Rod Cartwright…Crisis Communications Now the Key Skill Required by Clients in the ‘RUPT’ Era
Rod Cartwright, a member of the River Effra Expert Panel reviews research on the standing of Crisis Communications PRWeek recently published the findings of its fifth Communications Bellwether research, in partnership with Boston University.
This annual study examines the priorities of professional communicators, recording the rise and fall of particular types of PR & communications skills.
The standout finding of the survey of 1,500 comms professionals: "the ability to handle crises" is now the most important PR skill (with a 4.74 median on a 5-point scale).
Just under 80% of client-side respondents strongly agreed that the ability to handle crises was important to the future of the industry - over 82% for Gen Z.
In an era of constant flux - which the Center for Creative Leadership has termed 'RUPT' (Rapid. Unpredictable. Paradoxical. Tangled) - organisations of all kinds have realised the extent to which the systematic management of reputational risk is simply business-critical.
Over much of my 25-year agency career, I have specialised in issues, risk and crisis communication. And in the three years since operating as an independent consultant, I've had the privilege of working in this space with clients from the private, public and non-profit sectors - covering preparedness, training, response and recovery - across continents, countries and cultures.
Here are just a few of the cornerstone concepts which occupy the minds of senior corporate communicators:
The expectation tsunami: the RUPT environment and COVID pandemic have accelerated and amplified a range of pre-existing trends, but they did not create those dynamics.
The crisis iceberg: there is rarely such a thing as a 'PR crisis'. Reputational risk invariably stems from a combination of operational, leadership, structural, behavioural, governance and cultural factors. Crisis preparedness (80% of the task) and response must be a whole-organisation endeavour.
The human imperative: an effective crisis response must be driven by a clear understanding of human needs, wants, values and beliefs, hard-wired into your strategy, communication, behaviour and brand. And never forget to operationalise empathy.
Relational vs. reputational risk: While reputational risk (how people think and feel about you) matters, relational risk (how they behave and act towards you) matters more.
Commander's intent: All crisis decisions should be based on an agreed strategic intent, genuinely reflecting your organisational values.
It’s ever more unwise to predict anything (the very essence of a RUPT world), but it seems unlikely to me that next year’s study will see crisis communications move out of the top three priority skills for corporate communicators, if it moves at all.