Readers Share their Biggest Crisis Management Lessons and Take-Aways of 2013

Last week I asked you, my fabulous readers, to reflect upon the biggest lessons that you’ve learned, in regards to crisis management in 2013. I received some great submissions and from now until December 18th, I’ll post some of them as food for thought for others to reflect upon.

Today’s response comes from Joe Ralko and is a great lesson that many don’t realize or think of until they’re in the moment and having to deal with this particular issue…

The question: In regards to your organization’s crisis management, what are the biggest lessons and take-aways that 2013 will leave you with?

Having a crisis communications plan is irrelevant if the board of directors refuse to allow the plan to be deployed. The key to successfully mitigating and emerging from a crisis is for the board of directors to understand they represent the interest of the organization and not the entities they represent on the board.

Thanks to Joe for sharing his biggest lesson learned!

A little bit about Joe: Joe Ralko was an award-winning reporter with The Canadian Press news agency before his career evolved into communications and public participation. He was a finalist twice for the National Newspaper Awards, the NNAs are to Canadian print journalism as the Pulitzer Prize is to American Journalism), for work he did during two natural disasters. He was awarded the top prize in 2012 from the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) in Canada for media relations. The honor was bestowed for the work he did communicating the results of an independent investigation IPAC-CO2 completed into allegations carbon dioxide had been leaking onto a farm in southeastern Saskatchewan. Joe has been accredited with IABC since 1993 and served four, two-year terms as judge of the written exams to achieve Accredited Business Communicator (ABC) designation.