Preparing for What's Next
February 6, 2025
By: Peter Panepento
If the first weeks of 2025 have taught us anything, it's that we need to be prepared for the unexpected.
The dizzying flurry of news out of Washington — coupled with a series of devastating disasters — has pushed many social good organizations into nonstop crisis mode.
While it’s hard to predict what’s to come, you can expect more surprises and tragedies that will require your organization to make quick assessments about how to communicate.
And perhaps more importantly, you will need to decide which events will require you to raise your voice and which are better left for another day — or for someone else.
After all, not everything can — or should — be a crisis for everyone.
So if you haven't already, it's essential to develop a rapid-response communications protocol that will help you make informed decisions about when you should speak up and provide an easy roadmap for how to communicate when your voice is needed.
Here’s a framework for developing a protocol that will help you prepare for anything — and everything — that might come your way:
Assemble a team
Your organization should convene a designated rapid-response communications team that you can mobilize quickly to assess fast-moving situations and make timely decisions about whether and how to communicate.
This group will likely include your top executive and head of communications. You might also choose to include other key leaders, board members, and/or legal counsel as part of this team.
Your team should be considered always on call and empowered to make rapid decisions.
Because crises don't always happen between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. on weekdays (in fact, it's rare they do), contact information for this group should be at the fingertips of your communications director or top executive — and members of this team should be informed in advance that they may be called upon after hours.
Establish your ground rules
For your rapid-response team to function effectively, it’s essential to create a process that governs how you will operate.
Some questions that will help shape your ground rules include:
What triggers this group coming together?
What are the expectations of members?
Who is empowered to deploy messages across different channels/audiences?
What needs to be prepared in advance?
What materials do you need to have at your fingertips?
Create a rubric
Your organization likely doesn’t have the bandwidth or expertise to raise its voice on every issue. With so much happening, it’s important to create a system for quickly assessing which situations demand your voice — and when you should move on.
When we work with organizations to set up their rapid-response plans, we create a green-yellow-red rubric that helps identify how to respond in common situations.
Green situations, for example, do not require a response.
Red situations, meanwhile, require proactive, immediate communications, and ongoing monitoring and updates.
As you build your protocol, your team can identify likely situations and build a rubric that works for you.
Doing this work up front will give you a clear process for making decisions in real-time.
Establish key roles
Once you have your framework and rubric, the next step is to identify roles and responsibilities, including who:
handles creation of initial drafts.
needs to be informed before you communicate publicly.
is involved in your review process – and who has final say on what’s released publicly.
distributes information via multiple channels.
serves as your spokesperson for the media and key audiences.
Need some help?
Crisis communications is always challenging, but creating a process for assessing situations in real time can transform the way you respond when things are happening fast.
It can also support your overall organizational decision making – and your mental health.
We’ve developed a proven process for helping organizations create and execute on rapid-response communications strategies.
If you’d like more advice, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Our team would be delighted to help you prepare for the next crisis.
