I attended Reed Dickens’ breakout about “Rules of Engagement: The Art of Communication” at The Orange Conference and perhaps the most important point that struck a chord with me is Reed’s discussion about speed and transparency.
Specifically for Crisis Management, the first 24 hours is the most critical and organizations must have a critical balance of the two.
But, the key take away, from my perspective, is how blogs (and microblogs) have enabled speed and transparency to an amazing degree and can be a valuable communications channel for ministries.
Reed gave a sad but typical example of a youth pastor who made one too many bad decisions with some of the female youth that he ministered to and how the ministry stayed silent instead of using the opportunity to be transparent.
Big mistake.
Instead of taking control of the situation the situation took control and it became an even worse crisis to manage.
Have you ever considered the blogging medium as a way to help manage crisis in your ministry or organization? It’s not only viable but easy to leverage as well.
[Image from CrashCandy]