The first signs of a crisis can be easy for communicators to miss

A crisis may not show up with a convenient warning that gives communicators advance notice. In a lot of cases, the first signs show up in places that comms pros may not be watching closely enough.

During Ragan’s Crisis Communications Virtual Conference earlier this year, Jennifer Haslip, head of research and science communications at Google, Jessica Chu, associate manager of global communications at Yum Brands, and Aadil Mohamed, corporate intelligence leader at Resolver, discussed the comms practices and tech solutions that can help organizations catch the first signs of a fomenting crisis earlier.

Haslip told the audience that when signs of a crisis happen, communicators need to balance moving quickly with the information they have on hand and keeping the people affected at the center of their response messaging.

“Get the facts fast,” Haslip said. “You don’t have to have all the answers to start preparing a statement and communicating that to your stakeholders. Put people first, so lead with empathy. And then be nimble, monitor the situation, adjust your statement and share updates regularly so that people know what’s going on.”