When considering how to survive a crisis, we often focus on our immediate actions once the crisis has begun. At best, we might reflect on the crisis planning we’ve done.

However, a crucial element that is often overlooked is crisis prevention.

Here’s the key insight: The easiest crisis to survive is the one that never happens.

Communicators Didn’t Cause These Crises

Take the Jerry Sandusky scandal, for example. During the turmoil, Penn State's board and leadership hosted several disastrous press events. Many people attributed Penn State’s problem to poor communication.

But that’s not the real issue. The crisis happened when Penn State leaders didn’t alert law enforcement when they heard someone might be molesting children in the football locker room.

Similarly, consider the Delta crisis I wrote about a few years ago. Their IT systems couldn’t handle weather delays, leaving thousands stranded. This wasn’t a communication problem, but a result of corporate decisions to cut investment in critical systems, undermining Southwest’s brand promise.

Risk Prevention is a Culture

There are lots of resources out there on risk management. It’s more than “Safety is No Accident”, just like those rowing posters in the conference room have nothing to do with teamwork.

The key is to create a culture of prevention, built into the DNA of employees (I know, I don’t like that word either, but it fits), to the point where new employees see it from the beginning and assimilate it naturally.

For instance, a Medical Center client of mine implemented a process where they reviewed not only mistakes but also near misses. Recognizing near misses as warning signs allowed them to address potential issues before they became serious problems. This approach ingrained a prevention mindset into the organization's culture.

As communicators, we know we do more than crisis comms, even though that is often what people think. We can play an even more vital role by working proactively on issues important to our organizations—including crisis prevention.

How Communicators Can Help Prevent Crises:

Clear Communication of Risk Policies and Procedures

Effective communication of risk policies is often the first and last step in many change communication projects. It must be clear, jargon-free, and tailored to the audience. Use graphics and videos to engage visual learners and ensure that information reaches everyone, even those who don’t access email regularly.

This is a great time to review SmartBrevity for an effective communication framework.

But there’s more to getting this done.

Using Storytelling to Highlight Success and Lessons Learned

Developing a culture of risk prevention requires a long-term commitment. It will require sustained, effective communication over time.

Here, communicators can add incredible value through effective storytelling . By telling stories (in-process) of success, resilience, perseverance, and even mistakes, communicators can reinforce attitudes and behavior with a tactic (storytelling) that almost everyone is hard-wired to respond to.

Fostering a Culture of Open Dialogue

Too many initiatives like this are one-way, or, predominantly one-way. For example, you might have a year of bulletin board memos, followed by a survey.

Employees need to feel comfortable discussing risks and the prevention methods that are being implemented. This is often done in the development phase but is less prevalent in those vital early days when the prototype is put into action.

As you can see from the box, they generally don’t. The key here is to get the managers involved and prep them with things to talk about and ways to send messages up the ladder reliably…and a commitment among those on the top of the ladder to do more than put the email into a folder labeled “important: read later.”

Supporting Leadership and Messaging

The single most important thing is ensuring message alignment up and down an organization. The test is when the front-line supervisor says the same thing the CEO says and does it with conviction. When a stakeholder (internal or external) hears one thing from one leader and another thing from another, the gears quit turning.

Message development is something that communicators excel at. It is harder than it looks. Each message has to be checked to make sure it flows from the original plans and objectives and works for the audience who is hearing it.

Lastly, executive communications are vital in culture building in today’s world. People just expect it. And it can’t be Moses coming down with the tablets. There has to be understanding, empathy and honesty…it has to create energy, not burn it.

Measuring and Improving Communication Effectiveness

Creating a risk-prevention culture is an ongoing process. The modern practice of PR requires measurement. We need to gather feedback in routine ways throughout the process.

This allows us to have a better idea if the culture we seek is being created. We might also uncover new landmines out there that we didn’t think of…maybe problems that come after the problem that come after the problem…or that stem from the solution in unexpected ways.

There are great resources from the Institute for PR Measurement. I think we don’t go down this road because we think it will be really difficult, but it doesn’t have to be and technology is giving us some tools to make it easier.