The last place and time that you want to discover all about crisis communications is when hordes of media are clamouring at your doors and social media is white hot. Crises often erupt when you least expect them, but if you communicate quickly and well you can keep your reputations intact. The key lies in effective preparation from developing plans to anticipating the types of crisis likely to hit you. Managing issues well can also help you to avoid many potential crises.
This Crisis Communication training course will help you to build a toolkit of skills and collateral to meet the unknown with confidence and to put into place a tried and tested plan when speed is of the essence. This training course will allow you to practice in realistic but safe situations to turn insight into highly practical routines and resources. The toolkit of skills learned during the training course will help increase participants’ ability to meet and exceed their work objectives.
This Energy Training Centre training course will highlight:
- Analysis of real life cases to understand what to do and not to do
- The way to put together a set of plans to cover your risks
- The resources that you will need to create a crisis communications centre
- How to handle the media – both traditional and social
- How best to keep stakeholders informed and monitor their response
This Crisis Communications training course will enable participants to:
- Analyse the range of issues that could develop into crises
- Understand how to create issue briefs and teams within a crisis plan
- Discover how to select spokespeople and to train them
- Learn the importance of your first response and how to craft it
- Discover how to monitor the response to issues and stakeholder reaction
- Practice crisis communication in a realistic simulation
This training course uses a wide variety of proven adult learning techniques to ensure effective assimilation and retention of the information presented. This training course is highly interactive and will prompt delegates to reflect on their own thinking, communication style and practice.
Your Tutor will guide and facilitate learning using a wide variety of methods including direct input, video, discussions and group and individual exercises to focus on the themes of the training course, practice skills and receive feedback.
The participants’ company will benefit in the following ways:
- Increase the availability of skilled PR staff to protect your reputation
- More effective planning processes to help avoid or manage crises
- Have an active system to continually update intelligence on risks
- Increased ability to manage the media both traditional and social
- Develop an up-to-date crisis communications centre and support for managers
The personal benefits to be derived from attending this Crisis Communications training course include the following:
- Development of a crisis communications toolkit
- Practical experience of handling a simulated crisis
- Confidence in your preparation for handling hostile media
- Ability to manage internal communications adroitly
- Understanding of how to create and update a plan
This Crisis Communications training course is suitable for a wide range of professionals in communication and marketing but will greatly benefit:
- Executive leadership team
- Senior managers
- Public Relations Officers / Managers
- Company spokespersons
- Public Affairs Practitioners
- Corporate Communications Practitioners
- Social Media practitioners
- Anyone planning a career in PR
Day One: Crisis or Issue?
- What is a crisis?
- The changing nature of crises and communication
- Planning is the key – when you are not under pressure
- The rules of crisis communications
- Stakeholders and what they need
Day Two: Preparation, Preparation, Preparation
- How to take the surprise out of a crisis?
- Issue identification and management
- Using SWOT, PEST and PESTLE
- Creating Issue briefs and maintaining them
- Setting up a crisis management and comms centre
- Experts, managers, decision-makers and spokespeople
Day Three: Managing Media – Traditional and Social
- First response – the holding statement
- Creating and gathering collateral, Managing media contacts lists
- Creating a crisis communications toolkit
- Spokesperson training, interviews and press calls
- Working with your legal team
- Managing your CSR profile to create support
Day Four: Stakeholder Communications
- Stakeholder lists and communications plans
- Internal communication – outpacing the rumour mill
- Creating an internal influencer map
- Using staff ambassadors to communicate to other stakeholders
- VVIP and Government communications
- Monitoring conversations – sentiment mining
Day Five: Crisis Communications Exercise
- Including Communications in your crisis simulations
- Team development
- Briefing for the simulation
- Preparation
- The Crisis Communications Simulation
