How Spokespersons Can Develop Crisis Communication Skills – Gen Olukolade
A former Director, Defence Information, DDI, Major General Chris Olukolade (rtd), has revealed some tips which public relations officers, information managers, and spokespersons can employ in tackling crises in their organisations.
Olukolade who is Chairman, Centre for Crisis Communication (CCC) gave the tips in a paper titled, “Global Trends in Managing Risks Disaster and Crisis Communications,” which he presented at the maiden National Spokespersons Summit in Abuja recently.
According to Gen. Olukolade, strategic communication is most effective when it is part and parcel of the decision-making process, even before the organization adapts a position or stance on issues to be communicated, especially in times of crisis.
“Noteworthy is the fact that Crisis communication is a multidisciplinary application of relevant knowledge from a variety of best practices and processes by which organizations communicate before, during, and after crises,” he said.
The former Defence Headquarters, DHQ, spokesman explained that any effective information management strategy must be proactive in conception and implementation.
He said: “The rule is, do not wait until it happens before thinking of what to do. Be prepared. Easy access to information by the media needs to be sustained and facilitated through functional telephone numbers, email addresses, social media accounts, newsletters, websites, etc.
“Equally important is professional training. It is imperative that those appointed or assigned to manage interface with the media and the general public should be trained professionally irrespective of their earlier training or calling. Professional training and retraining enable the information managers to approach their job confidently and to also get respect of top management of the media and the civil society movement.
“Any forward-looking organization should include the media training and capacity building for media professionals servicing its interests. Media practitioners must be trained to understand the mandate and operational procedure for your organization. Any investments in this regard would definitely pay off in the end because media professionals would be equipped with the right knowledge to disseminate the right information.
“Due understanding through training would equally elicit sympathy towards the organization during crisis communication situations and minimize incidents of media hostility or misrepresentation of facts. To guard against inaccuracies and speculative reports, it is the task of information managers to ensure that regular briefing is a core of their strategy.
“Specifically, media practitioners and interested civil society operatives should be introduced to dedicated personnel or teams that serve as a clearing house for information relating to our operations. It should be noted that the media, in the light of advances in information technologies is very germane to the success of any information communication strategy.
“To this end, the organization and governments, must ensure that deliberate effort is made towards creating social media channels and accounts. The only way to keep the optimism of the local population in favour of the government or your organization is to demonstrably be ahead in the offensive on every front, including new media which is getting more robust and, at the same time, a near-monster as a result of uncontrolled dynamism provided by the Internet.
“Organizations with similar goals such security and response agencies should collaborate and interact regularly before crisis. The example of the forum of Spokespersons of Security and Response Agencies (FOSRA) formed in 2014 in the course of tackling the nation’s insurgency is worth emulating”.
