Crisis Management

What We Tend to Forget About Crisis Communication

August 1, 2022

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Episode 120: What We Tend to Forget About Crisis Communication | DRJ Spring 2022 Panel

At DRJ’s Spring 2022 conference in Orlando, Vanessa spoke on a panel about Crisis Communications with Ashley Goosman, Prashant Darisi, and Peter Steinfeld. In the clip from today’s episode, you’re about to hear our discussion on mistakes we’ve seen in terms of crisis communications, and what companies can do better to demonstrate more integrity, transparency, and compassion.

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Some key takeaways from this episode are:

  • Organizations make mistakes. They’re inevitable. But if we want to demonstrate integrity and accountability, we have to own those mistakes and be willing to talk about them openly and honestly with our key stakeholders.
  • Your statements about any current event – from social justice to politics and news – need to be grounded in your core values, and they need to be the words of your top leader. If, as a CEO, you cannot find the words yourself, you have some work to do.
  • There’s a difference between duty of care and duty to care. Duty of care is just a set of procedures to make sure you’re compliant in responding to a disaster. Duty to care means you approach your work with compassion and any other core values that are important to your company.
  • Part of our role is to overcommunicate, especially in a world where people are used to instant access to news and information. If we don’t tell people what’s happening as it’s happening, they will take it upon themselves to find out.

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Vanessa Mathews, host

Vanessa Mathews is the founder and chief resilience officer of Asfalis Advisors, where they are focused on protecting the legacy of the leaders they serve through business resilience. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Mathews developed global crisis management and business continuity programs for government and private sector organizations to include Lowe’s Companies, Gulfstream Aerospace, and the Department of Homeland Security.

Jon Seals, producer

Jon Seals is the editor in chief at Disaster Recovery Journal, the leading magazine/event in business continuity. Seals is an award-winning journalist with a background in publication design, business media, content management, sports journalism, social media, and podcasting.

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