has allowed us to have all eyes and ears on the ground 24 7 all the time. So maybe the crisis aren’t happening. Maybe it’s not that they’re more frequent, maybe it’s just they’re more visible to
Michelle: us.
That is a great point, and I would love for you, before we really get into, you know, kind of our questions and, and things today, to just talk a little bit about your background, if you wouldn’t mind. [00:03:00] Well, I, Michelle, I am
Shawna: ancient. I have been doing communications for 40 years. Like I can remember typing on a manual typewriter, news releases that we mailed out to organizations or drove around in a car.
I mean, that’s, I can still remember us getting a fax machine in the office and thinking, wow, this saves so much time, but. We don’t have to drive these anymore. So I know it’s, it’s a long time. I started probably when I was, you know, when I was 20, I started, uh, working in military Army cadet camps. So I come from an army background.
I did Army Public Affairs in our Canadian Armed Forces on and off a total about 27 years. And I actually am a graduate of the Defense Information School in the US in Fort Mead, Maryland. Mm-hmm. But I started with the military and then through that I got more exposed to what we call domestic operations.
So that would be the military support to natural hazards such as wildfires and floods [00:04:00] and snowstorms. And so I, I did some work when we had our troops on the ground supporting that, and it became a bit of an interest area of mine. So then I went back and studied disaster and emergency management, uh, in a master’s capacity to learn how can I better support emergency managers in crisis.
But when I transitioned outta the Army, I ended up taking some time at Dow Chemical and I supported as their national public affairs leader for all of our Canadian assets here. And a good part of that was risk communications, you know, emergency planning, communications, you know, when you are in a, what I call a site, uh, an operating site community where you have risk right next door to residents.
And, uh, so that’s kind of where I, where I started and then back. I, about about six years now, I’ve been on my own. I realized that there was a gap, that not everyone came to the table with these skill sets I’d acquired in the Army for managing issues and crises and that it was a gap in industry and with other, with our municipal or [00:05:00] local level of, of government.
So I started to teach workshops in that space. So my goal now is to get everyone prepared before the crisis strikes. That’s what my goal is, is to get them feeling confident and to have the right tools and the right plans in place to help them respond to their own crises, essentially.
Michelle: Yeah, that’s great because I feel like a lot of times it’s just kind of an afterthought.
The crisis planning, the crisis communications planning, and I feel like sometimes when I bring it up, uh, in client meetings, they look at you like. You know, we’re not gonna have a crisis. We’re not, we’re never gonna be, you know, have a crisis facing us. And I’m like, so many people, um, so many companies and organizations just don’t understand.
I mean, there are, there are all kinds of crises there. It’s not just, you know, the CEO, you know, is in a scandal or you know, you have a, um, you know, a cyber attack or like whatever. There’s all [00:06:00] kinds of things that can happen, natural disasters. And now we have misinformation and disinformation. And so, I mean, I just feel like it’s something that kind of gets pushed to the back burner.
’cause maybe people don’t wanna think about it. I don’t know.
Shawna: Well, I think that what’s interesting is that whenever you’re communicating risk, risk is the most challenging. Type of communications to convey to people because we all have different levels of risk. All everything we do, our actions to this time, our behaviors are all sort of based on our own personal life experiences.
So for example, if I, if when my family goes skiing, for example, I have a daughter who’s a BL double black diamond run person. I have a, a daughter over here who is definitely a Bunny Hill Green Hill person. Two of us are kind of in the middle, and then my husband who thinks he’s double black diamond, but really should be over here in the green blue space.
We all have different ways that we perceive risks. So communicating [00:07:00] that to people in a message that’s consistent is challenging. And I would say to you that that. That leans back to, to people that are, even this morning I posted on Lincoln LinkedIn about that, and we were, and someone had posted, uh, something out there about how you get your leadership to buy it.
As communicators, we have to use the same approach of know your audience. They have to know what the risk is, what the cost is to them, what the bottom line is. If something doesn’t go well, they have to see it in numbers. That if we don’t plan for this potential risk, we could be, um, we could have our, our, our site shuttered close down.
We could lose public confidence and our license to operate. We could be in this position. We have to kind of bring out, I would say, the whiteboard and the crayolas and spell it out to them in a language they understand. And oftentimes when people say, well, Shada, how do I get my leader to understand this?
Look across your industry regardless of what it is, and find someone who’s had a crisis. I. I guarantee there’s someone out there. [00:08:00] And, and look at that and analyze it and bring it to your leadership and say, if this happened to us, how would we respond? Arrogance is not a response option, and oftentimes I do people, people will say, wow, we’re better prepared, or We wouldn’t do it like that.
Or, we’re smarter, we’re better, we’re bigger, whatever. At the end of the day, none of that matters. What matters is how Crisis ready to take a, a, a point out of, um, Melissa Agnes’s book. If your organization isn’t thinking with a crisis mindset and is crisis ready to respond, you will fail.
Michelle: I mean, you know, that’s such great advice because I feel like that, you know, if you just look across your industry, I’m sure, especially I work some in the, like, food processing industry, and of course there are crises that we can look at and point to and not, I guess not every industry maybe has, you know, like big examples.
But I’m sure there are examples in every, just about every single [00:09:00] industry that you could pull out and show to leadership to kind of back you up and prove your point,
Shawna: if someone out here on this webinar, uh, doesn’t, can’t find one, please link in with me. I’ll help you find one. I, I feel that confident that there’s something out there we could find and dissect, and this really truly is the best learning.
Why wouldn’t you take a crisis that’s happened to somebody else and learn all of those lessons, identify those lessons that they learn, and apply them in your own planning and approach. Why would you repeat the same mistakes?
Michelle: Right. Well, and I think, um, you know, we’re gonna talk about some examples ’cause I think there are a lot of examples of crises handled poorly and then fewer of those handled well.
So, um, it’s, it’s difficult right to, to really handle a crisis. Well, I think, but I mean there are certainly, there are examples. Yeah. Um, and we’ll talk about that in a little bit, but yeah, we have a good one to share there. [00:10:00] Yeah. Well, one thing I want to kind of get into is just what’s going on in the news right now.
