I had an interesting call from a PR colleague today that sparked an idea for a post. My colleague has a client who wanted her to find them a crisis communications “workbook” or fill-in-the-blank template to create a crisis plan. Apparently the client company was not anticipating any issues, but rather wanted to check a task off their corporate ‘bucket list’.

My colleague rightly believed that such an approach was short sighted and she was working to bolster her argument with opinions from...

Are you prepared? Take this short quiz and find out.

1. Is senior management committed to communicating consistently openly and effectively during good times and bad?
2. Have you identified the most likely crises that may occur in your organization?
3. Do you have a crisis management/ response team?
4. If you answered yes to #3, do team members know their roles and responsibilities in a crisis?
5. Do you have a formal crisis communication plan?
6. If you answered yes to #5, has the plan been...