Tips for running an internal comms crisis drill

During Ragan’s Communications Boot Camp Virtual Conference, Dara Cohen, senior director of strategic communications and media relations at the American Gaming Association, said that communicators should build their crisis exercises around scenarios that might actually happen to give them a sense of how to react when a crisis does strike.

“Everybody will have some sort of crisis in their time as a communicator, whether that’s internal, external or a combination of the two,” Cohen told the audience. “There’s nothing worse than being completely unprepared. A drill allows you to practice how every person would handle things under pressure.”

She also recommended that communicators model crisis drills on situations employees may actually encounter.

“If you’re focused on internal comms, maybe it’s something related to a reorganization or a restructure and how you would handle different teams’ chatter should a senior leader be let go,” Cohen said. “How would that impact employee morale or culture? Would it cause people to feel like they need to start looking for a job?”