When a leader of a company shows poor judgment or behaves in a way that goes against the law or social norms, it can devastate the entire reputation of a business through executive misconduct. When the issue stems from the CEO, it can be downright game-changing. With a reputational issue like executive conduct, a company’s …
Recognizing an Active Shooter in the Making
It’s easy to look back on the bad things in life and think of how you might have handled things differently. Yet, an active shooter incident is not something to reflect on only after it happens. There is a connotation that every active shooter plans to commit an attack for weeks or months in advance. …
Anatomy of a Crisis
Definition of a Crisis according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary: a: an unstable or crucial time or state of affairs in which a decisive change is impending; especially : one with the distinct possibility of a highly undesirable outcome b: a situation that has reached a critical phase. The instability and pressure inherent during a crisis situation invokes …
Why social media and communications should be a part of any exercise
In pretty much every situation that you are preparing for, there will is a strong likelihood that there will be a publicity moment – and not the good kind. This is especially true of incidents that are reputational in nature (rather than a physical disaster type of incident). Whether your communications and social media team …
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Defining Workplace Violence: Why Is It Dangerous?
Few events can be more terrifying than facing an active shooter in your business. Unfortunately, the number of active shooter scenarios has risen to a point where statistics are available. Per the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational and Safety Health Administration (OSHA), active shooter incidents are classified as a type of workplace violence, and in …
Crisis Exercises: Why are they important?
We aren’t talking about side-bends or sit-ups here. This is a different type of New Year’s resolution and it’s about why you need to practice your incident and crisis response protocols through crisis exercises. Exercising means talking through a scenario that your plan is intended to navigate. Exercising helps your team to get more comfortable …
Crisis Communications 101: Good Response Tactics
Ring, ring. Hello? “Hi, this is Jane with the Wall Street Journal calling for comment on the recent incident caused by one of your executives. I’m on deadline.” Gulp. It’s time for some solid crisis communications response tactics. You are just learning that something even happened from this call. And they want you to comment …
Decision Making in Times of Crisis
Its Friday at 4 pm and you get the call. Something bad, perhaps really bad, just happened. You are in charge – so now what? Take a deep breath, and follow these tips to lead during a crisis: Gather all of the information: The facts are important – and often will trickle in over time. …