When I was training to be an EMT years ago, we ran drills. A lot of drills. I did them for my own training, with multiple agencies, in disaster response, and even for television reenactments. I’ve been in a “plane crash”, a “mass causality event”, an “emergency birth” and more.

Why so many drills? Because practice removes panic.

You don’t want to be figuring things out in the middle of a crisis. You want muscle memory to kick in. You want every team member to know their role.

This is why crisis planning matters for businesses too. Because when things are going south, everyone knows which way is true north.

Many small business think crisis planning is for big companies with legal teams, PR departments, and all sort of fancy communications systems. I’m here to tell you it’s not.

When you learn CPR, you spend a few hours learning an practicing what to do when an emergency arises. These skill are first learned and then practiced. The setting is simple. They aren’t as large-scale and complex as the multi-agency emergency drills I talked about earlier, but they are still important. They get you ready for an emergency.

The same goes with small business. You want to be prepared, because eventually something will go wrong and you don’t want to be scrambling.

Think of it as a practice run. You pick the scenario, walk through what would happen and see how your team responds.

Every business is different, so every scenario will be different so here’s a few ideas to get you thinking:

You have your scenarios. Now test out and practice whether you can answer the following:

I’ve probably forgotten some, it’s a lot to remember.

Answering the above and practicing is difficult and takes time. Most people skip this. They may have a thought of what they would say, but don’t run through the scenarios. Please do all the drills.

💫 Pro Tip: Refresh yourself with crisis planing with these episodes of AttnSeek.

See where the weak links are.

Maybe the message is too long. Maybe nobody knows who approves it. Maybe the response takes too long. Maybe the tone is too stiff. Maybe the plan sounds good on paper but falls apart in real life.

Take note and adjust or fix.

Was there anything confusing?
What worked?
What didn’t?
What was missing?
What needs and update?
Do we need additional help?
Do we need a professionally written crisis plan?

That is the point of crisis planning: practice now so you do not panic later. Just like paramedics, you want muscle memory, clear roles, and a calm response when the real emergency hits.

Do this now: Think about crises that have occurred in your organization’s past, and that might occur in the future.

Get PR techniques from recent news.

Taylor Farms recalled iceberg lettuce after it was linked to cyclospora. You know, that explosive-diarrhea-causing bug. Then Taylor Farms claimed the FDA said the test was a false positive, and they apologized. FDA response: no, we didn’t. Technically, they responded with, “We only replied with factual information.”

Either way, there was a lot of confusion in the beginning of the outbreak and no clear messaging on Taylor Farms’ part, plus a lot of finger-pointing. Not a good crisis strategy.

They have since removed the “see, we’re right, they’re wrong” sentiment from the website and have information regarding the outbreak.

Since this whole episode is about Crisis Management, I want to share a simple strategy I use for these complex situations.

Here’s how it works:

What happened. What’s happening now. What is going to happen.

Easy peasy. Well maybe not that easy, but that’s why we practice!

💫 Pro Tip: By quickly responding to crisis, you show that you are the source of reliable, up-to-date, accurate news. People don’t have to guess. If you’ve already lost trust, gain it back quickly by being transparent and taking the situation seriously.

✍️ Key PR Takeaway: Have prepared statements, crisis plan and run crisis drills so when a crisis hits everyone has a cool head. ALWAYS lead with sympathy if your product has, or possibly has hurt or harmed people. There will most likely be lawsuits anyways in these big cases so may as well say sorry and be sympathetic.

Useful PR Resources.

Do you have a press release to send out and aren’t sure what tool to try? Enter Reportable. They just relaunched their platform so press releases are built to show up in ChatGPT answers, not just news sites.

What I’m liking about this new tool is that the front-end format is easy to use and polished for you, your clients, and, most importantly, journalists. The back-end is built to help AI and search engines better understand, organize, and cite your release.

The price is solid, you can use their built-in newsroom if you don’t already have one, and they offer analytics so you can track results.

They have combined what reporters want with what AI needs. All in an easy to use platform.

Finally, a press release tool that’s built for journalists and AI at the same time!

We didn’t have any submissions this week! I’d love to show off your furry attention seeker. Please reply to this email with a picture of your pet and a bit about them and their cute antics.

I will be immersed in Chinese learning this week so trying to get this episode prepared early. Reminds me of the Chinese word for crisis 危机. The words danger and opportunity put together to mean crisis. Because if you think about it, every crisis is a potential risk to an organization, but it is also a potential opportunity, if handled correctly.

Until next week, keep your shades on and stay cool.

Your fellow Seeker,
Keren

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