Simulation Exercises for Crisis Readiness

During a crisis, being able to respond quickly is important to ensuring that impact is mitigated. However, without a prepared holding statement put in place, there is a chance that the initial messaging ends up stirring the pot even further. With how much shorter the breathing room is between the incident and when the media begins to hound you for a scoop—there just may not be enough time to formulate something firm and concise within that timeframe.

Being able to deliver an effective statement helps buy you time to get a better grasp on the situation. It’s also best to keep communicating with the media hourly. Updates fill voids, ensuring rumors or speculations don’t derail things further. Additionally, keep in mind that the messaging of a holding statement does hold sway over perceptions. Formulate with empathy AND professionalism in mind.

Holding Statement Preparation

a. Definition & Purpose

First, let’s define the purpose of a holding statement. A holding statement is a brief, pre-approved message that has been formulated for instances of a crisis. It’s meant to be issued during the early moments of a crisis—anywhere between 15 minutes to an hour after the event occurred, or if a low profile one goes public. The holding statement is addressed to stakeholders, such that trust can be maintained through communication. This is why it helps prevent rumors and speculation. It fills in the gaps of information by providing stakeholders with a statement which expresses empathy, action, responsibility and transparency.

b. Best Practices

As mentioned in the prior point, a holding statement is meant to express empathy, action, responsibility and transparency. When formulating a statement meant to reassure stakeholders, there are several practices that can help produce better results.

One of them is to build a pre-approval process. This will usually involve those with leadership roles in the organization. Their expertise may provide good insight. It’s also key to include a legal advisor in the process.

Keep the message short, firm and concise. Holding statements are meant to convey that the organization is taking the steps to respond to the crisis.

Acknowledge the situation. Transparency and clarity on the matter helps stakeholders see that you’re taking the matter seriously. If no information is out yet, refer back to the action plans rather than merely stating that there is no information on the matter yet. Be precise with what is known, but if the information is still cloudy, do not make definitive statements.

Commit to providing updates on the matter, but don’t make any promises that aren’t a certainty. Promising to find out the root of an issue within a day sets a promise and tone for further updates that, if unfulfilled, will reduce trust in the organization’s crisis response capabilities.

Lastly, be empathetic. Acknowledge the emotions that stakeholders may feel, be it investors, employees or customers. However, remain professional in the messaging. When many are in disarray, it helps to have a strong, unwavering voice that speaks to resolving matters.

Mock Press Conference

a. Objectives

The main point of running press conference exercises is to get your spokespeople to be able to speak well and with confidence under pressure. This means speaking clearly and authoritatively. Speakers are coached to be able to convey key messages with clarity, empathy and control. This is important for the purposes of establishing credibility.

Additionally, speakers should be challenged with off-the-cuff questions. This prepares them for when the media asks any questions that may not necessarily be addressed in any preformatted response. Your spokesperson will need to be able to reply to these without panicking and be capable of maintaining their poise, correcting misinformation, and when necessary, redirect the conversation.

b. Structure

In general, the structure of a mock press conference usually goes as follows:

Schedule	Description	Time
Scenario Briefing	Distribute the crisis dossier to all participants, set objectives, assign roles, review ground rules of the exercise.	15 minutes
Opening Statement	The spokesperson delivers a pre-prepared holding statement, summarizing the situation, key messages and next steps to demonstrate their ability to deliver their tonal performance, pacing and discipline.	2 minutes
Press Q&A	The journalists ask hard, pressuring questions; the spokesperson practices answering them, using bridging and message framing techniques.	20 minutes
Debrief & Coaching	Facilitators and observers provide feedback on delivery, content, and crisis communication tactics. The spokesperson receives coaching to improve based on performance.	15 minutes

c. Evaluation Metrics

Several metrics you’re looking for when evaluating the quality of your mock press conference exercises are how much the participants are able to recall key messages, how often they’re able to redirect off-topic questions back to key messaging, and speech delivery.

Being able to accurately cite three core points on messaging means that participants have some degree of understanding of what the key talking points are and what not to speak about. The ability to bridge unrelated topics back into the main conversation shows the speaker’s wit and ability to ensure that derailing voices don’t steer the conversation. With regards to speech delivery, the main measuring points are empathy, tone, and composure. A speaker’s capacity to reach the hearts of those they are speaking to, be they stakeholders or the general public, whilst keeping composure and the tone of their messaging shows their emotional intelligence levels.

Of course, these three points are only examples, and additional metrics can be included.

Mock Doorstop Interview

a. Why It Matters

This training prepares the speaker with a hint of the stress of being pulled into a spontaneous, informal media interview. During crises, there may be times when multiple media interviewers seek to catch you informally. They often do this to get answers that are less formal, like during a press conference. As such, it’s important to prepare how to handle these situations. Oftentimes, during these types of interviews, particularly when swarmed, a spokesperson may get overwhelmed and blurt out answers that may not align with the company.

b. Exercise Design

With doorstop exercises, what you want is to run a simulation. Following the mock press conference, the spokesperson must then walk through a “corridor” or “pathway” where he must walk between or push against a crowd of mock reporters and camera crew. The mock reporters then ask questions that are usually harder to answer or may take the spokesperson by surprise. While the mock camera crew adds additional atmosphere by utilizing flashing light, etc. To simulate pressure, the mock reporters may shout and attempt to ask their questions at the same time. A time cap for each answer can also be introduced to add a sense of rush.

c. Evaluation Criteria

Some of the criteria that can be put up for evaluation are the spokesperson’s composure, ability to loop back to the core message, and body language. A spokesperson who gets overwhelmed during a mock doorstop interview will find it even harder to deal with the real thing. Body language conveys the speaker’s confidence in his words. However, merely speaking with confidence means nothing when the message delivered veers off course from the core.

Simulation Evaluation & Continuous Learning

a. Debrief Framework

Use Stop-Start-Continue to identify which actions the spokesperson must “stop doing”, “start doing”, or “continue doing” going forward. This should let your spokesperson know where he needs to work on, and what to keep note of.

Take note to include feedback from the mock reporters, the observers and the media coaches. They can be a valuable source of insight as they are on the receiving end of the spokesperson’s performance. There may be things that the people in these roles notice, particularly as they play the role of viewer or media reporter. What you say, and especially what you do, may not seem particularly negative to you, but it may come off that way based on wording, delivery, etc.

b. Metrics & Tracking

A few of the things you might want to consider as metrics are: confidence scale, message alignment, credibility score.

Have participants measure for themselves their confidence. No one knows better than the actual person. With regards to conveying an appearance of confidence, that falls under the credibility scoring. Have the spokesperson’s performance quality measured via credibility scores. Measure the believability, trustworthiness, and sway in their words. For example, is the tone they use appropriate? Do they speak with responsibility and clarity? Are they reassuring with their body language? What do they sound like? A person? Or like they’re reading a script?

c. Embedding into Culture

Once a good voice has been found, implement it into the office’s culture. Hold biannual media training exercises to ensure that spokespeople are always ready in the event that a crisis does appear. Include a register of mistakes and lessons to take from past efforts in communicating through a crisis. Adapt and update holding statement templates and the handling of Q&A’s via mock exercises.

Conclusion

In order to ensure the proficiency of communications, we must always be prepared. It’s not just about prevention, but also mitigation. Once something slips past precautionary practices, like it or not, the media will come for you. Be prepared, or be squared. Learn from mistakes, incorporate and adapt, and commit to regular drilling and adoption of the messaging into the company culture.