Strategic Crisis Management, Communications and Public Relations Workshop

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The key to effective crisis communication management is to be prepared before a crisis occurs. Once a crisis happens, there is little time to think much less to plan. A crisis could hit your organisation at any time. Are you prepared? Join us for this interactive and highly informative workshop.

Strategic Crisis Management, Communications and Public Relations Workshop

02 -05 June 2015 at Randburg Towers Conference Centre – Johannesburg South Africa 

   

Register Now! Few Seats Available!

R 13,999.00 per Delegate 

 

Course Overview 

Today’s business environment requires a robust, enterprise-wide plan to deal with unexpected crises. Company reputation and brand, as well as the trust and loyalty of stakeholders, are all critical factors in the background of crisis management .

Having a Crisis Management Plan allows your company/organization to react fast to any situation. Preparation is key and any plan should be updated and practiced regularly. Think about having role-playing exercises and prepping the proper spokesman before speaking to the media. Delivery of the message makes all the difference between making the situation worse or better.

Discover effective techniques to handle challenging media situations as well as identify and select the appropriate communications styles that work for you. At the end of the seminar you will leave with a personal action plan for your continued development and success as a PR or Communications executive. This up-to-date course will equip you with the knowledge you need to effectively manage your day to day schedule with little or no supervision.

Learning outcomes

After this course, you will feel up to date with thinking and practices at the most senior level in public relations, through the opportunity to learn, reflect and discuss the latest ideas and developments in the industry. You will be able to:

• Develop complex and sophisticated communication strategies
• Identify how, where and when to engage in the policy and legislative process
• Engage with the media strategically at a top editorial level
• Analyse the roles and functions of an ideal communication department
• Create policies, procedures, materials and resources to facilitate the efficient running of your own communication department
• Create crisis messages, positioning and response tactics response rapidly and decisively
• Engage confidently with journalists and in online social media
• Represent your organisation effectively even in the most challenging of crisis interviews

Who Should Attend

• Public Relations Executives
• business line managers,
• Executives   officers
• Business continuity coordinators
• Media Spokesperson
• Communications Executives
• Corporate Affairs Executives
• Media Liaison Executives
• Marketing Executives
• Advertising Executives
• Anyone interested in enhancing their Communications Skills

DAY 1

What is Crisis Management?

For businesses, it is a plan to direct the relevant teams on how to deal with an event, revelation, allegation or set of circumstances that threatens the integrity, reputation, or survival of the business. The key to any good crisis management plan is to determine a set of worst-case scenarios that the company could face and to determine the proper response.

Establish a Crisis Management Team (CMT)

• Depending on the size of your company/organization – this team should consist of eight to 10 decision-makers from various disciplines (legal, financial and communications departments)
• The team should include public relations professionals, management, personnel, security, etc.
• Appoint a leader/spokesperson (usually the PR department or the agency that handles your marketing and communications)
• The team should be creative with strong problem-solving abilities

Strategic Internal Communications: Boosting Corporate Culture, Productivity and Profitability

Effective communications is intrinsic to change and stability. Knowing when to use what method to deliver the best results requires understanding the needs and questions of others. Broadening the array of approaches used to communicate with and engage staff helps build morale and share knowledge and issues, thus encouraging two way conversations. This session demonstrates how engaging with senior teams and building line manager capability connects employees with organisational goals. Improving engagement correlates with improving performance 

·          What is internal communication?

·          Why promote internal communication?

·          How do you promote internal communication?

·          How do you monitor and improve internal communication?

·          Articulate why effective internal communication and staff engagement are critical to business success

·          Improve the quality of conversations with employees

·          Involve employees in decision-making

·          identify how line managers are the vital links between the executive and operational levels

·          understand the role of emotional hooks in motivating individuals

·          Effect change through effective staff engagement

·          Evaluate the effectiveness of internal communication strategies against business success.

Cultural Communication Skills

This problem-solving, application-based session focuses on developing specific skills for working with another culture by adapting work styles in areas such as:

·          Identify culture and communication– definitions and models

·          How to Communicate in cross-cultural environments

·          Articulate national and organisational value systems

·          Explore personal values in different cultures

·          Build a shared vision by overcoming barriers

• Participants will also:

·               Look at examples of communication challenges with the target culture

·               Explore the cause of the miscommunication

·               Begin to learn how to adapt their communication styles

·               Practice what they have learned 

Using the Psychology of Influence and Neuroscience for deep impact messages

It is common knowledge that we don’t always make choices based on facts and logic, but on rules of thumb, stereotypes and non-rational impulses. Behavioural Economics explores the psychological, emotional and cognitive factors in human decision making. The insights are powerful and can provide communication practitioners with critical tools and strategies to deliver their messages

more efficiently and with a deeper impact. Integrating knowledge from psychology, neuroscience and economic observations.

•          How intuitive, simple rules are used to form judgements and make decisions

•          Understanding mental emotional filters for better communication

•          Non-rational decision making processes and efficient messaging

DAY 2

Advanced communication strategy

This session will covers strategy at manager and director level, including creating and deploying sophisticated strategies for complex situations, large organisations, multiple countries and brands.

• Evidence-based communication strategy: how to measure and prove the value of communication.
• Advanced strategy tools and concepts: specialised techniques for developing complex PR strategies.
• Justifying strategy: securing management support: how to get support from the top for ambitious PR strategies.
• Rolling out and managing a communication strategy: the systematic process of creating and deploying a PR strategy.

Strategic PR management

This session will covers best practice in designing and managing communication departments and directing major PR campaigns.

