When a Crisis Hits: 6 Steps That Will Save You

by Amy Rosenberg | Aug 20, 2025 | Community Relations, Posts, Public Relations, Thought Leadership

Not every crisis comes with a warning. A social media post goes viral for the wrong reasons. A data breach goes unnoticed. A former employee goes public with a complaint. Now what?

Maybe you’ve done some prep work, but the situation you’re facing isn’t quite what you imagined. That’s okay. The structure you’ve built — response trees, aligned messaging, sample statements — can still help you respond. Whether or not you feel ready, there’s a path forward.

This post walks through how to respond when a crisis hits unexpectedly. If you haven’t read the first post in this series about proactive crisis communication planning, start there.

In this post, we shift focus to what to do when the news cycle is already spinning, your team is panicking and people are looking to you for answers.

While proactive planning is ideal, reactive communication is often unavoidable. And it doesn’t have to be messy.

Proactive vs. Reactive: What’s the Difference?

Proactive crisis communication is all about preparing in advance — mapping out scenarios, clarifying who says what and drafting statements before anything ever happens.

Reactive communication happens when the crisis is already unfolding. You have to respond fast and with clarity.

Even if the issue you’re facing isn’t what you expected, the groundwork you’ve laid can still guide you. And regardless of how much prep you’ve done, working within a clear protocol during the crisis will always help.

Here’s how to respond effectively when the pressure is on.

1. Avoid Saying “No Comment”

It may seem like the easiest response in a tough moment, but “no comment” is never a good look. It signals defensiveness, evasion or worse — guilt.

Instead, help your executives articulate something truthful and simple. You might say, “We’re still gathering information,” or “Our focus is on understanding what happened and supporting those affected.”

Your goal is to show humanity and presence, even if the facts aren’t all in yet. Every story has multiple perspectives. Don’t let yours be missing from the conversation.

2. Time Is Critical

A slow response in a fast news cycle is dangerous. If you wait too long, others will fill in the gaps — often with speculation.

That doesn’t mean you need a perfectly crafted statement right away. But it does mean you need something that signals awareness, accountability and a path forward.

Start with a short holding statement, then build from there as facts emerge. Clarity and speed matter more than polish in these first moments.

3. Always Be Truthful

Even in the middle of chaos, the truth still matters. Now more than ever.

You might not have all the answers, but that doesn’t mean you get to spin the story. Take on the role of internal investigator. What really happened? Who was affected? What steps are already being taken?

Distorting the truth or omitting key facts will only erode trust and escalate the situation. You can be brief and careful without being dishonest.

4. Consider All Audiences

In a crisis, it’s tempting to focus only on external media. But your internal audiences often matter more.

Employees, board members, customers and vendors need to hear from you too. They shouldn’t find out what’s going on from Twitter or the evening news.

Think through who needs to know what, and when. You might release information in a staggered timeline or communicate simultaneously across all fronts. Either way, show the people closest to your organization that they matter.

5. Bring in an Expert (But Don’t Delay)

Some crises are too big to handle alone. If legal exposure is involved or if lives or livelihoods are at stake, you should consult a crisis communication or legal expert.

But don’t let that consultation delay your initial response. You can still share a holding statement or express concern while the experts get briefed. Waiting for them to finish other projects or finalize every line can cost you valuable time and credibility.

Make your move while they’re getting up to speed.

6. Know When to Walk Away

Not every relationship is worth preserving.

If you’re caught in a crisis because of a dishonest vendor, evasive team member or problematic client, it may be time to part ways. Even if you don’t have hard proof yet, your instincts matter.

Disengaging can feel like a financial setback, but protecting your reputation and your peace of mind is almost always the better long-term move.

And remember, integrity isn’t just a talking point. It’s a strategy.

Ethics in Everyday Work: The Crisis Prevention Strategy

Moments of crisis don’t always start with fireworks. They usually start with the small stuff.

That offhand comment that didn’t feel right. The decision to skip a source check. The pressure to spin a stat instead of reporting it accurately.

Ethical missteps don’t just threaten your brand’s image — they weaken your ability to lead in a crisis. If your team knows that accuracy, transparency and ethics are part of your everyday work, it’s much easier to rally around the right approach when something goes wrong.

So yes, these principles matter when the heat is on. But they also matter when you’re drafting a regular blog post, giving a routine interview or choosing how to frame a stat in a sales deck.