Mm-hmm. Because any given day, of course, you can wake up and you know, you just, you scan the headlines and you’re like, wow, what brand or organization is struggling today? And chances are there are multiple every single day. I feel like the one that I feel like we need to kind of. Just look out for a minute is Springfield, Ohio, which I’m in Columbus, Ohio, which is about an hour, I guess, um, east of there.
And I, I, I have relatives and, and no people, um, that live there. Uh, but it’s just a huge, it’s become, it kind of dropped out of the sky into their lap, the officials and the residents of Springfield. And so I think that’s what I wanna talk about is what happens, you know, you can anticipate a crisis and certainly, you know, you said you worked with Dow, I’m sure they had a lot of, you know, crisis that they could probably plan for and anticipate.
This is an example of a crisis that just [00:11:00] kind of came outta nowhere and was created basically. And so I don’t really wanna get into the political side of it as much as I just wanna talk about what do you do if all of a sudden you’re just dropped into this situation, uh, kind of that you weren’t expecting.
Shawna: Well, I would say to you that this goes back to having a plan. And I know I feel like a bit flippant saying, oh, you need a plan. It’s actually a program that you need. Right? Right. It’s, it’s not just a plan. You need a plan. You need to think about all of those operational and reputational risks that could happen inside and outside that could impact you, cascading impacts.
And then there’s those right out there kind of things that impact your organization, which I would categorize this, that happened in Springfield in that category. No one anticipated that, certainly the woman who put the post on her Facebook page was not anticipating all this attention and, and that, and the miscommunication that came out of that.
And it’s, to me, it’s an example of a being cautious of what you [00:12:00] share personally on your Facebook feeds. But secondarily to that is how quickly someone spoke to about, I think it was Deborah Hillman on, on LinkedIn yesterday, but how quickly a local incident becomes. Global or international in today’s because of social media, right?
Mm-hmm. So I think what if you are in that case with that, if you have a plan, though, a plan that brings together your crisis team, uh, people that can talk through you, may not have your plan, is never gonna be a step by step, respond to every crisis. That is not what a plan is for. A plan is a roadmap. A plan is a roadmap, and there’s gonna be a few detours that help you get to your destination, but you have at least a model of response.
So if you are in a situation, and this is happening, if you have a way to bring all your key players together, have a discussion over who does this impact. Know, for example, who in your community may be, um, feeling the downside of this situation. Who do you have that could help you [00:13:00] review some messaging?
Do you need to put out some messaging to support those that may feel that they’ve been targeted here? How do you manage that? All of that information should already be in your plan. So whether you’re responding to Springfield, Ohio Crisis, or a, or a food I illness, something happening over here in, in, up here in Canada.
Mm-hmm. The plan should at least give you some pointers to get you focused in the right direction.
Michelle: Right. So, I mean, and if you don’t have that and you’re just like to, I mean, at least it gives you a place to start. Right? And you have that, that kind of, that core team of people, um, you know, you have your, your.
Corporate communications PR person. Mm-hmm. Of course you have leadership, you probably have your legal, uh, you know, counsel there. There’s probably a very short list of people that could put their heads together and hopefully quickly get some kind of, at least a, you know. If you have a holding statement, you can put that out, you know, pretty [00:14:00] quickly.
And then you have a little bit of time by yourself, a little time to go back and figure out, you know, what are the next steps. But I just feel like this is just an example of one that just, you could, how could you ever anticipate in a million years or something like this would happen? So I think and fanning
Shawna: those flames, just like you say there, like fanning those flames, social media, people not checking what they’re sharing is accurate information.
People sharing miss or disinformation in this case, misinformation out there and just, and, and even here in Canada, the very next morning before I got up and had realized that that had happened, I’d heard a little bit about it, but I was, I was away. And so I had to kind of look it up and see exactly what was said.
We were seeing the memes and I was seeing the comics and, and the fun and that. But, but tho those comments targeted and marginalized part of the community and that. That whole empathy and, and that to me is the priority of where that communication should be going to make sure [00:15:00] that those people understood that they had support around them.
That not everyone thought this, that this was misinformation that was shared, et cetera, that was exasperated by the spread of false stuff on social media.
Michelle: Right. And it just keeps going. I think I thought, okay, well, you know, hopefully we see a lot of crises kind of bubble up and then they, you know, I don’t know, in a few days they kind of die down.
And this one I feel like is just, it’s now the, some of the schools are closed, the universities are having to go remote. They canceled, you know, a cultural festival that was scheduled. They’ve canceled like, you know, sporting events that the colleges are holding. I mean, so it’s really, um, I don’t know how quickly this is gonna like die down, but another example that we could talk about is Boeing, because that one has just seriously been going on pretty much.
Oh my goodness. For as long as I can remember. They’ve had some issues and, and I, I don’t see that getting, uh, going away anytime soon. [00:16:00]
Shawna: But there’s a case study that we will be actually reviewing for a very, very long time. Right? There’s a case where the initial, you know when Boeing had the initial stages as a 7 37 max challenges and fatalities, let’s never forget that people there, people died on these planes, right?
And so there’s a certain amount of crisis communications that surrounds anytime you’re dealing with a fatality, for example. And it was felt that, especially by the families, that Boeing wasn’t taking accountability here. You wanna own up to that. You wanna be telling people that what you’re doing to change that, and you wanna be empathetic along the way, and that that was absent.
Really when you had the second crash, now you had an issue. Now you had, something was happening here. But we weren’t treating it like an issue. We weren’t grounding planes, really. I mean, forgive me, I don’t know the timeline specifically. It’s been so many years, but I feel like they had an reluctance to immediately address the safety concerns and then they lost public trust.
And that really [00:17:00] shows how important it is to manage your narrative control that early on by addressing what you’re gonna do, taking accountability and saying what you’re gonna do. I think the shareholder trust, there was issues along the way with that. And now every, every time we have. A Boeing incident.
