When the Balloon Goes Up

The Communicator's Guide to Crisis Response

Table of Contents

Chapter Title Page

About the Author 9
Foreword 11
1 Explosion! When Failing to Communicate Spoke 13
Louder Than Actions
2 Characteristics of a Crisis 19
3 Lessons from Crisis Case Studies 29
4 Mistakes and Attitudes That Will Ruin Your 37
Organization’s Reputation
5 Focusing the Response: Goal, Strategy and 45
Organization
6 Three Stages of Crisis Communication 51
7 Crisis Communication Principles 57
8 Crisis Center of Gravity 65
9 Initial Response 79
10 Primary Response 97
11 Recovery 107
12 Selecting and Training Spokespeople 113
13 Creating a Crisis Response Communication Plan 123
14 A Sample Crisis Communication Plan 135
15 Maintaining and Improving Your Plan: Exercises and 147
Drills
16 Test Your Crisis Response Skills 159
17 Crisis Case Study Format 175
Index 181

Cover photo of the 1955 explosion and fire at Standard Oil Company’s Whiting, Indiana refinery
taken by and courtesy of Vernon G. Skogan. For reference, the structure at the bottom of the photo
is a three-story building.
Foreword

When I reported for duty to a U.S. Army tank battalion in West

Germany as a second lieutenant, I was at the bottom of a vertical
learning curve. Not only did I have to master the care and feeding of
19 soldiers and five 52-ton behemoths while becoming proficient at
tactics and gunnery, I also needed to learn a new language filled with
perplexing acronyms, arcane technical terms and odd expressions.

One of the latter was, “When the balloon goes up.”

According to Army folklore, the phrase originated in the American

Civil War, referring to observation balloons that either side would
send up prior to an engagement. In Cold War parlance, the
expression referred to “the first battle of the next war,” when Soviet-
led Warsaw Pact forces would invade Western Europe, precipitating
World War III.

At first I thought it was curious, if not fatalistic, that the expression

began with “when” and not “if.” However, as I became familiar with
the planning and preparation for that cataclysmic event, I came to
appreciate the sense of urgency that “when” gave to the process. It
worked then and, for professional communicators today, it just might
be the right perspective from which to view crisis preparedness.

Virtually any organization, from former accounting giant Arthur

Andersen to the Roman Catholic Church, can be involved in a crisis
that has the potential to damage or destroy its reputation. The role
and reporting relationship of communications or public relations may
vary greatly from one organization to another but, inevitably, when
that type of trouble strikes, one of the first phone calls from the
executive suite is to the communicators with the question, “What
should we do?”
You need to have the answer, even if it’s your first day on the job.

This book is designed to help you develop that answer. It’s not about
putting a “spin” on the truth, turning coverage of a negative situation
into a glowing puff piece, how to “get out of this as quickly and
cheaply as possible,” or tips on how to avoid interacting with the
media. This book will show you how to develop crisis response
instincts, and it will give you some battle-tested tactics to help you
defend your organization’s reputation.

As the external eyes and ears of your organization, your role in that
mission begins long before the TV crews show up in your office
lobby. Successful crisis response is a product of detailed planning,
realistic training and rehearsals, and adept execution of those tactics
in an adrenaline-charged environment of internal conflict, a
frustrating lack of confirmed information, rapidly developing events,
conflict-producing issues, intense media, and government scrutiny.

That’s why you’ll see the term “crisis response” in this book rather
than the more popular phrase, “crisis management.” A crisis is a
messy, unpredictable, fast-breaking event that defies management.
Crisis response implies that when things go wrong, actions are
required – actions that will challenge all of your professional skills
and critical thinking as no other situation can.

Not to add more weight to your load, but consider this organizational
reality: In many cases, crisis response is the ultimate measure of the
communications or public relations function’s value. You must be
ready.

Let’s get to work.

Chapter 13

Creating a Crisis Response Communication Plan

A plan is not a solution to a crisis, rather it is a tool that can guide
you through the Initial Response – the early, chaotic hours typical of
just about any emergency regardless of its nature – and help you plan
and manage communications in the Primary Response and Recovery
stages. It also facilitates training new communication team members
in their crisis response duties. In your absence, the plan can give
your team confidence that they’re taking the appropriate actions.

Ideally, the Crisis Response Communication Plan (hereafter

“communication plan”) should be integrated in the organization’s
general crisis plan. This is essential for a coordinated, unified
response, and helps business unit and staff group managers
understand the support they can expect from public relations.

That’s in a perfect world.

There are still some organizations that don’t understand the need for
- or don’t want to be bothered with - developing a general crisis plan
nor the communication plan that supports it. If that describes the
culture where you work, get busy and put together a communication
plan anyway, because regardless of the level of preparation in the
rest of the organization, if an emergency occurs, you’ll be expected
to perform flawlessly while others are running for the bunker.

