Terrorism: Seven Starter Steps to Prepare Against the Unthinkable

According to a recent CNN report, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed that attempted terrorist attacks against the United States are at an all-time high.  The department’s May 21 report obtained by CNN also indicates that terrorists are looking for “smaller, more achievable attacks against easily accessible targets.”

Scary.  A word to the wise:  “If You See Something, Say Something.”

Also scary times for U.S. businesses.

Experts who focus on emergencies and disasters have already weighed in with recommended actions.   

It’s a  similar clarion call for corporate communicators to prepare, now, before an attack strikes the heart of a company’s operations.  Here’s a good start of recommended actions:

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Go, Team!

Property of Fox. See the movie, June 11, 2010!

Exactly one month ago, I hosted a poll at the tail end of a blog post on the importance of building elite crisis management teams and not relying solely on plans. 

Pollsters were faced with a Solomon-like choice*:  if you could choose only one, would you rather have a super crisis plan with no trained team?  Or the opposite?

As of this evening, 95 percent favored team over plan

Unfortunately, I would say that ratio is THE MIRROR OPPOSITE of the way organizations focus on crisis preparedness. 

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Lessons from a Messy Diaper (Situation)

I have my reasons why I refrain from giving thumbs up/down opinions on specific crisis situations.  However, I try not to miss opportunities when current lessons can be applied to the profession of crisis management.  A recent Advertising Age article provides such a case, through its rare in-the-moment account of strategic planning and execution that takes place in a crisis “war room.”  Here’s a link to the article.

In this case, Procter & Gamble assembled a crisis team to help protect the Pampers brand of diapers when critics began to question whether its new Dry Max formulation was creating “chemical burns.” 

Although the situation is ongoing and a quick scan of the brand’s Facebook page suggests the situation is far from over, the article does provide insights to some very good crisis management practices:

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“Ask the Communications Coach” Vol 1., No. 1: Simplifying complex information; experts as presenters

B. Turner sent me a basket of questions to consider for this first “Ask the Communications Coach” post: 

B. Turner:   We both mentioned Pecha Kucha on the HBR blog today, one of my questions is (besides 20×20) what are other tools and methods for communicating complex ideas in limited time?  What tools or tricks do you employ?  A rhetorical question I have is why do we ask people who cannot present — whether they be engineers or human resources — to make presentations?  Does the owner of the content have to be the presenter?

Nice series of questions here, B. Turner.  Allow me to respond in two parts:

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