Crisis communications simulations for press offices

In an increasingly uncertain world, a crisis is more likely than ever to come out of the blue, blindsiding even the most experienced and well-resourced press office and catching them on the backfoot. That’s why a growing number of them are signing up for our press office crisis simulation courses.

There was a time when you’d probably first hear about something going wrong from someone within the organisation or perhaps from a journalist calling in. These days most press officers tell us that they only found out about a crisis that hit them from social media. By this stage the story is out there, doing damage to your brand image and making it more difficult for you to carry out your core functions. 

Crisis communications training for Comms teams

In our crisis communications training for Comms teams, we’ll create a realistic crisis scenario. It could be an explosion at a plant, a data breach or an attack on a member of staff while they’re carrying out their duty. Other situations that we’ve used as a basis for a press office crisis simulation include an embarrassing leak from a WhatsApp group, an accusation of bullying or sexism or an exposé by Panorama or The Sunday Times. 

Crisis communications management

As a press officer, one minute you’re handling routine enquiries and providing journalists with useful information and the next all hell has broken loose.

These situations are frightening. The volume of calls can be overwhelming. Journalists will use every weapon in their armoury to get you to give confidential information away or to speculate or to say something embarrassing. You won’t know the full details of the incident – probably no one will. The colleagues that you need to speak to in order to collate more information may well be unreachable. Others, including the senior management, will be on you like a tonne of bricks to stop the critical media coverage that they’re suddenly seeing.

The situation will change rapidly and unpredictably. New facts will emerge and something that seemed to be true or at least very likely five minutes ago will suddenly no longer be the case. Keeping track of events, logging journalists’ enquiries and recording your comments to them is essential. In our crisis simulations for press offices, we advise press officers and spokespeople on how to manage all of this incoming and outgoing information. 

Managing a crisis 

“Information in” and “information out” is another key element of managing a crisis. How will you hear about the crisis? How will you brief colleagues outside the Comms team about what’s going on and what you’re saying about it? 

Given that events move more quickly than ever, we’ll have a number of escalations in our crisis scenarios. Just when you think you’ve got five minutes to breathe, we’ll hit you with something else – which is exactly what happens in real life.

Crisis communications workshops

We should stress that our crisis communications workshops and crisis simulations for press offices aren’t about making anyone look foolish. We don’t want to embarrass people – we want to stretch them and put them through their paces in a safe space so that they can learn. But there’s more. 

“It’s identifying the gaps that has been most useful for us,” the head of one press office told us recently. “I realise now that there are a number of areas in our crisis communications strategy and crisis management capability that we really need to strengthen. Thank goodness we’ve found out about them now, with you, rather than later, when a crisis happens for real.”

All of our trainers are working journalists (operating under strict non-disclosure agreements) and so they know how the media reacts during a crisis. They also know all of the tricks of the trade when it comes to contacting press officers. 

Another Head of Comms said to us: “We all benefitted from seeing you write up realistic articles and media reports based on what the comments that we gave you. Understanding how the media reports on a crisis and how they use information from a press office was fascinating.”

Crisis simulations for Comms teams

As part of our crisis simulations for Comms teams we’ll set up in an office and, once the simulation begins, we’ll start calling the press office team. The questions our media trainer/journalists ask and the tactics that they use will be entirely authentic. We’ll start to put together written articles plus radio and TV reports based on the conversations we’ve had. We’ll also post information on X (not publicly, obviously) but again within the confines of the exercise).

If the head of comms thinks that it’s useful, we can even wander around a site as journalists would in real life. We ensure that everyone on the site knows about the exercise but they still might find themselves getting caught up answering journalists’ questions – or putting their hand up in front of our camera. Not a good look.

After the exercise it’s time for a wash up and a review of the experience. We’ll give feedback to the press officers (and apologise for being so horrible to them!) and then we’ll work with them to identify those gaps. At Communicate Media we advise them on what we thought worked well and where they came unstuck. We’ll listen as they give their feedback on the exercise and answer any questions about why journalists do what we do during a crisis.

Crisis simulation for press offices

Finally, as part of our crisis simulation for press offices, we’ll provide a full, written report on how the day went. We’ll explain what worked well and what didn’t go so well. We’ll advise you on where you need to place more resources and where there are gaps to fill. We can help with lines to take, and we can even build a crisis management bible for you, covering every aspect of a crisis that you’re ready to go when something goes wrong. 

“I wouldn’t say that it was fun,” one participant in our crisis simulation workshops for press officers told us recently. “But it was really interesting and incredibly useful. I’m very glad that I went through it with you before I ever had to experience it in real life.”

Crisis communication training

Come and talk to us about our crisis communication workshops. You can follow us on LinkedIn here.