The nature of a crisis hasn’t changed: something unexpected happens, and the clock starts ticking. But the way we respond and the expectations we’re up against have shifted dramatically.
Crisis communication is no longer just about what you say. It’s about what you already stand for, how quickly you can align internally, and how ready your teams are to move from confusion to clarity in minutes, not days.
Here are three things every senior communicator should focus on now, before the next crisis hits.
#1 Cancel Culture Has Raised the Stakes and Shortened the Timeline
The public doesn’t wait for statements anymore. They react in real time. One post, one video, one leak can snowball in minutes. And in that window, your silence may be read as indifference or worse, guilt.
But it’s not just speed that’s changed. There’s now a deeper scrutiny of how a company’s values hold up under pressure. Audiences want consistency between your crisis response and what you’ve said about yourself all along.
What This Means for Comms Teams:
- You need to know what your brand stands for and pressure test whether that identity holds up when things go wrong.
- Crisis responses should feel like a natural extension of your values, not a legal or PR workaround.
- A generic apology or templated holding statement doesn’t cut it anymore. Clarity, sincerity, and follow-through are the new bar
#2 Pre-Crisis Planning Needs a Serious Rethink
A 30-page binder won’t help if no one knows where it is or what’s in it. Too many crisis plans are built for scenarios that no longer apply, or for teams that have since turned over. Worse, many are written for legal compliance, not human communication.
Pre-crisis planning isn’t about having the perfect response ready. It’s about having people and processes ready to think and act when things are moving fast.
What This Looks Like in Practice:
- Keep plans lean, living, and easy to use. Focus on principles, roles, and workflows, not just statements and scripts.
- Build real-world scenario testing into your comms rhythm, ideally twice a year. Include surprise elements. Make it messy. That’s how you find the gaps.
- Prep your spokespeople before you need them. Don’t wait for a crisis to find out who’s comfortable on camera or who can hold the line under pressure.
#3 Internal Alignment Is Everything
Most crisis plans fail not because of bad messaging, but because teams weren’t aligned fast enough to make the right decisions. If marketing is saying one thing, legal is saying another, and the CEO is going rogue on LinkedIn, you don’t have a comms crisis. You have an organizational one.
Speed without coordination leads to confusion. And in a crisis, confusion leaks fast.
How to Get This Right:
- Create a cross-functional crisis core team (comms, legal, HR, ops, leadership) that can be activated immediately when needed.
- Define who makes decisions, who approves language, and who communicates with which audience. No assumptions.
- Build pre-agreements around principles. How much risk are we willing to take? What’s our stance on public accountability? What level of transparency do we aim for?
- And critically, make sure internal teams hear it first. Employees should never learn about a crisis from Twitter.
You can’t predict your next crisis. But you can build the muscle to handle it. In 2025, the strongest teams won’t be the ones with the thickest playbooks. They’ll be the ones who are aligned, empowered, and ready to act with speed and integrity.
