Smoke and Mirrors: Spotting False Crises in Internal Communication
Many days in internal communication (IC) can feel like firefighting. Everything coming at you seems to be on fire, smoldering, or ready to ignite. “Fire drill” is corporate jargon for unplanned, unexpected, high-intensity situations that interrupt your daily routine. There are two categories of IC fire drills—one for real fires and one for fake fires. Real fires are circumstances that are challenging (perhaps impossible) to anticipate. Things like malware attacks or an employee death fall into this category. This is when a crisis communication plan comes into play. Fake fires result from lack of education or proactive planning. They are 100 percent preventable. Next time you experience a “fire” at work, look a bit closer to see which kind it really is.
How to Identify Real Fires
If you look closely at the fires you get pulled into, you’ll realize that genuine emergencies are typically few and far between. To assess if a situation is indeed an IC emergency, use the following risk assessment:
Physical risk—Would an employee or customer be in physical danger if a message is not communicated immediately?
Reputational risk—Would the organization’s reputation be at risk if a message is not communicated immediately?
Financial risk—Would our organization, clients, or employees be at a financial risk if a message is not communicated immediately?
If your answer is ‘no’ to all of the risk-related questions, it’s not an emergency—and most likely a fake fire. If you answered ‘yes’ to any or all of these risks, you’ve validated that it is indeed a state of emergency and may be time to dust off your crisis communication plan.
