Crisis playbooks need to die

By Maria Stagliano and Ian Christopher McCaleb, Blue Highway Advisory

Just about anyone who has worked at a major corporation or public relations firm has come across the always pitched, often sold, rarely used — and typically ignored — magic fix-all ”Bible” of the PR industry: the crisis communications playbook. This sales asset is pushed to every client, or potential new client, with promises of full preparedness amidst an existential, hair-afire crisis, or warnings of one looming just over that next ridge.

Both types of playbooks — the immediate-need crisis playbook drafted on-the-fly during an active incident, and the “proactive,” sit-on-a-shelf crisis scenario playbook that will likely never see the light of day — aren’t worth the high price tag PR firms are pushing them for.

There. We said it.

Playbook development typically involves months of staff interviews, production of half-baked drafts and far-fetched scenarios, and ultimately, an extensive internal review process to create a so-called “finalized” document that will be outdated and irrelevant within six months, if not earlier.

Meanwhile, the crisis the client faced when they were sold the playbook idea has already quite likely outpaced the playbook’s construction and the client has crawled out of the mire independent of the playbook’s painful birth, or they’ve suffered the consequences of months of distraction.

Playbooks are great for one thing in particular, and that’s checking the “CYA” box.  But at the end of the day, a playbook won’t be of much practical use during a real-time event.

Let’s be real: Crisis communications playbooks are a great way for legal and PR teams to bill lots of time to develop a mammoth document, and then, when it looks to be just about ready for the bookshelf above the computer monitor, to then go through countless extra revisions that bump up billable hours all the more. These types of deliverables, while loved by C-level corporate offices, aren’t really practical. They’re instead jam-packed with complicated flowcharts for escalations that aren’t all that realistic, fluffy language to explain the “purpose of the plan” (seriously?), designs that serve no real function and lengthy appendices.

Playbooks are seldom worth the amount of time and trouble they cost to create.

Crisis communications is part art, part science, part instinct. It is a craft that requires a team which looks at each immediately looming issue as a unique problem to solve — not something you can find thumbing through a massive pre-developed playbook.

There are instead a perhaps limitless number of ways clients can actually prepare for a crisis without breaking the bank.

Stress test scenarios without client input

All plans are good in theory, but what’s more important is how a team actually interacts during stressful scenarios. One way to avoid surprises during real-world events is to test scenarios in which the client is as “blind” as possible. If a crisis team has a good relationship with their client, then the scenario will reflect a realistic circumstance.

Allowing a client to pick apart a scenario in advance, or even to define the scenario on their own, is a disservice to the purpose of the exercise: How will you react to the unknown?

We’ve seen this time and again with clients: despite having developed an agreed-upon plan and order of operations, when a crisis occurs, executives opt to walk down the hall and talk to a colleague or hop on the phone, not follow a playbook’s proper escalation protocol and ensure they are checking the appropriate boxes. The plain fact is, running for that book on the shelf over the computer monitor and then trying to determine which tab might be even peripherally relevant to a fast-breaking situation takes more time than just getting down to solving the immediate problem.

This is where scenario exercises really stress test how teams will function in reality. Crisis firms who understand the value of blind exercises may go so far as to have someone pose as a fake journalist inquiring about an issue unknown to the public to see how their client kicks things into gear. Do they contact their crisis team? Were the right internal teams looped in from the beginning?  What are their first actions? (Of course, we never let anything get out of hand or pose external risk, but the exercise certainly gets their hearts pumping in a way that a planned tabletop exercise never will).

Keep your relationship fresh

A strong relationship with a crisis team will serve clients better during incidents than that playbook collecting dust on the shelf. Rumors spread instantaneously as truths, and a good crisis PR team must react even faster. This can’t happen with a day-of phone call to a team you haven’t spoken to in six months while the ship was apparently sailing blithely along, unaware of what was to come.

To successfully control the narrative, you need to already have a relationship with your crisis team. Schedule regular calls – even just one a month – to ensure you keep a pulse and remain up-to-date on any developing issues. Review positive press and social media references and mentions, looking for any hint of trouble lurking underneath. The more updated information your crisis team has, the quicker they will know not just how to respond, but how to navigate nuanced risks that come with each potential communications decision.

BLUF, not fluff

So, what do you actually need to prepare for a crisis?

Rather than a lengthy document, there are a few key critical assets that should be easy to access and process, with as little “fluff” as possible. Crisis is no place for corporate buzzwords and introductions.

Here’s the short list of the essentials:

1. A list of emergency contacts. Cell phone numbers, alternate email addresses (if needed for cyber attacks), and any contact information to know exactly who to call during a crisis.
2. Escalation protocols. This isn’t rocket science (or any other kind of science, really). Who needs to be informed first? When are HR and comms teams looped in? Who responds to media inquiries? When do you engage your crisis team? (Hopefully immediately..!)
3. Draft holding statements. It’s impossible to fully prepare for a crisis in advance because every scenario is truly unique and must be treated as such. However, developing brief 1-2 paragraph holding statements for the most common types of scenarios will save time during the internal fire drill, and give everyone a solid foundation to build other communications assets. What you do NOT want to build is additional assets, because these will end up getting scrapped or tediously line edited based on any edits to the holding statement. So, hold off, and focus on the big picture narrative you know you’ll need.

Common scenarios to prepare for include: Data security incidents, unplanned executive exits, DEI/internal HR issues, natural disasters, workplace violence, employee deaths, and then, of course and most importantly, any issues unique to your organization that the public may not know about but could emerge in the future.

Unfortunately, playbooks are so ingrained in the PR world that they will inevitably continue to be bought and sold. But for companies looking for real added value to a team, an ongoing relationship with a PR firm will serve them far better in the long run than the notoriously useless document we all know as the Crisis Communications Playbook.