No one today doubts that we are going through a turbulent time marked by the uncertainty generated by constant technological evolution. It seems that the only certainty we have left is the classic adage that change is the only thing that is permanent.
In the field of corporate communications, these exceptional times generate constant threats that imply a potential risk to the reputation of companies. A prestigious international survey reports that a very high percentage of Dircoms around the world consider that, in recent years, their companies have experienced some threat to their reputations (http://www.webershandwick.com/resources/ws/Rising_CCO_IV.pdfThis has led them to consider crisis management expertise as a fundamental requirement for the success of their firms.
An exciting discipline if ever there was one, crisis communication is an entity of its own within the broad universe of communication. Far from any encyclopaedic spirit, over the next few weeks -and in successive posts- I will address this type of communication from a business perspective, offering a series of practical guidelines and recommendations to overcome this type of situation with a minimum guarantee of success.
But, to whet your appetite, nothing better than to remember what a crisis was like. For those of you lucky enough to have never experienced a crisis, or for those of you who do not even remember it (in which case it probably could not be classified as such), allow me to open your eyes with the following slide.
What you see is a very accurate description of the different stages that anyone facing a crisis situation invariably goes through.
Crises are very treacherous, because they almost always take us by surprise. We feel that we lack information; events unfold without us seeming to be able to control them; and all this while we feel that everyone is watching us; which inevitably generates a siege mentality; which eventually leads to that horrible feeling that is so unbalancing: panic.
If the scenario I have just described does not seem distressing enough, or if the reader is a battle-hardened type who is not afraid of anything, perhaps the following slide will be more enlightening.
Because is there anyone who doesn't find any of these reactions terrifying, and how about the combination of several of them, since they rarely occur in isolation, or all at once, which is very common in many crises, especially those of a certain magnitude?
It is not surprising that against this backdrop, and faced with the possibility of a new crisis, former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger himself uttered one of his most lapidary phrases: "We cannot have a crisis next week. My agenda is already full.
The problem with crises, as the great expert on the subject, Professor Patrick Lagadec of the Ecole Polytechnique de Paris, has rightly pointed out, is that they can be anything but routine.
Joaquín Rodríguez Villar