With every crisis event there is the real crisis and the communications crisis. The most important is always to solve the real crisis. But it is also critical to communicate well and make sure that communications help contain the crisis as opposed to amplifying it. How you handle a crisis can either damage or enhance your reputation. In 2010 we have seen many examples of the communications crisis becoming the real crisis (Toyota, Tiger Woods, Nestlé). This course will look at reputation management, discuss some case studies and go through a five-step process for handling crisis communications. The training will include how to make a plan, how to deal with and respond to media, how to build effective messages, as well as how to identify issues and strategies for various media. A large part of the course will be dedicated to an actual scenario where the students will work through the scenario, be interviewed on camera and receive critiques for the handling of events.
NB: This is a new workshop; it will be offered for the first time in Fall 2010.
