The art of recovery
The art of recovery
It seems as though the UK may be trying to move towards recovery from Covid-19. I say ‘seems’ because while the Government may be keen to push forwards and remove restrictions they cannot dictate when recovery will start. There are many other aspects of crisis situations that will impact on when to move forward. One of the most important aspects is what the public view, mood and tone is.
The relaxation of restrictions including mask wearing and social distancing will create issues for both individuals and businesses. In the worst case you could find an internal crisis looming with staff concerned about returning to the workplace and needing reassurance about safety measures.
We rarely plan for, or test, our recovery communication and yet this is one of the most challenging times. You need to be able to deal with the final stages of the crisis, review what has happened and what it means for the business, understand any changes that are being put in place, and be sensitive to emerging issues. All this is at a time when you will have exhausted communication staff, and any additional support will have been moved out.
The advice I give people is to approach it by looking at the 4 R’s of recovery - Review, Rebuild, Resources and Re-establish. This means moving from a crisis communication plan to a recovery communication plan and building in scenario planning. And continue to look holistically at the communication to understand the priorities, any sensitivities and build an effective recovery.
There will be interesting and testing days ahead. If you need any help or advice get in touch at amanda@amandacolemancomms.co.uk
Comms and big health IT projects
I recently was lucky enough to interview Sigrun Berge Engen Head of Communication (Kommunikasjonssjef) for the Helseplattformen in Norway. She has been leading the introduction of a new IT health system which is the biggest in the country. Sigrun gives advice to the UK and others considering similar projects. Read the article here.
Coping with Anniversaries
The Tim Parry and Johnathan Ball Peace Foundation published a really useful support document for people facing the 16th anniversary of the 7/7 London terror attack. It gives ideas about how to cope with significant dates. Find out more here.
Tackling Disinformation
One of the biggest challenges of modern crisis communication is how to tackle misinformation and disinformation. Researchers at George Mason University in Virginia, USA, are working on answering the question “How can an interactive and predictive tool be designed to empower local government agencies for proactive counter narrative communication to limit the spread of disinformation narratives by detecting early indicators of malice that lead to policy-failure events?” If you want to find out more read here.
In Brief
An article on the Forbes website highlights why crisis communication is becoming so important in the post-pandemic era. Read more here.
A recent report has found that Finland needs to improve its crisis response after the independent study concluded that crisis leadership, flow of information and preparedness needed to improve. Read more here.
You can read my latest crisis communication case study - Testing Times - that has been recently published. This edition looks at managing situations and a move to recovery. Read the case study here.