Is Your Crisis Communication Plan Outdated?

Does this sound like your organization?

Our crisis communication plan is just a few years old. But half the people listed in it are gone, we haven’t practiced it and I’m not confident we could respond quickly if something happened tomorrow. 

If even one of these things is true, your organization may be relying on a crisis plan that no longer reflects how your team actually operates. This can slow down your response and create additional risk when the stakes are highest. Knowing where your plan is vulnerable and how to address gaps helps build your team’s crisis readiness, giving you a better chance of responding quickly and confidently when a crisis happens. 

How to tell if your crisis plan is outdated 

Certain parts of a crisis communication plan have a higher likelihood of becoming irrelevant or ineffective over time. Common vulnerabilities include:  

• Your list of potential scenarios: Your four-year-old crisis communication plan may feel topical…until you realize there’s no mention of AI. The exponential rise of AI adoption (Pew Research shows that only 5% of Americans have not heard of AI) is a case study for how quickly new high-risk scenarios can emerge. Regularly reviewing potential crises and preparing communication materials helps prevent surprises down the line. 

• Your prepared messaging: As issues evolve, so do the public’s attitudes about them. Consistently editing and adapting templated crisis response statements helps them remain relevant and appropriate for today’s audiences.  

• Your go-to communication channels: Successful communication is measured by its ability to effectively reach key stakeholders. And stakeholders often switch up the channels they use to connect as new ones gain popularity. A Sprout Social study found that social media is now the primary channel for brand crisis response. Understanding the best channels to engage audiences ensures you can quickly target and distribute messages at critical moments.

• Your response team: Between mergers and acquisitions, structure changes and shifting expectations around remote work, crisis and communication teams may change quickly and institutional knowledge is not guaranteed. Developing clear roles and responsibilities and approval paths sets your organization up for an efficient and organized crisis response. 

How to refresh your crisis plan  

Our world keeps changing, so why do so many organizations still treat crisis plans as static documents, instead of a tool that must evolve to meet today’s toughest pressures? 

If your crisis plan has been sitting on the shelf for more than a year, now’s the time to prioritize the following activities:  

1. Assemble the crisis team: Confirm the members of your crisis team, outline clear roles and responsibilities and ensure all are familiar with the crisis communication plan.
2. Refresh team training: Convene your crisis response team and spokespeople for a training session to reground in best practices and build confidence for when a crisis hits. 
3. Update messaging and statements: Scan your crisis scenarios, message library and holding statements for anything that’s missing, outdated or irrelevant. 
4. Assess crisis communication channels: Audit engagement across your existing communication channels to understand if they are effectively reaching your audiences.   
5. Embed AI: Create governance around when and how your organization uses AI in a crisis. With the right direction, AI-powered models can help generate customized messages that help your team quickly activate a crisis plan.  

A crisis plan is only as current as the people, assumptions and operating environment behind it. Some crisis communication plans may only need a small tune up to be relevant for today’s audiences and issues. Others need a more comprehensive overhaul. The clearest way to understand a plan’s strengths and vulnerabilities is to conduct a crisis communication audit.

An audit provides a clear view of an organization’s readiness to respond and outlines practical opportunities to strengthen crisis communication by reviewing readiness, scenarios, teams, tools and more.