Home Library Translate
A A A
Share »
Follow us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Follow us on LinkedIn
Connect »

Blog: Crisis Management

Menu

  • This Blog's Home
  • Guest Writer Submissions
  • Policies
  • To Subscribe to a Blog
  • About
  • Feedback

Top 3 Things To Do When a Crisis Breaks

By erik on February 19, 2019

When you run into a situation that threatens to disrupt operations, reputation, and your bottom line, a brand-new “To Do Now!” list snaps into existence with alarming speed. Over our decades of experience working with clients in nearly every industry, we’ve found a few steps to be most important in getting off to the right start.

Here are the 3 most important things to do when a crisis hits:

  1. Breathe. Yes there’s an urgent need for response, yes you have 300 different things to do, but it won’t help to panic. Trust in your plan, take a brief moment to gather yourself, and head into the fray with confidence. You should probably cancel any dinner reservations though…you’ll be here a while. If you don’t have a plan in place it’s likely the cost of your recovery could double. We’ve seen it happen more than once.
  2. Gather your team. Every organization should have a crisis team with the authority to make major decisions on short notice. You’ll want key representatives from groups like management, legal, PR, and any specific area experts called for, to give you a well-rounded view. It’s important that you can gather this team quickly, and while technology continues to make this easier every year you will need to account for the possibility of major events rendering even telephones temporarily unusable.
  3. Evaluate. What exactly are we looking at, and what level of response is warranted? While you don’t want to under-react, doing something like sending the CEO to appear live in response to a smaller localized issue can lead audiences to believe there’s a bigger problem than truly exists. Gauging this is easier said than done, though some basic crisis preparedness – things like defining what constitutes different levels of crises for your own organization – helps tremendously.

The most important thing to remember is that this knowledge, along with things like crisis planning, training, and prevention efforts need to be incorporated into daily practice. It’s not fun to think “What could go wrong?”, but it’s a lot better than spending time looking at lost profits and customers flocking to the competition.

[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc., an international crisis management consultancy, author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is vice president for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

We love to connect with readers on LinkedIn! Connect with Jonathan | Connect with Erik

« Previous Next »

Search Our Site

Meet this Blog’s Co-Hosts

Jonathan L. Bernstein, founder and Chairman of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc. has more than 25 years of experience in all aspects of crisis management – crisis response, vulnerability assessment, planning, training and simulations.[Read more ...]


Erik Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management. Erik started with BCM in 2009 as a writer and subsequently became social media manager for the consultancy itself as well as for a number of BCM clients before moving to the president position. [Read more ...]

Recent Blog Posts

  • Are You Prepared For 2021? New Crisis Management Survey Out Now
  • Crisis Preparedness and Response Is About To Get Tougher
  • How to Create a Crisis Management Plan to Respond to a Cyber Breach
  • Audi’s ‘Insensitive Ad’, or Why you always ask how else an image could be interpreted.
  • The Road To Crisis Recovery
  • Preparing DURING The Pandemic
  • Coronavirus: What You CAN Control
  • Southwest’s COVID-19 Crisis Communications And What You Need To Be Doing
  • Crisis Manager On The Spot…Quick Coronavirus Crisis Communications Tips
  • A Hallmark Apology

Categories of Posts

  • Avoid the Apology
  • college crises
  • communications
  • conflict resolution
  • Crisis Assessment
  • Crisis Avoidance
  • crisis communications
  • crisis management
  • Crisis Management Quotables
  • crisis planning
  • crisis preparedness
  • Crisis Prevention
  • crisis public relations
  • Crisis Response
  • crisis training
  • customer service
  • cyber attacks
  • cyber bullying
  • cybersecurity
  • data breach
  • Dealing With Media
  • Digital Media Law Project
  • disaster crisis management
  • disaster prevention
  • Disaster Response
  • disease crisis management
  • emergency management
  • Erik Bernstein
  • ethics
  • Facebook
  • food industry crisis management
  • hackers
  • hacking
  • Higher Education
  • hospitality
  • HR
  • information security
  • Internal Communications
  • internet crisis management
  • internet security
  • Jonathan Bernstein
  • Journalistic ethics
  • Law
  • Litigation PR
  • litigation-related crisis management
  • Media Relations
  • media training
  • online crisis management
  • Online Reputation Management
  • political crisis management
  • PR
  • preventable crises
  • privacy breach
  • privacy violation
  • Public Relations
  • recall crisis management
  • Reputation Management
  • Risk Management
  • SEO
  • social media
  • social media crisis management
  • social media policy
  • social media reputation management
  • sports crisis management
  • violence prevention
  • vulnerability audit
  • Weiner Awards
  • workplace violence

Blogroll

  • Bernstein Crisis Management Blog
  • Jonathan Bernstein's HuffPost Blog
  • The Crisis Show

Related Library Topics

  • Assessments
  • Business Insurance
  • Computer Security
  • Coordinating Activities
  • Crisis Management
  • Employment Laws
  • Ethical Analysis
  • Lawyers (Using)
  • Managing Change
  • Marketing
  • Media Relations
  • Organizational Communications
  • Planning
  • Public Relations
  • Risk Management
  • Safety in Workplace
  • Bernstein Crisis Management Blog

Library's Blogs

  • Boards of Directors
  • Building a Business
  • Business Communications
  • Business Ethics, Culture and Performance
  • Business Planning
  • Career Management
  • Coaching and Action Learning
  • Consulting and Organizational Development
  • Crisis Management
  • Customer Service
  • Facilitation
  • Free Management Library Blogs
  • Fundraising for Nonprofits
  • Human Resources
  • Leadership
  • Marketing and Social Media
  • Nonprofit Capacity Building
  • Project Management
  • Quality Management
  • Social Enterprise
  • Spirituality
  • Strategic Planning
  • Supervision
  • Team Building and Performance
  • Training and Development
About Feedback Legal Privacy Policy Contact Us
Free Management Library, © Copyright Authenticity Consulting, LLC ®; All rights reserved.
  • Graphics by Wylde Hare LLC
  • Website maintained by Caitlin Cahill

By continuing to use this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy.X