COVID-19. Everyone’s talking about it, but let’s discuss how to talk about it at work. I’m ruing the fact my parents didn’t send me to circus school, because it’s like walking a tightrope. How do you make and communicate constructive plans at a time of global pandemic without fuelling people’s fear?
The simple answer is that, as with the virus itself, there’s no cure-all. All we can do is mitigate risk through effective scenario planning (if you can plan for it, you should) and conscious action. Enter stage left: the crisis comms team. So much information is being shared from every direction, it’s hard to know what (or who) to believe and how to make the best decisions for your business and its people.
Let’s take a peek backstage. Here’s the advice you should be getting in five easy steps:
1. Be honest.
Openness goes a long way, but don’t give more information than needed (which can create panic). Give context, such as ‘the situation is changing all the time’ and be real without letting your personal opinions deviate you from the facts.
If the answers aren’t available, don’t be afraid to say, “We don’t know.” Your team want certainty, but if you can’t give them that, then honesty will go a long way.
2. Keep it simple.
The more information you give, the harder it is to navigate or to land the most important messages. Stick to the key points you want the people you work with and for to take away.
Don’t overload your team with information. Take it step-by-step. Already having plans in place for anything that might be concerning them from how to work effectively from home through to job security will be reassuring.
3. Stay consistent.
Don’t jump the gun and speak before you’re confident in your position. Lack of clarity or what seem like swings in approach can be disconcerting.
You can change your position when new information becomes available, but you should always explain ‘why’ as well as ‘what’ you’re proposing. Excepting in an emergency, crisis updates should be at regular, logical intervals to create a sense of stability.
4. Show flexibility.
Make sure your internal crisis comms is a dialogue not a monologue. Listening is as important as speaking in order to understand your people’s concerns and needs.
While you need one central crisis plan and a single point of authority for the crisis, hear people’s individual concerns and work out what is a necessary risk versus an unnecessary risk for business continuity. After all, the first rule of a crisis is that all rules – with the exception of these five, of course☺- can be broken.
5. Make sure you’re well informed.
Check your sources. Like any good investigative journalist, you need to have multiple trusted sources providing the same information before you repeat it.
You can’t be too on top of the news cycle. Key to a crisis is making sure you have as few surprises as possible. Keep reading, listening and watching every chance you get and set alerts, always checking the reliability of your sources. Even unreliable ones can offer useful perspective, since they may be a go-to for your team.
Katie Traxton is an ESA Board Director and Managing Partner at WeAreFearless, ESA’s Pan-Europe Sponsorship Agency of the Year.