It’s a global incident, right? Because everyone is sharing it across social media and the name of Boeing itself, in my mind. Um, you know, we’ve had the challenges. You’ve had, you’ve had the whistleblowers, you’ve had fatalities there. How is it to feel to be an employee of that company? Are you proud to work at that company?
I’m not, I’m not thinking so, but people need jobs. So there’s these, all these cascading impacts from the initial crisis. Uh, I would say rule number one, of not being open and transparent, to be a trusted source of what happened with your incident happened that started this ball ruling. There. Any thoughts on
Michelle: that?
Yeah, I mean, being, being open and transparent I think is like a, one of the [00:18:00] tenets of crisis, uh, management, right? I mean, if we’re not open and transparent, how can we even hope to begin to regain the trust that we’ve damaged? So, and
Shawna: let’s and remember, internal and external messaging, Boeing had some serious challenges from information they were sharing internally to what they thought was going only external.
But your internal messaging is going external. You shouldn’t be sharing really. You might have an open a more, um, engaging conversation with employees, but you have to be very careful that whatever you’re sharing internally, that you are prepared is going outside of your organization. I mean, that was a rookie mistake there where you had mixed messaging happening there between internal and external.
And then that exasperated that that whole issue of transparency with them.
Michelle: Yeah, and it’s just the, the thing with Boeing, I feel like is that people really can’t get away from. You know, using their products, right? Because they are the dominant, um, [00:19:00] manufacturer of planes. And so even when you, I know there was kind of a movement to not fly on Boeing planes, but as someone who has tried to, to figure that out, how to do that, it’s not easy, especially if you’re kind of stuck with certain airlines that only, pretty much only have Boeing plane.
So it’s, um, I don’t know. I feel like it should probably be an even bigger issue than it, than it is. Everyone just goes on and goes about their business. And I, I mean, I know that people are looking into it, but, you know, there’s all kinds of things happening. Um. In the meantime that I’m just like, wow. Okay, but, but
Shawna: you, but you’re a case in point, Michelle, because you’re, you’ve said, I’m actually looking at how not to fly in a Boeing plane.
So you also lost public confidence and trust. Right. You, you, I would say have, have that feeling as well. And I think now with everyone involved with the FAA, with the different culture of safety that’s happening there, I mean safety, I worked in industry for eight years. I still support the chemistry Industry Association in Canada and some big players.
And I know safety’s not a [00:20:00] program. It is a culture. It starts at the top and everyone has to buy into it. And if you do not have that executive level of leadership buying into the safety elements and that safety culture, you are not going to be successful. And I think what they have found is, you know, I don’t wanna, you know, defame anything here, but I think they have found challenges with the safety culture.
Mm-hmm. So once they get, they need to address that before they’re ever gonna remediate anything from a reputational perspective. So that this is a perfect example. Of an operational crisis, plain challenges, mechanical failures turned into a reputational crisis because of how they’ve responded to it or have not responded effectively to it.
Michelle: That is such an important point. How, you know, what could have been something they probably could have managed has now ballooned into this bigger reputational crisis for them. And it’s gonna be a tough, uh, a tough hill to, to climb because, you know, it’s, there’s, there’s just so much, uh, there now. [00:21:00] So, I don’t know.
I’m really, I mean, we all have to pay attention to that one, like I said, I don’t know how to get away from that one. Um, how about, do you have any examples in mind of a crisis that has been managed well?
Shawna: You know what, the one that I’m using, uh, the most frequently in my workshops now is Alaskan Airlines and my favorite CEO Ben Manchi, and he basically came out a few years ago when Alaska Airlines was having some challenges with people missing flights.
Uh, they didn’t have enough pilots for aircraft. There was all kinds of delays, and it was just a big quagmire of challenges almost around when everyone else was having challenges with their air travel and having enough pilots for the fleet or enough fleet for the operations. But what he did differently from everyone else is he did, um, and I’ll share this with you so you can put it on a future LinkedIn post when we post this, but he put out a video [00:22:00] and he did a video in the hangar of his and all the little things there.
The backdrop was the right plane in his name. He didn’t look, he wasn’t dressed as a suit. He was dressed a bit casual. He came right out and he said. I’m Ben, Ben, da da da, CEO, of Alaska Airlines, and, and you know, we have not been delivering on your expectations kind of thing. So basically he went on to hit the nail on the head.
He took accountability, then he walked through what they were doing to change it. We’ve hired X number of pilots, blah, blah, blah, et cetera, et cetera. And he talked about how they were gonna fix it, how they’re gonna fix the problem. But then he took that video and I, my understanding is I could be wrong if someone is closer to this and can correct me, I’d be happy to hear that.
But my understanding is he sent it to his loyal passengers first. I. Oh,
Michelle: so
Shawna: almost like how way back when with Maple Leafs food and Listeriosis and Michael McCain, they did a video first that actually was posted online for media to grab. Mm-hmm. He did one step further and it went [00:23:00] in the inboxes of his, of his loyal passengers.
So. Then they talked to a few passengers. What do you think about this? They said, well, you know, he sounds like he’s doing the right thing and he’s gripping the problem. So yeah, we’ll stick with him. You know, he, he did not lose public confidence because he told them the problem. He told them how he was gonna fix the problem.
He gave them a bit of a timeline and he took accountability and he apologized. The most important piece, this is a Molly McPherson tip, right? If you, you know, everything she talks about with her programs, and her thing is you have to have an actual apology. And I am sorry I’m impacting your travel. I know, da, da, da.
He did a great job of that. So I think he’s one of the best examples of how to manage that. And then media got ahold of it and it became the media story. But it, but it wasn’t a totally negative story. It was a bit on the side of the positive because that he embraced the challenge, told people what he was gonna do to fix it, and then [00:24:00] he followed and he was following through.
He’s, I think American Air Airline, Alaska Airlines. Pardon me, Alaska Airlines. If you look that up, that’s a great interview by him.
Michelle: Well, you, when you were talking there and talking about loyal, the loyal, um, passengers sending that, I was thinking about how important it’s to have a community, um, and, and to be working on your reputation and building that community.
