First of all you just take a deep breath. Whether your crisis is something that has been building for weeks or has occurred suddenly, you may very well be emotionally involved - especially if it involves injury or death. You need to allow that first wave to rush over you. Say a prayer and let the Lord guide you.
Next, assess the situation. Chances are, it will not match up exactly with any of the scenarios you have discussed and thought about. What practical tasks need to be taken care of? Pull out your crisis plan. Pull out a notepad and start jotting bullet points.
Start contacting your key players. Two or more heads are better than one in a crisis. Start talking it through. Think out loud with someone.
Avoid overreacting at this point. It's not unusual for a situation to “feel” like a crisis when it really hasn't reached that stage - especially if information is limited. In my experience, 80 percent or more of the difficult situations that have the potential of being crises can be handled without reaching the crisis stage.
As you assess that the situation truly is a crisis, go ahead and implement your crisis management plan. But keep in mind that your document is just a guide - it's not written in stone and it wasn't written with any real foreknowledge of the situation in which you've found yourself. Let it be a tool to help you and your key players get started.
Finally, think quickly about who else needs to hear from you at this stage in the game. The lack of clear communication tends to be one of the biggest problems in a crisis situation. Sometimes this is because people are hoping against hope that others “won't find out” about the situation. At other times, leadership is so engrossed in dealing with the particulars of the crisis that they forget about those who are not in the loop. If you do deem it important to share information with a group, such as your deacons or congregation, ask them not to comment and to refer any media inquiries to the designated spokesperson.
One of the key first steps in implementing your crisis plan is to figure out what you are going to say to people - congregation, the news media, your board, etc. I suggest literally writing your message down so that you can remember what you wanted to say and say it consistently. Here are some things to keep in mind.
First, keep it simple. Try to narrow it down to a few basic points. Imagine if you were stranded on an island and you had to express the key points on a single small sheet of paper and fit it into a bottle. This not only helps those receiving the information to get it straight, it helps you because you're going to have to remember and repeat this information.
Next, give as much information as is appropriate. The more questions you can answer up front, the better off you will be because you will come across as open, accessible, accountable and ultimately believable. If you can't provide information, simply say so and say why. For instance, “We cannot share with you the name of the injured person at this time because we are still trying to notify their family.”
Always, always, always be honest. Trying to cover up a problem almost always results in a much worse situation than the original problem itself. Just ask Scooter Libby, the vice presidential aide who was convicted not of being involved in a national security leak but of lying about what he knew about it.
You also want to refrain from speculating. For instance, don't try to explain how the fire started. That's for the fire marshal to decide. It's human nature to speculate and you can be sure that everyone you talk to will do just that. As for you, however, just work from what you know and share that consistently.
Finally, frame your message in an appropriately positive way. This simply means that you want to say what you “are” doing rather than telling people what you are “not.” For instance, “We are greatly concerned about this situation and are working to understand what happened.” The operative words in this sentence are “concerned,” “working” and “understand” - all positive words that accurately reflect what you are trying to convey. You want to avoid the “not” sentences because you can't tell someone to “not think of an elephant.” As soon as you say “elephant,” that's what people think about no matter what else you might say.