Ethics aren’t a reaction. They’re a foundation.

Reactive Doesn’t Have to Mean Chaotic

Let’s be honest: you can’t always be ready. But you can always respond with care, clarity and speed.

The six steps outlined above give you a framework to move through a reactive crisis with your credibility intact — and your values visible.

This post is part of a two-part series on crisis communication. If you’re looking for advice on how to prepare in advance — by creating sample statements, response trees and more — start with this post on proactive crisis communication. Then come back here to learn what to do when the crisis actually hits.

Want more practical tools like this?

You’ll find more in my book, A Practical Guide to Public Relations for Nonprofits, Businesses and PR Leaders.

**Please note that Veracity does not accept clients that are currently under active crisis. We only work with clients that are planning ahead for a change that could unfold into a crisis, such as a sale, management transition or legislation. If a retainer client experiences an unplanned crisis, we are already a member of the team and ready to stand in their corner.**

Turn Crisis Prep Into Powerful Content: How to Fill the Void Before Trouble Hits

by Amy Rosenberg | Aug 7, 2025 | Posts, Public Relations

Most organizations think of crisis communication as something reactive — a scramble to contain bad press or clarify a mistake after the fact. But what if your crisis plan could do more than protect your reputation? What if it could actively generate goodwill, test messaging and even fill the content void that so many organizations struggle with?

Proactive crisis communication isn’t just about damage control. When done right, it’s a powerful way to create meaningful, pre-approved content that builds trust long before anything goes wrong.

This post is part one of a two-part series on crisis communication. Here, we focus on what to do before something goes wrong — how to prepare in advance so you have structure and clarity when a crisis hits. A follow-up post on how to respond in the moment (when the crisis is already unfolding) is coming soon.

Let’s walk through how to do it, starting with the prep work that lays the foundation.

Start with the Real Work: Your Crisis Prep Foundation

Before you can spin gold from your crisis plan, you have to build the structure. This means blocking off calendar time and digging deep into the potential crises your organization may face. Start by:

1. Listing Every Plausible Scenario

From fires and cybersecurity breaches to harassment complaints and legislative changes, outline every issue that could realistically arise. Prioritize them, then commit to tackling one scenario at a time — monthly or every other month.

2. Holding Stakeholder Conversations

When the time comes to work ahead on a specific scenario, gather relevant staff, leaders and partners to answer:

What will be done during the scenario to mitigate damage?
What will be done after the scenario to remedy it?
Most importantly: What’s being done now to prevent it?

These meetings surface essential insights and clarify the who-does-what breakdown. That information becomes the backbone of your communication plan.

3. Creating Response Trees

Map out who will speak to each audience — such as media, staff, customers or partners. Assign backups in case someone is unavailable.

4. Writing Sample Statements

This is where it gets real. Draft:

Internal staff communications
Customer/member/partner emails
Media statements

Make it clear to your team — often and explicitly — that you likely won’t release this media statement or any for that matter. You’re drafting the statement now so you’re ready in case it’s ever needed. But when the crisis hits, you’ll revisit the statement and possibly never even release it, depending on how everything unfolds. This reassurance helps reduce pushback and keeps stakeholders aligned with the plan.

In the statements, leave blanks for names, dates or other details, but write them in a tone and style your organization can stand behind. If a crisis hits and your executive director is out of the country, you’ll be glad these were written, vetted and ready to go.

5. Securing Approvals and Setting Review Cycles

Walk your sample statements through leadership, legal and subject matter experts. Remind everyone that these are living documents and will be reviewed yearly (or more frequently if your team changes) before being released.

With statements for every plausible scenario in place, you’re not just prepared. You’re ready to repurpose that work.

Case Study: Turning Crisis Prep Into Proactive Content

A 120-year-old Oregon manufacturing firm came calling after being placed on a public list by the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), flagged for air quality review under the new Cleaner Air Oregon (CAO) initiative.

We approached the prep seriously and methodically — asking our usual questions and identifying the right stakeholders. But in the back of our minds, we were also thinking: can this become content? If we’re doing the work anyway, can we use it to show — not just tell — the public what this company stands for?

The optics weren’t great. Despite being a long-time community employer with excellent wages and benefits, they knew the scrutiny would raise eyebrows. The process to meet new emissions standards would take years.

Instead of waiting for protestors to show up or a negative headline to drop, we began a proactive content campaign, rooted in the crisis prep process:

We started by interviewing engineers, HR reps, and frontline workers to better understand the company’s culture, safety measures, and environmental practices.