Always. It’s, it’s a constant really for organizations that wanna be successful, especially if you end up being attacked, uh, and on social media for example. Or if you end up in a crisis situation, your community of loyal followers is gonna come to your aid. The example that I think of with that one is Jenny’s Ice Cream, which again, is based here in Columbus, and I don’t know if everyone knows about that, and it’s been a few years now, but they had a listeria, uh.
You know, issue and had to do a, a recall. And their loyal customers really supported them throughout that [00:25:00] whole, because we all, I mean, I’m sure a lot of people know listeria is a serious mm-hmm. Issue and, um, it takes a while to kind of mitigate and get back, you know, on track. And anyway, so, um, that was one that I always think about as, you know, an example of.
The value of having those engaged fans and followers, uh, that kind of will come to your aid even without you having to ask. Well, I, I agree. And there’s that
Shawna: video shows an example of that right there of a couple that’s interviewed saying, you know, we’ll stick with them for now, kind of thing. He seems like he’s doing the right things, and I agree with you.
They always say that, you know, every action you take to put that little drop in the cup of goodwill, you know, you’re doing something in the community. There’s another drop, you’re doing something, you’re donating something, there’s a good drop, whatever it may be. You’re running a, you’re running a internship for teenage, you know, teenagers from high school and you’re plant that summer.
You’re, you’re getting another drop. But the time that you don’t respond well to that crisis, that whole cup empties. And then you start [00:26:00] again largely. Mm-hmm. If you haven’t been, uh, if you don’t have a good response, if you’re not open and transparent with that community at the onset. So I think it can go, I think a hundred percent Michelle, it can, they can be supportive, but I bet I’d be curious if the ice cream store, if Jenny’s was proactive with their comms mm-hmm.
What they were gonna do mm-hmm. How they were taking it back. Did they give a rebate for people when they were buying ice cream down the road? Like all the things they would’ve done to keep that loyal customer base mm-hmm. Matters. And when you. When you turtle up and you put yourself in the shell and you don’t respond to questions and you don’t talk to your community at large.
Mm-hmm. People think you have something to hide. And then you start to lose that public facing trust that’s so important to get you through
Michelle: the dark days. And it takes so long to build that up and it just takes a second to lose it. And so that’s the thing that I think that, you know, executives need to remember.
Um, as far as, uh, you know, I mentioned a lot of times [00:27:00] clients are not interested in talking about crisis planning and, and, you know, preparation and, um, having a program in place. And so I feel like these are just things to keep in mind.
Shawna: 100%. Um, you know, when we’re doing crisis planning, I, I sort of have 12 things.
I have a little roadmap of 12 steps to be included in that plan to be used. Um, but the plans should, first of all, your plan shouldn’t look like anybody else’s plan, right? Mm-hmm. Every organization is different. You have different risks and hazards. You have different audiences. You use different tools to communicate, but I, I often am asked to review plans and it’ll be a cookie cutter approach of someone else’s, and they’ve changed the name.
It’s just a tick in the box for their insurance purposes. That is not a plan that’s going to survive contact, that’s not gonna work for that team when they need it. Right. So, um, you, yeah, that’s a challenge to get people to understand that and to understand things like a [00:28:00] couple of takeaways might be you need to give authority to your comms director or comms manager or leader, whoever, whatever their title is.
Yeah. To launch that plan as soon as they see something out there. Right. So as soon as there’s something out there on social media that talks about your product or your organization or what have you, or there’s an allegation that’s put out there, someone needs to have the authority to put something out there to say.
We’re, we’re aware of this or we’re, maybe you’re not aware yet. We’re looking into this, we’re investigating this, and more information will come as soon as we’ve completed that investigation. You have to own it, but you can, you don’t have 2, 3, 5 hours to wait to convene a crisis team to get a little holding statement out there.
So you need to have someone delegated that can make those actions that you trust. Oh, and wait. And you need to have some generic holding statements ready just to take ownership and give you time to research and investigate what the heck is happening. So you can put [00:29:00] together a fullsome response within, within the hour.
At least.
Michelle: So just some things there to play Devil’s advocate for a second, and this is not my, my, my POV, but I have heard people say in the, the news cycle that we have now, there are companies and organizations who will wait to see if things are gonna blow over because the news moves so quickly that sometimes if they don’t do anything the next day or two, no one’s talking about it anymore.
To me, that’s taking a risk. Um, but I mean, I. What do you think about that? Well, I
Shawna: think that if something, if there’s an allegation that comes up as a minimum, you could re be responding, even direct messaging, someone to say, we appreciate that. Do you have any more details so we can look into that, demonstrate that you’re being serious about it.
I mean, we should be watching for those issues because that’s what happens, right? Boeing is a classic example, but those plane crashes and that we’re demonstrating an [00:30:00] issue of a safety culture there and a problem with those planes, and it escalated into crisis because nothing was really proactively done.
A lot of times that’s what happened. There’s an issue that’s percolating for a while. You don’t wanna over respond and create your own crisis. True. Right. But you also wanna be managing that carefully and making sure that you’re prepared in case it does escalate. So I think in those cases, don’t be dismissive of it.
Don’t dismiss it. Think, oh, it’s like one off, da da da. I mean, we have seen many products and failures and demise of companies with dismissals, right? People being a little, you know, oh, that’s not really that important. It is important. Yeah. That’s something that goes on. I would say an issues matrix in your company.
Companies should have issues matrix that come up with these things that they’re tracking. Who’s res, who’s looking into this? What’s our media response line? How are we managing right? Even for the protests we saw across campuses, you know, north American White, um, after everything that happened with the Gaza, [00:31:00] it should universities, even here in Canada, some of my clients were surprised when we had protesters on campus.
Really, because it happened over here six months ago. Mm-hmm. We should not have been surprised. Mm-hmm. We should have had a position the university was gonna take, we should have had some communications around what we were gonna say if that had happened, and we should have been acting immediately.
Michelle: Yeah.
Yeah. There’s some things, again, if you’re, I feel like sometimes, and I understand why the C-suite can have its head down or be in its own bubble and maybe not have an ear to the ground, and that’s really what your comms team is, is supposed to be helping you with, but you have to listen and be engaged and include them, uh, you know.