All communication plans should start with an introductory statement

from the top person in the organization regarding how he or she
expects the response to any emergency or crisis to proceed.
Regardless of the level of preparation, any crisis produces some
amount of panic and trepidation that, in the absence of senior
management's specific guidance, can cause organizational paralysis.
The communication plan should be accessible electronically and on
paper in an old-fashioned three-ring binder in case, for whatever
reason, the plan cannot be viewed electronically. Members of the
communication team should have three hard copy versions of the
plan: for their offices, their personal vehicles and their homes.

When it comes to communication plans, size matters. The thicker the

plan the less likely it is that anyone will use it in the heat of battle. I
worked with a client who told me he had an extensive plan and
proceeded to plop a hefty three-ring binder on the table. The plan
began with a 26-page essay on why it is important to communicate in
a crisis; discussed eight crisis levels, each with its own two-page
definition; and included detailed descriptions of 58 crises that could
befall the plant, ranging from a power outage to a flood. That last
scenario began with, “Although there are no rivers within 40 miles of
the plant ...” However, nowhere in all that did the plan specify what
actions should be taken in any of those emergencies.

To be effective, your communication plan must be an easy-to-

reference document containing the decisions, actions, resources and
contacts you and your team will need to represent your organization
in the high pressure, high stakes atmosphere of a crisis. It must be
written clearly and with enough detail so that the most junior
member of your team can implement it without guidance. Ideally, a
communication plan should be no more than 30 pages in length.
Developing the Crisis Response Communication Plan: The War
Game Process

War gaming is a methodical process military planners use to identify

the multitude of decisions, actions and resources required for a
particular operation. It's also an excellent process to use when
creating a communication plan. One step at a time, beginning with
how you might be notified of a situation, identify the decisions and
actions necessary to initiate and sustain your response the way you
desire it to be implemented.

Details are important. Include how the communication staff will

support special decisions or requirements, such as initiating a
product recall, advising neighbors near your plant to shelter-in-place
or contacting customers regarding how you intend to supply them.
This is hard, nuts-and-bolts work, but the results of this process will
become the framework of an effective plan.

Make the process as realistic as possible. For example, given

business travel, off-site meetings and vacations, assume that one-
third of your communication team will be unavailable for the Initial
Response.

War gaming will most likely reveal gaps in your response

capabilities. For example, how will you meet the one-hour Initial
Response standard if the crisis occurs at 11 p.m. on a Saturday night
and you live 45 minutes from your office? The answer may be to
have the hardware, such as a PC with access to your organization's
network and a fax machine, at the homes of your communication
team members.

You may be inclined to assume that your team members already have
such equipment and know how to use it, but you won't know unless
you ask.

Because of what military planners refer to as "the fog and friction of

war," your team may not be able to accomplish as much in a given
period of time as you might think. No matter how well prepared you
are, the intense pressure from external and internal sources
associated with any crisis creates confusion and uncertainty.
Fatalities and injuries will further cloud the situation, making it
difficult to respond in a timely manner.

This high-pressure environment also produces organizational

friction, making seemingly simple tasks, such as establishing contact
with people on the scene, obtaining and verifying information for a
media statement or press release, even rounding up CRT members
for a meeting, takes longer than they would under less stressful
circumstances. The longer the crisis plays out, making people tired
and irritable, the more friction there will be for you to manage.

There are seven steps to creating a communication plan using the

war gaming process.

1. Conduct a capability analysis

A capability analysis will help determine your response strengths and

weaknesses. Include a skills and experience assessment of your team,
an inventory of equipment, such as hand-held e-mail devices, mobile
phones and laptops, and any outside resources currently on retainer
or other agreements that can be called upon to assist your team in a
crisis.

2. Select a likely operational scenario

Select an operational crisis scenario that is likely to occur in
your organization based on its business, industry or sector to give
context to the war gaming process.

3. Determine the ideal response sequence

Step-by-step, determine the best-case sequence of actions and

decisions and the details required to support them in order to respond
to the scenario without regard to the weaknesses or needs identified
during the capability analysis.

Actions are the tasks required to implement the response. For

example:

• Prepare the initial statement or talking points

• Appoint a spokesperson
• Activate the Web site crisis dark page
• Issue a media advisory regarding a press conference

Decisions are the choices that must be made at critical points during
the response. For example:

• Does this situation require a statement? A press conference?

• Does this situation require outside communications assistance?
• Should the Web site dark page be activated?
• Should previously scheduled events or programs be cancelled?
Rescheduled?
• Should the CEO make a statement? Travel to the scene of the
incident?