By Ellen Edelman, Executive Vice President, Sparkpr
When handling crisis planning, the first thing clients often ask for is a statement. But before we start writing, I remind them that effective crisis management requires a proper plan, with assigned roles and responsibilities, escalation trees, anticipating difficult questions and answers, external stakeholders, and social protocols. The truth is, after more than 25 years working across brand, product, and executive communications, I've found that the hardest part of crisis preparation is rarely figuring out what to say, it's making sure the right people know what to do, when to do it, and who has the authority to make decisions when events are moving quickly.
A strong crisis plan establishes that sequence well in advance, identifying who needs to be brought in, who assesses the severity of the situation, who makes key decisions, and how communications, legal, security, operations and leadership work together. It also accounts for the reality that those responsibilities don't always unfold neatly or sequentially, as several things may need to happen at once, and different teams may have competing priorities.
That's why escalation protocols and training matter so much. A written process is useful, but people also need enough familiarity with it that they aren't trying to interpret the playbook for the first time during an incident. This has become particularly important in my work with AI, infrastructure, and information security companies. Incidents in these sectors can develop quickly, and information often starts circulating internally and externally before leadership has a complete picture of what has happened. Decisions may need to be made while technical teams are still investigating, legal is assessing potential exposure, and communications is beginning to receive questions.
That leaves very little room for uncertainty about roles and responsibilities. Organizations that navigate those situations effectively have established decision responsibilities and escalation paths ahead of time. People know who needs to be involved at each level of severity, which decisions they can make themselves, and which ones require escalation. Leadership also knows when and how it needs to step in, and have been prepared with response training.
Of course, the statement still matters, as preparing templates and holding language in advance can save valuable time. Organizations need to be able to communicate quickly, accurately, and responsibly with employees, customers, partners, regulators, media, and other stakeholders. But those materials work best as part of a larger readiness program that enables crisis teams to quickly establish the facts, determine the severity of the situation, bring together the right people, and make decisions, with communications as the output from that process.
Predicting every potential crisis is impossible. Instead, it's critical to build a response structure that people understand well enough to use when circumstances are uncertain and time is limited. In short, a prepared statement can help an organization communicate during a crisis but a practiced plan helps the organization effectively manage one.