Mm-hmm. You know, respect what they have to tell you so that you can be prepared because, you know, again, things could be happening and you just, maybe you don’t see the relationship to what you’re doing, but, you know, uh, a lot of times it becomes an issue and on down the road that you didn’t, um, that, [00:32:00] that you weren’t really expecting.
But you know. Here we are. So,
Shawna: and that’s, I mean, I talk about having a coin, like a community outreach information network, and really every community, regardless if you’re like a physical community or a company organization with different audiences
Michelle: mm-hmm.
Shawna: Everyone has their own community. And within that you have different, um, interested parties or groups or naysayers or what have you.
But having a touch point to all of these is so critical because not only can they help am amplify and distribute messaging that you may need done in a time of crisis, but they’re also a, they’re also a great place to get resource information. Like, if we go back to Springfield, if you had a multicultural association, if you had, um, you know who, who, maybe there’s a Haitian community center or something like that.
These are people within your community that could maybe help you. Devise the right messaging, test that messaging with the impacted audience and get you in a place where you’d be [00:33:00] comfortable to communicate. So sometimes I feel that as we do these, um, responses or we find even our communications in isolation in a little silo, and we don’t actually think, we don’t test it with the audience that’s gonna be the most impacted.
We don’t get input from them, et cetera, et cetera. Mm-hmm. And this is why 90% of what you need in that crisis communication plan can be done in advance of any crisis. 90%, you can have your coin ready to go. Uh, and, but at least for you as a communicator, have a Rolodex with someone in that organization that you might reach out and tap and say on the shoulder and say, Hey, we have this issue.
We really wanna be supportive and say the right things. Mm-hmm. Especially nowadays. Right. Being politically. Mindful of what is offensive and not offensive and making sure that you’re approaching it with a whole of community approach in that space. So I do think that sometimes we as communicators need to get out of our offices and build those relationships and those rapports well in [00:34:00] advance of anything that could possibly happen.
Michelle: Well, you were talking about video a little bit ago. Mm-hmm. Um, not really. I’m, I’m kind of switching gears a little bit, but, but good to go back to that, I thought about Kate Middleton because that was a crisis, uh, kind of earlier in the year. Um, and, and people were being really, um, you know, pretty rough, uh, uh, on them.
And then she came out with her video, which I thought was very well done, and really did help kind of quell some of the, um, you know, the, the, the talk, the shatter online about, you know, what’s going on, where is she, what’s happening? But until she did that, of course the imaginations just ran wild. So I was just thinking about the importance of video, um, and being, you know, how your spokespeople and executives really need to have that kind of, uh, ability to.
Come across well on video as well.
Shawna: Video a hundred percent. I mean, everything is video when you [00:35:00] look at TikTok and the, and the way that, uh, the ne you know, the, the younger generation, I would say. But, you know, there’s, there’s, I’m on TikTok. I mean, I don’t do much with it. I should probably do more, but I was more curious how other people were using it as a tool.
Um, YouTube, for example, if you’re not comfortable with TikTok, get a YouTube channel. Put your stuff out on YouTube and link that. But the, but the key important thing, if you’re gonna do video and I. Is to link everything back to a communications hub. Your website, you own your website. Mm-hmm. You can put a lot of information on your website, a lot more than you can on YouTube or post somewhere or on X or Facebook or what have you.
Right. And I think we just have to get very comfortable of recognizing that the website is your place to, to own that space. Mm-hmm. But the video, a hundred percent, Michelle, I, I do agree with that. With, with Kate, I felt, I felt for Kate Middleton because, you know, I, I recognized that this was a time when she needed to come to terms with what was happening with her health and [00:36:00] her family, and they wanted privacy.
But on the same token, this is a royal family, a possible future queen who has a huge following. Right. And, and there was so much speculation about their relationship, about this, about that. And I thought, I. I thought good for them for doing the video for, for kind of quelling the fears and, and getting, getting that information out there.
And then people felt, you know, like as the other, as the Brits would say, tossers, because they had all been poking at her about all these other things and then she came out with the C word and said, you know, cancer. And people were like, oh my gosh, I, we need to stand down here. It was, I felt it was almost an immediate 360 after that video came out.
I wish it had come out sooner, but you know what, in fairness to Kate Middleton, I don’t know if she was ready, maybe emotionally,
Michelle: psychologically, you know, physically I think they were trying to, to make sure their kids were prepared as [00:37:00] well. Yeah. So I just feel like, you know, people kind of jumped to conclusions and then, um, when you’re a public figure, of course, you know, you’re held to a different standard than, um, somebody who isn’t.
So, um, I just felt like that was an example where you could, that video was, came across very, um. Uh, as her being very transparent and honest and, and it was very credible. I felt like it really helped her Yeah. Manage that. So that helped. Very authentic,
Shawna: very, very genuine. Yeah, that’s
Michelle: the word.
Shawna: And it was like the, the balm that the country and the world needed, wasn’t it that soothing balm that they needed was to hear her voice and to have her say like, I’m, you know, I’m gonna be, I’m gonna be okay.
You know, but this is what we’re dealing with here.
Michelle: Mm-hmm.
Shawna: Um, you know, that, I think that was, um, that was interesting to, to watch how that happened. And we didn’t have all the information upfront. And that’s the other thing about crises, right? Is that. You don’t have, you won’t have normally, unless you’re instigating, whether you ha maybe in [00:38:00] the, in the unlikely situation, nobody knows anything about the crisis you’re dealing with.
’cause it’s an internal thing. Okay? Mm-hmm. Maybe it’s a fraud case or a CEO sexual harassment case or something that’s quite internal. Mm-hmm. Only a few people know and you are actually at the front of it and able to release that information. But it’s highly unlikely that you’re not gonna be, that you won’t be, that you’re not the first one.
I’m trying to say that I’m tripping on my words there. So when, when we are looking at that, I think sometimes people wait. They wanna wait till they have all the information before they release any information and you just cannot do that in today’s environment with the speed at which information travels on social.