Then we created content. Month by month, we rolled out:

Blog posts on employee benefits and safety protections
Social posts highlighting union support and retirement packages
Stories about their recycling initiatives and wetlands conservation

By the time we approached the topic of emissions directly, the community already had context. Readers understood the company’s values, their role in the town and their long-standing commitments to worker well-being.

We got approval along the way. Blog posts weren’t just fluff — they were reviewed by scientists, engineers and the CEO. That meant when we needed a statement, we had approved copy ready to go.

We even pre-negotiated a content rule: If the CEO was unavailable in a crisis, we could pull lines directly from the blog posts for media statements or talking points.

The protest we anticipated never materialized. While we can’t know for sure if the content prevented it, the company was eventually sold — possibly helped by the goodwill and clarity we’d built through our content.

Why This Approach Works

Using crisis prep as a content strategy delivers value whether or not a crisis ever comes:

Builds Trust in Advance: Community members and media see you as transparent, not defensive.
Strengthens Internal Alignment: Spokespeople get comfortable with the messaging long before they need it.
Creates Reusable Language: You have pre-approved copy to pull from under pressure.
Fills the Content Void: It provides a steady flow of relevant, values-driven content in between announcements or campaigns.
Reduces Panic: Your team knows what to say and when, giving everyone peace of mind.

You don’t need to wait for a DEQ call-in or a cyber breach to start. Choose a scenario, schedule a stakeholder meeting, and just begin.

Preparation Isn’t Just Protection — It’s Promotion

Too many crisis plans sit idle, gathering dust in some forgotten folder. But if you treat the process as an opportunity to listen deeply, clarify your values and tell your story early, you can create content that strengthens your organization long before anyone is looking for answers.

Start with the preparation steps, and let them evolve into something more. Because when done right, proactive crisis communication doesn’t just mitigate damage — it fills the void with clarity, leadership and trust.

And if the crisis does hit — especially in a way you didn’t expect — don’t worry. The second post in this two-part series — coming soon — will walk you through how to respond in the moment, even if you’re reacting under pressure.

Want more proven strategies like this?

You’ll find more in my book, A Practical Guide to Public Relations for Nonprofits, Businesses and PR Leaders.

Proactive Crisis Communication Planning is the Business Insurance You Could Be Missing

by Amy Rosenberg | Aug 9, 2023 | Community Relations, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Posts, Public Relations

In 1982, seven people in Chicago died after taking extra-strength Tylenol capsules laced with cyanide. While the police searched for a suspect, Johnson & Johnson — Tylenol’s parent company — faced a crisis: how would they communicate with a shocked and scared public?

The company acted quickly by removing Tylenol from store shelves and issuing a nationwide warning not to take their product. Tylenol was the country’s leading pain reliever at the time, so the move cost Johnson & Johnson millions. However, their decision to prioritize people over profit helped regain consumer confidence.

While authorities never uncovered the person responsible for the poisonings, Tylenol’s response has become a case study for effective crisis communication. The company ultimately regained its lost market share thanks to its quick response and clear, transparent messaging. The crisis also spurred the company to introduce an innovation designed to prevent the same thing from happening again: the tamper-proof bottle.

Crisis Communications is Business Insurance

While most of us will never face a crisis on the scale of the Tylenol poisonings, these events offer a potent lesson for business leaders. Issues like sexual harassment, customer data breaches and industrial accidents happen every day and carry clear risks to an organization’s reputation and ability to operate. Without a crisis plan, there’s a serious risk of making potentially fatal mistakes.

Ultimately, proactive crisis communications is a form of insurance that will help protect your businesses against the challenges that are out of your control. In the age of instantaneous information, the media and public will expect a near-immediate response, which you won’t want to compose in the heat of the moment. With that in mind, here’s how to begin proactively planning for a crisis.

Get Your House in Order First

When a business faces a crisis, the media and public will often visit the company’s website and social media channels to obtain background information to make a judgment. That means your blog and social media presence can be the first line of defense against bad sentiment.

In most cases, you won’t know beforehand that a crisis is about to hit. However, if you’re currently using your blog and social media channels to tell a bigger story about yourself — like how your business treats its employees well or all the good it does in the community — you’re already communicating positive messages to the public. That way, you’ll leave a more favorable impression if a crisis arises.

