The most common mistake institutions make during a crisis is not responding quickly enough to the media, says a communications expert.

"Often interviewees [from an institution in crisis] will miss a deadline either deliberately or unintentionally," says Tina Altieri, media specialist at Media Australasia Xchange. "It's important to act fast. The first 24 hours of a crisis is when people are looking to each other for answers, and at this point, you must be ready to respond."

Altieri notes that communications professionals don't need to have complete information about the crisis at hand before they speak to the media—they can simply talk about what they do know. This ensures that the institution will have a voice in the story, she says.

Viswa Sadasivan, chief executive of Strategic Moves, says there are three elements that are critical to crisis communications:

• Promptness. "Undue delay in communicating with the public could not only risk allegations of a 'cover up,' but it also denies you the opportunity to frame the issue in a manner that is more favorable to you," Sadasivan says.
• Sensibility. "Especially in a crisis, the communication needs to go beyond logic and rationality and address emotional needs such as empathy, vulnerability, anxiety and anger," he says.
• Ethics. This is "oftentimes the factor that tips the balance, so to speak, in crisis management," he says. "It deals with issues such as whether you are seen as doing the 'right thing,' having integrity, apologizing or pushing blame or accepting moral responsibility and doing it sincerely."

Sadasivan and Altieri will discuss planning for a crisis at the CASE Asia-Pacific Conference 2013, taking place this week in Singapore.

This article is from the March 2013 issue of BriefCASE.
Please share your questions and comments with Pam Russell via e-mail at russell@case.org or by telephone at +1-202-478-5680.