Media Management in Crisis Communications

The programme has been designed to be interactive with several case studies and group exercises. A modular approach will take the delegates through the four stages of Crisis Management - Preparation, Planning, Response and Recovery. Participative lectures will involve the use of PowerPoint, handout material, work manual with all instructor notes and slides, examples of best practice and appropriate video/DVD material. The use of flip-charts, syndicate workshops and reporting back sessions will encourage a fully participative and enjoyable event.

Day 1: What should be in place before the event?

• Understanding Crisis Management
  • How to manage a crisis?
  • Virtually every crisis contains the seeds of success as well as the roots of failure
  • The Rationale of the Crisis Manager
• Consider the range of risks: Natural/Environmental; Hazards; Technological - loss of utilities/product/process/plant; Human Error; Sabotage and Terrorism
• Crisis Managers - Roles & Responsibilities - manage the issue before it becomes a Crisis
• Who else inside and outside the organisation should be involved?
• Evaluating your risks and vulnerabilities; Consider the worse-case scenarios
• Understanding 'denial-curve' and 'group-think' syndromes
• Who decides who sits in the 'hot-seat'?
• Case Studies, why some companies fail and others survive?

Day 2: Pre-planning, who and what else should be considered?

• Who owns the mitigation process?
  • Self-evaluating questionnaires
• Developing and Implementing Emergency Plans
• Twelve point checklist covering the whole planning process
• Mutual Aid arrangements
• Company-wide strategic contingency plans
• Service or departmental plans
• Building evacuation plans
• Crisis Management and Communications. Emergency Centre/s
• Developing and implementing a Business Continuity Management (BCM) strategy
• Business Impact Analysis. Case Study and Workshop

Day 3: Dealing with a crisis - the 'communications' perspective

• Command and Control Issues
  • Operational (at the scene)
  • Tactical (at the forward control point/incident command)
  • Strategic (boardroom level/emergency operations centre)
• On Scene Crisis Management, essential elements for success
• Reputation Management - Managing the Media. 'How to' sessions include:
• Organising a Press Conference
• Conducting Radio and Television Interviews
• Case Study Exercise: Crisis Communications Strategy. Develop a crisis communications strategy and action plan based upon a given scenario

Day 4: Incident Management & Aftermath

• Alerting and Warning. Case Studies. What can go right and what can go wrong
• Case Studies - Texas City Disasters 1947 and April 2005
• Major Incident Simulation - Role Playing Workshop
  • Syndicate selection
  • Reporting back
• Potential Psychological & Welfare problems in Crisis Management
• How to improve staff morale and confidence in the process
• The psychological effects during and after an incident involving injuries - and worse
• Looking after yourself and your staff
• Questionnaire, are your batteries in good condition?

Day 5: Essential post incident actions

• Validating plans and procedures
  • Discuss the four types of exercise
  • How to get the most out of an exercise
• Post Incident evaluations
• De-briefing skills - managing the de-briefs - hot and cold
• How to keep all 'stakeholders' informed
• Prioritising the Recommendations
• Examples of critique questionnaires
• Critique report writing, executive summaries and recommendations
• Closing the loop. How to continue the process
• Case Study - Buncefield Oil Depot, Hertfordshire UK, 2005