7 things every crisis drill should test

Don’t wait until a crisis hits to see how your team will perform. Make sure you and your team can pull off these tasks before the storm rolls in.

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A crisis communications drill can simulate realistic emotions and pressures in a controlled environment. A drill allows you to mess up in private rather than during a real crisis.

Your goal in every crisis communications drill should be to test many aspects of the organization. These are the seven most important things I test in drills with my clients:

1. Is there a written crisis communications plan that is so thorough you can read it during the drill, word-for-word, in real time? Did it result in a flawless rehearsal performance by the crisis communications team?

2. Does that crisis communications plan allow the organization to begin issuing news releases, Web postings and emails to employees within one hour of the crisis’s onset?

3. Do executives within the organization slow down communications by excessively editing news releases?

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