Collaborating on a Masterclass on Crisis Communications has thrown up challenging questions and even more intriguing answers.
Crisis communications and issues management are our bread-and-butter at Wrights, and a regular part of our daily professional life. Over the past 32 years we have taught practitioners crisis communications and developed their skills.
The training has largely been ‘on the job’ with reference to case studies (usually our own in-house work) and access to the resources provided by memberships of the Public Relations Institute of Australia, the Public Relations Society of America and the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, the UK’s peak professional body.
The material of all those professional bodies is exceptional and if you throw in reference works put together by the International Association of Business Communicators and PR News, you have a body of work that acts as an excellent library for those aiming to become crisis communicators.
This information is not all stored in the one place and not everyone has the privilege of belonging to the PRIA, PRSA and the CIPR. The task in putting together this Masterclass is to draw on these excellent reference works, acknowledge the papers and their authors and embellish the offering with real life case studies, the opportunity to role play and take part in some scenario planning. We also want to introduce new ideas and uniquely Australian case studies.
For many of us involved in crisis communications, much of our work would contribute to excellent case studies, but that is not a feasible option. By its very nature, the work remains sensitive and confidential because it has helped prevent issues turning into crises.
Crisis Communications is different to Crisis Management. Anyone in operations will agree, but the two must be inextricably linked. And it is impossible to deliver effective communications if you don’t understand the operations. That’s step one.
Graduates new to the PR profession invariably express a wish to learn more about crisis communications. This area of expertise has expanded from being the backroom drudge work to the new glamorous role in PR. That’s the perception.
What is crisis communication? How does it differ from issues management? Is it emergency communications or risk mitigation? Is it reputation management? Is it a part of public affairs or does it belong alongside brand management?
Should crisis communications answer to the chief marketing officer, the chief executive officer or the whole C-suite?
This proposed Masterclass is taking on gargantuan proportions because crisis communications is a gigantic growth area and there is not just one way to address something this big.
We have started on the quest to enlist the support of peers we respect, both here in Australia and overseas. We will be contacting the authors of some of the papers we have read and seek their permission to refer to their material and hopefully encourage them to provide new insights.
The well-respected academics teaching PR in tertiary institutions around Australia RMIT, QUT, Charles Sturt, Swinburne University, Melbourne University, Curtin University, Monash University and University of NSW can expect a call; or they might even like to get in touch and offer assistance.
However, the aim is to make this Masterclass available to all those graduates and PR scholars who see crisis communications as the pinnacle of a PR career. It should be and it is.
We would welcome the contributions and suggestions of practitioners, PR students and graduates and of course those in business who appreciate the importance of communications in a crisis. Please feel free to suggest, assist or critique.
Douglas Wright is an experienced public relations practitioner and managing director of Wrights. He is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Public Relations, a Member of the Counsellors Academy of the Public Relations Society of America and a Member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations. He was the founding head of Ogilvy Public Relations and for many years regional chair and board member of the Worldcom Group, the world’s largest network of independent public relations firms.