You have to get out and talk about what you know now and then keep adding to it to build up that story. Um. Yeah, that’s, that’s a key one. I always find people like, well, we waited till we had all the details. Well, you’re never gonna have everything that you wanna communicate before you need to start communicating.
Michelle: Well, I’m gonna, we’re gonna, [00:39:00] um, we’re gonna talk about what goes into the plan just a second. But I, but when you were talking just then, I thought about you. You had mentioned the, um, the hockey player, uh Oh, the brothers, yeah. And how that, um, has been handled Well, just from the perspective of. Releasing information as it has come to light or become available so that they didn’t hold it all back.
They, they’ve been talking throughout, um, since it happened about different things that have come to light. Well, and I’m wearing my
Shawna: crisis lens with this one because when that happened, and that, of course Johnny Gaudreau, if you don’t know the John Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau, both hockey player, brothers very close, did everything together to the point where I think Johnny stayed at, at college an extra year to play hockey with his brother Matthew, before he went to the NHL, he came to Calgary.
Uh, I’m, I’m an old, we, I live near Edmonton, so we are, we are Connor McDavid Boilers fans. We don’t really talk about the flames, but bless him, [00:40:00] he played for the flames and was just a beloved player and just like super, super nice family. So when the, when the very first news broke that they had been killed
Michelle: mm-hmm.
Shawna: Social media immediately went to drunk driving. Ah, you know, making lots of money that I saw posts on that, and people were actually saying, you know, you don’t know what happened here. Then it came out, they were killed by a drunk driver. They were killed on their bicycles, uh, by a drunk driver who, uh, when the car ahead made, went left to let them to go around the bicyclists, the cyclists, this driver behind in a, in a Jeep, I think went right to try to pass and hit them, killed them at the scene.
But as that story unfolded, it, it was information was being dripped on us as it went forward, probably because they were doing the release so closely with the family. Right. So then you found out that they were in town for their younger sister’s wedding. [00:41:00] That’s why they were together. Then you found out that, um, that uh, the brother, Matthew’s wife was pregnant with their first child.
We didn’t find out to the eulogy that Johnny Gore’s wife was pregnant with their, with their third child. She was, she’s just six weeks along, I think. So all of these pieces of information were kept very close hold, I would say, until the family was prepared to allow them to be released. So we didn’t really have a full picture of everything till almost two weeks after the fatalities, their deaths.
Michelle: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Shawna: Um, and the other thing, you know, that I taught, whenever you deal with those kinds of situations, we talked, when we spoke, uh, Michelle, about the make the memorials that come crop up, right? Oh, that’s right. The scene at the scene of the death or in Calgary and that, and you have all these donations and that’s how people show their grieving.
They attend memorial services, they attend a vigil, they put down teddy bears and [00:42:00] hockey sticks and were even, I had two hockey sticks on my front porch ’cause that’s what the Oilers fan, fan page said we should be doing to honor the family. But how they are now dismantling that memorial and the thought and the empathy and the caring for every item of of things from hockey sticks to teddy bears, to the jerseys being used to be made into quilts by some people donating their time that will be donated to charity.
Everything has been very thoughtfully considered and, and that is something that I thought nobody really wants to talk about that, but it can be a challenge for communications teams and organizations when you start to look at, okay, this has happened, but is the community ready for us to take this away?
So how are they managing to take this away and kind of go back to their new normal? So I just felt that there was a case where we were not getting all the details at once. The family’s needs were being put first, as they should be. And then we were getting drips of [00:43:00] information for a complete story. It took about two weeks of the making of that.
Right. Bless them both and their families.
Michelle: Yeah, and I mean, I think the lesson, I guess for the public more than uh, anything is just sometimes you have to give people a little grace. And, and you know, in both of the last two examples we’ve talked about, people are quick to jump to conclusions, um, that may or may not be correct.
And so, um, you know, especially when there’s illness or in this case a tragedy, um, like this, you really need to kind of. And of course on social media, no one is, a lot of people are not gonna take that to heart. But I’m gonna say it anyway that maybe we just need to be a little more thoughtful and, and take a little more time and give a little grace.
So,
Shawna: well, and you know what’s interesting, Michelle, is I do feel that some, that we’ve gone to a place where people feel they have a right to know. So whether it be something that impacts them personally or not, so let’s just shift to like a, um, you know, a natural [00:44:00] hazard. Um, you know, we always say there’s no such thing as a natural disaster ’cause uh, ’cause there’s always a hazard, but it’s how you respond to it or how prepared you are to respond that makes it a disaster.
Mm-hmm. So what I say about, about that, um, you know, that’s a little bit different, right? People, people will, they’re always gonna be, they’ll always want more information. And if you’re a public information officer working in those spaces, you know that people want more information than you have to share or to give, like, it’s, it’s a constant feed.
Once you start giving information, you have to keep feeding the beast. I, I think it was yesterday on LinkedIn, I saw the case that happened in the US with a, with an active shooter threat. Um, it was 10 hours till they posted. Again, like there was a 10 hour gap. You, you cannot allow that to happen. Even if you don’t have new information to share, you have to at least say, you know, we’re still investigating this.
We have no new details and your date and timestamping that, so the people are saying, oh, that was just from 45 minutes ago. This must be the latest update. [00:45:00] But what happens when you leave that gap of time
Michelle: mm-hmm. Is
Shawna: this is when people start to go to other sources. So mm-hmm. They, they don’t think of you as the trusted in credible source any longer.
Right Now they’re going to Facebook, they’re talking to their neighbor, they’re getting their own, you know, interpretation of things. So, right. You have to keep communicating once you start, which you have to start soon at the onset of your crisis. You have to keep communicating until that crisis is finished.
Michelle: Yeah, I mean, I think I, I mean even I can, I do that sometimes if it, if something, if I need to fill in the blanks and there isn’t anything coming from the official organization or the company itself, I’ll go out and look around and see what, you know, what the word on the street is. So I think that’s human nature.