Sometimes, a company will know when bad news is on the horizon, like an unfavorable regulatory ruling. In those cases, it’s possible to use your blog and social media presence to soften the blow of what’s to come and tell your side of the story.

In either case, it’s impossible to use these tools to your benefit if you’re not actively employing them. So, create a content schedule that tells your company’s story and stay consistent with posting. These practices help lay the groundwork you’ll need to face a crisis.

via GIPHY

Create a Crisis Plan

Once you’ve established a content creation routine, it’s time to start creating your crisis response plan.

Step 1: Brainstorm

The first element in creating your plan is establishing a list of realistic threats your organization could face. An effective way to develop this list is by gathering a group of stakeholders and asking, what’s the worst thing that could happen? Then rank those responses by their likelihood and potential risk to the enterprise. For example, the chance of a data breach is high for just about any organization. However, that particular crisis could impact a financial institution much differently than it would a construction company.

Step 2: Respond

Once you’ve established a list of likely potential crises, begin crafting responses to each threat. Start with creating simple pull quotes you can get approved. That way, if the worst ever occurs, you have something prepared and vetted in advance. You aren’t required to use what you’ve created, either. But you’ll at least have established a starting point that can be updated or revised to fit the specific circumstances.

Step 3: Plan

Now that you have an official company response to each of your imagined crises, you can build your communication plan. Start by assigning who will speak for the company in each situation. Is it always the CEO? Or will the response come from the subject-matter expert in each area, like the CFO or human resources (HR) director? Your plan should also include a backup company representative in every area that can cover if the lead is unavailable during the crisis.

How and when you communicate with employees should also be a part of your crisis planning, so it’s wise to include HR in this process. Creating policies that prohibit employees from speaking to the press without permission may also be necessary.

Step 4: Execute

Like everything in business, this is all easier said than done. However, developing a crisis response plan is critical for any business that wants to thrive in today’s world. One effective way of executing this work is to tackle a single potential crisis each month. This method prevents overwhelm and enables you to create more thorough and authentic responses.

Instead of a single pull quote, you could have website messages, social media posts, blog entries and email communications prepared on each topic in advance. Once you’ve tackled all your most significant potential threats, you can revisit your previous plans and make any necessary changes.

via GIPHY

New Technology Brings New Threats

While proactive crisis communications could become even more critical as artificial intelligence (AI) technologies become more prevalent. Tools like ChatGPT have the potential to create seemingly authoritative content that could be rife with errors or misinformation. Problems could arise when organizations deploy these technologies incorrectly or, more seriously, be targeted by them maliciously. As we enter this new era, communications workers must be able to identify harmful information and respond effectively.

Bad Actors Need Not Apply

Underlying this all is the issue of business ethics. This proactive crisis communication framework is not intended for organizations that behave badly and hope to avoid public consequences. Rather, it exists so that organizations can respond swiftly, effectively and transparently when the unexpected happens.

Remember These Principles

Even the best-run organizations can encounter unexpected trouble. The Tylenol brand could have become extinct had they mishandled their devastating crisis. However, they remained honest, transparent and remorseful throughout and made significant changes that improved their product and protected their customers. More than forty years later, they remain one of the country’s most recognized brands.

As you’re building your own crisis communication plans, allow these principles to guide your responses. When the process is finished, you’ll have positioned your organization to survive a crisis and come out better on the other side.

Featured Image courtesy of Canva

Crisis PR & the PIO with Dave Thompson, ODOT [Podcast]

by Amy Rosenberg | May 10, 2018 | Industry News, Podcast, Public Relations

Demystifying Crisis PR & the Infamous PIO Role

Learn more at CommCon on May 18th as Dave Thompson gives an inside look at the communications surrounding last summer’s devastating Eagle Creek Fire in the Gorge

“Public relations for government,” Dave Thompson, APR says of his job as Public Information Officer (PIO) of Oregon’s Department of Transportation (ODOT). But as we dig in, I discover the classic role of the PIO to be so much more. Having been at ODOT for over 16 years, he’s technically the Public Affairs Program Manager, overseeing the multitude of PIO’s throughout the state. But when he first started, he was the spokesperson you’d see on TV responding to an issue — a natural disaster, accident, weather, or more — affecting the roads. Today he trains and manages those people, but the job is still intense.

