Aw CRAP… where do we go from here? [Editor’s note: Our colleague and seasoned crisis expert Jeff Chatterton was kind enough to allow us to reprint this timely piece, the title of which echoes what’s being said in boardrooms and living rooms the world over. With COVID-19 making major impact …
Looking to improve your crisis management consulting skills? Take these 4 tips to heart. We find that people who gravitate towards crisis management – as we so often say, “whether it’s in your job description or not” – have a thirst for learning, regardless of whether they’re looking to break …
Freaking out is not a crisis management plan Headless chickens running amok appear to be in charge of many organizations – including media outlets – in response to the spread of COVID-19 globally and its imminent status as a pandemic. Freakout Crisis Management is not an effective means of responding …
Planning is important, but plans require practice to be used properly in a crisis Imagine you came upon a firefighting team just arrived at the scene of a fire, all milling around with leaders shouting conflicting orders, firefighters not recalling how to properly set up and use their equipment, and …
How Some Well-Intentioned Meetings Increase the Risk of Crises Committees can be very useful for hearing different points of view, working out details of plans, and building consensus. Committees can also be the inadvertent cause of completely preventable crises and/or exacerbate the damage from unpreventable crises. I remember around the …
Know What Wikipedia Says About Your Brand Before a Crisis Hits Wikipedia has established itself as one of the internet’s most influential arbiters of reputation. Whatever the site says about your company, clients, or brand will influence what the world thinks about them, whether you like it or not. And …
Learn the traits you need to succeed in the world of crisis management consulting Erik Bernstein and I do a lot of remote guest lecturing to college audiences, and invariably are asked, “What does it take to be a crisis management consultant? What skills do I need?” Here’s what we …
Advice from an expert with decades of crisis management consulting experience In my 35+ years of crisis management consulting, I’ve made a some mistakes. And learned some important tips for being a better crisis management consultant. Here are my top five: Don’t assume you’re being told the whole story initially, …
Join us for quick pro tips from real crisis management consultants We’re bringing back a popular Bernstein Crisis Management series of short, informative blog posts, “Crisis Manager On The Spot”! These will typically feature questions for a crisis management consultant or other crisis-related expert, submitted by curious readers and our …
One of the toughest challenges for any crisis management consultant is telling the CEO of a client organization that they are part of the problem. When does that happen? When the CEO: fails to insist that crisis management best practices – crisis prevention and response – become an integral …
“Mail your packages early so the post office can lose them in time for Christmas.” — Johnny Carson While Johnny Carson was certainly having some fun at our mail carriers’ expense, there’s no denying that the holiday season brings plentiful opportunities for organizations of all shapes and sizes to …
The front desk person at a financial services firm I visited some time ago had a marvelous title on her nameplate, “Director of First Impressions.” She knew that she was in a make or break position for her firm, that initial opinions of new clients may well be influenced …
[Editor’s note: The author of this post, Paul Biddle MBE, has 23 years in UK Law Enforcement along with multiple tours of Iraq & Afghanistan. In other words, he knows some things about real world crisis management and crisis leadership. Today he explores issues, or as he calls them diseases, …
Our crisis management consultants share their takeaways from this outrage outbreak You’ve undoubtedly already seen coverage related to Peloton, maker of high end exercise bikes and treadmills, becoming the first brand to draw the internet’s ire in the 2019 holiday season. While pundits have been furiously drawing lines in the …
Avoiding the Somebody Else’s Problem Field Don’t make this common, and often damaging, crisis management mistake! In The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, author Douglas Adams famously described the “Somebody Else’s Problem” (SEP) cloaking device as the perfect way to hide even the most noticeable of items, writing, “An SEP …