Um, but it is worse with, you know, made worse by social media. So I’m. It’s a blessing and a curse. I don’t know. It’s,
Shawna: it’s, and then meta, you know, we had that, uh, up in Yellowknife here a year ago in the [00:46:00] summer. My daughter was Evacu. We were up in a campground in Yellowknife before they evacuated the whole town.
I was literally looking on a website in August that had a fire ban from June 25th that hadn’t been updated. Information was not mixed messaging. Some big challenges there. But what I would say to you was, I had a lot of calls from media about, oh, how is meta in this whole thing with meta now that you can’t post news affecting people and public safety?
And, and I was kind of the, the spokesperson, they didn’t want ’cause a hundred percent it impacted. Yes, it did. People go there for their news. It wasn’t there. But my point was, organizations need to get a little better instead of just doing a news release. And then posting the story of that release on your Facebook page, cut and paste the darn contents onto the media.
You own your website because that information still can be posted. You can post a briefing or an update and, and it’s there. And that’s what the town of Jasper during these wildfires we had [00:47:00] here this, this summer, that so devastating for people. Many of these people on this call probably have been to Jasper, but they used Facebook.
Every day for timely updates, date times, stamp the updates and put the information in there. There was no link to the media to a story. So they were using that Facebook just fine, regardless of the meta, you know, kind of, um, challenges that we’ve, we’ve seen being had across, across, uh, the globe.
Michelle: So, uh, we have about 10 minutes left.
People are welcome to ask questions if they have any people that are watching or listening. Um, what I wanna talk about, um, are the five things that you should be sure to include in your crisis communications plan.
Shawna: Well, my first one goes back to authority, delegated authority, somewhere in the introductory page where you’re talking about the purpose of your plan, your goals and objectives of that plan, the scope of the [00:48:00] plan.
It should give delegated authority, and you should have that plan signed off by leadership or an executive that. That demonstrates that that authority is intact. So when you have something that rears its ugly head somewhere that you can act immediately to start to own your crisis, that would be number one, that delegated authority.
I’m looking at my list here. Um, I would say the second thing is a thorough review of your risks, threats, risks and hazards. Think internal, think external. Think operational, but think reputational as well. So think about, um, you know, if you Googled right now, you know fraud. I’m telling you that the amount of cases you would find at the local government level of fraud is.
Insane. Like I can’t believe how many examples I can pull from that. It’s an increasing problem because people, groceries are more expensive. People are finding, you know, it more challenging to, to make, you know, paycheck goes far. So [00:49:00] temptation is there in some cases. So my point is, think about the unthinkable things as well, and that would then those things that have happened to others in your, in your group.
Sometimes I’ll pick up a plan and it is only outward facing threats they’ve included that their emergency manager or fire chief have given them. That’s where HR and communications come together. You all should have a seat at the table writing the plan. It is not just a a communications person’s job to write the crisis comms plan.
You need the perspectives and inputs from everyone. So really understand your threats, risks, and hazards from there. I would say that on top of that, another big key one is to have some pre-approved, legally approved. Holding statements in that plan that you can launch on a moment’s notice to have them preloaded in your phone.
Have them in your alert or notification system on your desktop everywhere you may need to access it. Have some pre-approved legally ones that are [00:50:00] so benign in nature, all they say is who you are and that you’re looking into things to start the ball rolling, to own that. Um, the next thing I would say is make sure you have and understand your message approval process.
Mm-hmm. So maybe you’re giving delegated authority for someone to put out an initial holding statement, but you’re gonna have to have a process in there of how your messages are approved, who needs to look at them before you send internal and external information. And here’s a hint, if it has to go through 10 different approvals, you’re not getting it out fast enough.
So what does that look like? Um, so where am I up to there? Three, four. Am I given?
Um, I would also say another thing about media and social media is do you have a media policy within your organization? So if media call in and they happen to get Shauna Bruce on the phone, but Shauna’s not a comms person and she just [00:51:00] works over here at the Acme Chemical Company, do they know what the process is to put media into the right hands of the people to respond?
Do they know they can’t respond? Like what are the direct, what’s the re you know, direction you’re giving your employees for media and social? Can they talk about your company on their personal Facebook feed? Can they post a picture of a fire that happens on their personal Facebook feed? All of this should be part of your onboarding process and, and kind of put out as reminders to your employees.
What is, this is our media policy. This is who you push the request to. If you get one, just a reminder, if we post on our social page and we want you to share, we’ll put on there. Please reshare, you know, but you cannot be taking your own initiative and posting things about a crisis. Mm-hmm. Because we can’t contain the messaging that way really?
Mm. I think you’re gonna word it a bit differently, but I think those are also. A weak link that can happen in [00:52:00] organization. And really, the last thing I would say is you have to practice the plan. It’s a living document. It, it should be constantly being revised and updated and reviewed. I’m not talking huge tabletop exercises or simulations, which are fantastic for true testing.
I’m talking a lunch and learn session where something happens in the news to another like-minded company or a competitor of yours. And you’re bringing in the file, you’re sitting down the comms team and you’re saying, okay, this happened over here. How would we respond? Take a look at your plan and walk through it.
Do we have everything in here that would help us to respond? So, making your plan a living document, like I said, preparing a plan, preparing, uh, having a plan, preparing all your templates that you need to support all your risks and hazards.
Michelle: Mm-hmm.
Shawna: Practicing that plan. Performing when you have to, with the training that you have, uh, the best of your ability when you have an incident.
And then [00:53:00] doing, perfecting the plan after the fact with an after action review to deconstruct how you communicated and reconstruct what it would’ve looked like in a perfect world and finding the gaps and then closing them. So it, it is a lot of work and I, and I know that I’ve been one of those people where that plan was not just on the side of my desk, but on the floor as a door stop until I realized how my role as a communications person was critical to our community getting life and death information.
And then it became a priority.
Michelle: Yeah, I mean, the thing that you said there, a couple of things. Well, one is, um, the kind of the postmortem on how you handled the crisis. Mm-hmm. Because I think that’s something that you can use to inform, you know, future responses and, and things. Um, but I don’t think a lot of people think about that.
