1. Don’t make a drama out of a crisis 10 tips for effective management

3. 1. Analyse risk

4. ABCD Potential crisisLikelihoodSeverityTotal Risk Assessment A x B = C Rank 1RTA (minor)3133 2Serious/fatal RTA2361 3Hotel fire (minor)2242 4Serious/fatal hotel fire 2361 5Food poisoning/virus outbreak 1333 1 = low 2 = medium 3 = high

5. 2. Prepare defensible positions

6. Health and safety record Employee training Investment and growth Awards and accreditations Quality control Financial strength Customer service standards

7. 3. Establish communication channels

8. Your website (dark pages) Social media Mainstream media and journalists Internal communication Customer and supplier database

9. 4. Agree your chain of command

10. Develop a media policy Include briefing protocol 24-hour contact details Nominate spokespeople

11. 5. Train your spokespeople

12. Your best communicator might not be the most senior Who are your experts? How quickly can they be available / on site? Invest in professional media training

13. 6. Media monitoring

14. Define keywords Monitoring agencies (Precise, Cision) Google Alerts

15. 7. Practise scenarios

16. Test procedures at least once a year Learn from test and refine process

17. 8. First steps

18. Establish the facts What do we not yet know? What do we need to do? Agree initial statement Consider Q&A for possible issues Brief spokesperson What’s the positive news?

19. 9. Media handling

20. Establish the parameters Subject & likely questions Live or pre-recorded Print, TV or radio Where, when, how long? Other interviewees? Who is doing the interview? Style and tone Who are the audience? Getting their interest / addressing their concerns

21. 10. The Daily Mail Test

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