• Managing a strategic PR department: best practice in running a PR function, from the perspective of communication managers and directors
• Policies, processes, materials and resources: how to design operational systems based on best practice
• Advanced communication programme management: how to lead and manage high-profile PR and communications programmes that deliver results against communication strategies
• Campaign budgeting and financial management: how to plan and mange budgets for communication departments and campaigns

Steps to Developing Your Public Relations and Media Plan

·          Define and write down your objectives for your public relations or media plan

·          conduct in-depth research and interpret findings in an intelligent way

·          understand the difference between objectives, strategy and tactics

·          structure your work to build an irrefutable business case

·          demonstrate commercial value and return on investment

·          agree and refine messages

·          develop creative ideas that fit strategically

·          Evaluate campaigns effectively.

Delivering Engaging Communications While Continuously Managing a Large Workload

In a time of fiscal restraint, this hands-on session drills down into the critical issues faced by Communication Officers who have to deliver more output with fewer resources while maintaining the highest standards in public and internal communication.

Applying the best strategies for effective communication and media management in a government context, participants will learn how to gain faster access to information, master tight deadlines and handle the expectations of the news media, internal stakeholders and the public.

•          Selection and application of practical tools and techniques to deliver high impact messages

•          Understanding and assessing the likely impact of public communications

•          Creating an informative brief on complex issues for senior executives

•          Crisis communication and issues management strategies

•          News production procedures for a better management of media requests

•          Obtaining quotes and information from executives and heads of departments

•          Using multi-channel publication tools to extend the reach of your message

•          Writing concise and informative press releases

DAY 3

Effective communications training on how to engage the media during a PR crisis

1: Seizing the golden hour

This module runs through step-by-step the actions that a communication team should take in the crucial early stages after a crisis strikes. 

·          Escalation: declaring a crisis: who, when and how?

·          Team management and internal coordination

·          Using all available communication channels in a crisis, including online and internal

·          Engaging stakeholders before the rumour-mill takes over

·          Understanding online dynamics in a crisis

·          Case studies: real-world examples of rapid crisis communication

2: Crisis positioning

This session is a practical primer in creating messages and positioning to drive definition and consistency throughout an organisation’s crisis response.

·          How to drive definition and consistency through crisis response

·          Principles of effective positioning in crisis situations

·          Dynamic positioning: how to communicate in a rapidly developing situation before the full facts are known

·          Creating crisis messages

3: Online crisis communication

How to manage engagement in online media during a crisis.

·          Owned space: making best use of your website in a crisis

·          Social space: deploying social platforms and channels such as Twitter and YouTube in a crisis

·          Online engagement: crisis blogger relations

·          Online allies: identifying and cultivating influential advocates

4: Crisis media engagement

This module focuses on developing practical media interview skills for crisis situations, including videotaped interview practice and coaching.

·          Working with the media during a crisis

·          Crisis media interview principles and best practice

·          Managing hostile journalists and performing under pressure

·          Deploying crisis messages in media engagement

·          Handling difficult and “impossible” questions

·          Crisis media briefings and news conferences

Reputation Management

This session encourages you to consider the role of public relations in reputation management. Participation in the session will provide you with the knowledge to:

·          understand the importance of reputation management

·          understand reputation as an asset to any organisation, comparable to assets such as the organisation's financial resources, intellectual property and the people who make up the organisation

·          advise on approaches to managing and measuring reputation

·          assess reputation risk, minimise threats to reputation and vulnerability to damage to reputation

DAY 4

Media Spokesperson Training

Our media training program has bolstered the confidence and improved the communications performance for countless business and community leaders, elected officials, athletes/coaches and others as they face cameras, microphones, notepads and live audiences.

This one-day programme   focuses on “controlling” the interview, whether it is print, TV or radio.  We run through various techniques on how to attain this; however, a major component is “having clear-cut messages” going into the interview.  We spend a lot of time on “concept of message” and “message development.”

We put trainees through mock interviews, both TV and print.  With the facilitator background, we do our homework and make these sessions as real as possible, i.e., ask substantive questions that could come up in a media interview.  We record each interview, then critique – paying close attention to body language and how questions are answered, as well as provide the techniques as to how to get your message across.

Understanding a Crisis

• Risk Communication Principles for Emergencies
  • Do not over reassure.
  • Acknowledge uncertainty.
  • Express that a process is in place to learn more.
  • Give anticipatory guidance.
  • Be regretful, not defensive.
  • Acknowledge people's fears.
  • Acknowledge the shared misery.
  • Express wishes, "I wish we knew more."
  • Allow People the Right to Feel Fear
  • Stop trying to allay panic (Panic is much less common than we imagine)

General recommendations for spokespersons in all settings:

·          Know your organization's policies about the release of information.

·          Stay within the scope of your responsibilities. Unless you are authorized to speak for the entire organization or a higher headquarters, do not do it.

·          Do not answer questions that are not within the scope of your organizational responsibility.

·          Tell the truth. Be as up-front as possible.

·          Follow up on issues.

·          Use visuals when possible.

·          Illustrate a point through examples, stories, and analogies. Ensure that they help you make your point and do not minimize or exaggerate your message. Test the stories on a small group first.

Role of Spokesperson In An Emergency

It is the task of the spokesperson to do the following.

• Take your organization from an "it" to a "we".
• Build trust and credibility for the organization.
• Remove the psychological barriers within the audience.
• Gain support for the public health response.
• Ultimately, reduce the incidence of illness, injury, and death by getting it right

Press conferences - Preparation, management and media interaction

Press conferences provide a prime opportunity to distribute messages over the full range of media channels and can be considered as the most efficient tools for mass communication.