And I mean, sometimes it can take a long time for things to play out too. So, you know, maybe you need to have different [00:54:00] points in time at which you look back and you also kind of go out again and do some social listening. Um, and just some, some monitoring of what the community or what your audience is thinking or saying or feeling or sharing or whatever.
Um, I think that’s important. So thanks for bringing that up. ’cause I don’t know if that’s on everybody’s list of things to do. Well
Shawna: and you know, Michelle, and don’t wait till the end of the crisis to be doing that testing if your messages are working and resonating with those that are reviewing them.
Right. Like, I think there needs to be a review every day. Every, at the end of every day, okay, what went well today? What didn’t go well? Where were the pinch points? What do we need to fix? Maybe your crisis is running a few days or weeks or what have you, depending on the scope and scale, right? But I think on the other side of that is when you’ve put those messages out, is who can you tap into?
Well, back to that coin, right? Your community outreach information network. Did these messages resonate? Did we, do we have the right wording? Did you get them? Mm-hmm. This is really important to be fixing right at the [00:55:00] onset of your crisis so that you can be, you know, morphing and changing tact to make sure you’re, you’re addressing the concerns the next day.
So if you leave it right to the very end, it’s good to do that at the end with everything. But you should be having a little standup every day. Also, making sure that people have the resources they need to do their job. Understand where help is needed, and deconflict any pinch points.
Michelle: I mean, I think it’s just a lot of work, as you said, and it’s, I mean, it’s something that people either don’t wanna, you know, do or, or just pretend like it’s not gonna happen to them and go on and, um, you know, they’re, then they’re caught, you know, without anything in place if it does happen.
So I, I feel like, you know, having the plan and then revisiting the plan, that was another thing you said, don’t let it just sit on a shelf collecting dust. You have to kind of come back and things change. You know, there might be new, um, considerations you need to kind of factor into your planning or new threats or something, [00:56:00] um, different that has happened in your industry that might, um, need to be added to the plan or something maybe that needs to be, maybe could be taken out or, or put in, you know, kind of put in the back of the plan.
Um, but yeah, I think those are all really important, uh, points that you made there.
Shawna: Well, I appreciate that and think about that. I mean, 20 years ago we weren’t concerned really about social media being a tool we were using in our toolbox, right? And I always like to say, use all the tools that are appropriate for you to use with your audiences.
It’s, it’s good to have tools, but it’s also extremely important to know where your audience is going to get their information. If your whole entire audience, if you do some analytics and they’re going to your Facebook page and you’re taking the time to put tweets out that take, you know, 10 tweets to get out the same information as a Facebook post, then maybe you’re not using your time wisely.
You know, you should be prioritizing what tools you’re going to use based on where your audiences are seeking information and understanding where that is for your crisis.
Michelle: Yeah, [00:57:00] that’s very important. That’s a really good point because I, I know organizations that don’t seem to understand, they don’t know where their audience is connecting with them.
And that’s, you know, that can cause issues if you don’t know where your, where your people are, uh, how are you gonna communicate effectively with your people, that, that affects so many things. And,
Shawna: and with that, if you do a little matrix up about, you know, your audience, what tool you’re gonna use to communicate, communicate to them.
And also like how, like as an example, I sit on a, a board of governors for a local university here. When there is stuff that’s happening, the president is sending a direct email to those board of Governors. I’m not seeing it on a Facebook post. So think about your audiences and also who should own that.
Communication. I mean, I’m sure someone is helping the President Pen that, but my point is it’s a more personalized, direct feed into my inbox. For me, because of the role I have at the university, I’m not, I think that’s another consideration. If you have, uh, shareholders, if you have, you know, boards [00:58:00] of governor, if you have advisory groups thinking about them because they are your best ambassadors normally, and if you can get that communication to them, then that’s, that’s where you wanna, that’s where you wanna focus.
Michelle: Great point. As we wrap up, any final thoughts?
Shawna: I, I would just say in today’s world of crisis communication, you have to be first and when you can’t be first, you need to be fast. You need to be frequent in putting your information, or pardon me, you need to be factual with the information you’re sharing and then frequent with how often you’re posting.
And then you need to follow up and deliver on any commitments you make in there with your follow on posts. So I think that it’s really important that we understand the speed at which information is being shared and how quickly misinformation can get out there, and why we need to be prepared and be proactive.
Because if we’re the [00:59:00] source of that trusted and credible source that’s been established, then there’s less likelihood of misinformation getting in there because people are coming to us to get the facts. But as soon as we have that gap, or as soon as we let hours go by, people are already looking elsewhere.
And that’s where misinformation can start to creep in because they’re not getting the facts from, from the source. So there’s a really important, um, lessons in all of this for crisis comm. If anyone has any specific questions or they have any challenges they’re facing, just reach out. If I don’t have an answer, I’ll find someone in my network that can, I can connect you with who can help you.
We wanna make sure people are prepared for crises that could come their way and, um, I really believe in mitigation and preparedness as the best tool
Michelle: to help with that. So well said, Shauna and I learned so much from following you, and so much of what you say resonates and I, uh, you’re just, you’d be a great person for, um, everyone to follow [01:00:00] and, uh, and keep up with your updates and your posts.
And again, I wanna thank you so much for being here. This was, um, I don’t know if I should say fun, because crisis is not always. Fun. But it was very informative and I really enjoyed, um, talking with you about this today.
Shawna: Well, Michelle, I appreciate so much you inviting someone from the north to be on your show.
Uh, as you know, this is a passion area of mine. I love everything that’s disaster emergency and crisis risk and crisis related. And I could probably talk about it all day and, uh, but won’t, I won’t do that. But I am available for any follow up questions. We will share some tools with you, uh, when yes, in a future post on LinkedIn.
So watch for that. And thank you for those that tuned in today because this demonstrates you have an interest in crisis communication and in supporting your organization. So, so good on you for doing that professional development today.
Michelle: Thank you so much Shauna, and thanks for those who tuned in and um, we will see you again [01:01:00] soon for another episode of PR Explored.
Thanks again. Stay safe everyone. Thank you.
