3 Lessons from Trump’s Presidential Alert Text
At 1:18 p.m. CST today, a collective buzz could be heard around our office as our cell phones lit up with a text from President Trump giving us FEMA’s Presidential Alert. While only a test for the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS), the White House clearly understands the importance of planning for a crisis.
Photo Credit: FEMA
Whether you agree or disagree with decisions coming from Washington, here are three reasons you would be wise to follow in their footsteps when it comes to crisis preparation:
1) Crisis is Coming.
I think we would all like to think a national disaster that has only been seen in movies would never happen, but the White House knows it could. Crisis happens.
Your future crisis could be something small, affecting only a handful of people, or it could have an impact felt worldwide. It could be a result of your own leadership decisions, or it could be because someone else made a mistake. It could barely affect your organization’s reputation and operations, or it could threaten to crumble all you have built.
No matter the surrounding circumstances, one thing is certain – crisis will happen. An organization that thinks otherwise is setting itself up for failure.
2) Communication Lessens Confusion.
There was a lot of buzz about today’s text from President Trump, but because of clear communication beforehand (and lots of media coverage), it didn’t cause mass panic. Instead, everyone knew what to expect.
In the same way, your team needs to know what will happen when a crisis hits. Preparing a crisis plan now will help you stay calm when disaster strikes rather than simply reacting.
3) Practice Makes Perfect.
FEMA needed to make sure its national alert system works properly in the event it should ever need to be put to use.
It’s one thing to have a crisis plan, but it’s another to know how to implement it. Just as we plan fire drills and test our smoke detectors, so should we test our crisis plans. As the old saying goes, practice makes perfect.
Planning for a crisis takes time and effort. It is not something that should be done in haste or without great thought. For this reason, organizations unsure of where to begin should consider bringing in an expert, like the team at A. Larry Ross Communications, to assist.