LEAD BOLDLY: What’s the Plan NOW?

by Julie Jakopic  - August 8, 2024

Last week I was privileged to speak at the Georgia Community Action Association conference. My topic? Crisis Communications.Which I presented on Thursday afternoon.

On Friday morning, I woke up to a text from American Airlines telling me my flight would be delayed.

By the time I got out of the shower, I had four more messages. About changes in times, changes in gates. And the news about the Microsoft outage.

American Airlines was prepared. Those messages had been crafted on a calm day when nothing was wrong. They had a backup system to deliver those messages not just by text, but by e-mail and on the app.

It took an extra 36 hours to get home, so I got to know several American Airlines staff. The airport was fully staffed at the gate the entire time. They had a plan to provide vouchers and changes even with the usual system down. Information was shared every 20 minutes or so, even if it hadn’t changed or they didn’t know.

I have lots of issues with things that didn’t go well and getting home late meant I missed a family event. But American Airlines communicated everything right. They were ready.

The point of my workshop was that many of the things we call crisis are very predictable. Computers go down. Data gets lost. People misuse equipment. Money disappears. People get hurt. In fact, I had asked in the workshop if folks had a plan for how they would serve clients if their computers went down. Which is pretty much what happened all over the world the next day.

Does your organization have a plan for that? Here is a link to my presentation slides. I’d happily talk through any of that with you. In the lower right corner on that page there is a link to my calendar and for convenience, it’s here.

Have a great crisis free week!

Julie

What I’m learning this week: I had lots of time waiting to watch videos. I loved this one about how laughter makes things better by Greg Kettner.

P.S. Have feedback on anything in this newsletter? I take compliments and complaints! You can reply or DM me on Facebook or LinkedIn! What do you want more or less of? Other suggestions? Let me hear them!

LEAD BOLDLY: Step Back

Other Articles You may be interested in...