Next week, attendees of CommCon, the Oregon chapter of PRSA’s conference, will get a glimpse of what it’s like to be a PIO. Dave is moderating a session titled “Coordinating Consistent Communications in the Middle of Chaos.” The panel will delve into what happened during the 2017 Eagle Creek Fire that decimated the Gorge and will include speakers from the US Forest Service, Portland Fire & Rescue, and Multnomah County Communications Center. As one of the first PIO’s on the scene, Dave’s mission was to communicate effectively to the public the status of the crisis.

CommCon takes place May 18th from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the DoubleTree Hotel (1000 NE Multnomah Street), tickets are available here.

Listen on Stitcher

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Working Together

The fact that the panel features communicators from multiple agencies points to a key aspect of the job that I didn’t think about. As a PIO responding to disasters affecting the public, you’re working arm-in-arm with multiple government agencies and NGO’s—aligning your messaging and deciding which group, and whom from that group, will serve what function in the Mt. Everest sized list of things to do in a crisis. For example, Dave’s team recently won an award from Travel Oregon for their expert communication management of the Eclipse this summer. As Dave recalls that time, he paints the picture of a busy communication headquarters with executives from different groups serving functions like:

Managing & assigning duties to the entire team (like an Editor)
Aligning messaging from all groups
Pulling together press releases & media communications incorporating that messaging
Media outreach & response
Press conference organization & delivery

If it sounds intense, it is. I envision such a headquarters like the inner-workings of a frantic newsroom, and Dave agreed to the comparison. When I asked how people without experience can get involved, he said “you can’t just walk into a situation like that unprepared.” He points to some training resources people can go to, but it seems that on-the-job training and planning ahead with all involved parties is the way to go.

Planning Ahead

The ODOT public affairs team gets roughly 30-40 calls per week from media that need to be promptly and accurately addressed. All contact seemingly involves a crisis of sorts but the way Dave explains it, with a lot of forward thinking and planning, maybe PR practitioners don’t have to relate to every tragedy as the crisis that it indeed is. Dave says that “absolutely” all crises can be planned for, with his team having contingency plans for everything — earthquakes, volcano eruptions, tsunamis, major traffic accidents and more. Not only do all plans live in his computer, he and his team have print-outs and jump drives of plans, media contacts, press release templates, talking points and more, within arm’s reach — in their cars and at home — should a disaster occur and computers aren’t working or available.

Extending the Megaphone

No longer does Dave think of his job as strictly “customer service for the media.” The rise of social media has extended the megaphone — which used to be reserved for media — to the general public, therefore drastically changing the PIO’s function. But Dave’s thinking has also evolved, realizing that the people of Oregon are his customers because they must use the roads safely and efficiently. He treats every inquiry, whether it is FOX news or your grandma, with the same weight.

“The roads are the lifeblood of the economy, greasing the skids so that the economy can flow. Road maintenance is not just for semi-trucks, it’s so you can get to work, get to the store.”

A Varied Past

With a masters in computer science, going on to teach at USC, Dave’s career trajectory — from writing papers and teaching, to eventually working in broadcast for 20 years, to now working at ODOT — seems unlikely.

As a self-professed “nerd” working in computer science at USC, Dave found himself isolated, watching the world move without him. Working late at the office on Friday night he switched on the news. A hostage situation at the airport immediately sparked his adrenaline as he became fascinated with the story execution. The next day, he signed up for a new broadcasting class and the rest is history.

Today Dave is dedicated to teaching others.

“My personal mission in life is to make a difference. Nobody will remember it was me, but some part of life will be better because of something I did.”

Having joined PRSA in 2002, Dave has gone on to teach, learn, and become a chapter board member, expressing that you get out of it what you put into it. Dave has truly left a mark on the Portland community by his commitment to spreading knowledge and helping others.

About the guest: Dave Thompson

Dave is the Public Affairs Program Manager at the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT). He leads a team of eight spokespeople spread across the state of Oregon. He is also a lecturer and media trainer for interviews, crisis management and crisis response. Prior to his career as a PIO, Dave was a reporter, producer, anchor and host at various TV and radio stations. He is also a former board member and president of the local Portland chapter of PRSA.

Connect and follow Dave on social media:

This episode of PR Talk is brought to you by PRSA Oregon

Throughout Oregon and Southwest Washington, PRSA provides members with networking, mentorship, skill building and professional development opportunities – whether you are a new professional fresh out of college or a skilled expert with 20 years in the industry. Check out PRSAoregon.org for more information on how membership can help you grow and connect.

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