On 8 March, the CIPR Crisis Communications Network organised an engaging and powerful discussion about one of the less talked about elements of crisis management: how to ensure your own team’s wellbeing while in the midst of a crisis. The panel was international, and they brought a huge range of experience and expertise:
Intan Darlina Muhammad, a former Caregiver Manager at Malaysia Airlines, who led Malaysia Airlines’ teams of hundreds of caregivers following the disappearance of flight MH370 in March 2014 and the tragic shooting down of flight MH17, just four months later.
Nick Propper, CPC, a long-standing PR agency leader and now CEO of Impact Human Performance – an agency which helps organisations to replace uncertainty with purpose, fatigue with energy and fear with resilience.
Rob Stewart, a business and clinical psychologist based in Dubai specialising in leadership and organisational culture.
The conversation was wide-ranging – some of the key areas covered included ensuring that team needs are met, how we talk about the crisis within our teams, what leaders should bring to the crisis and the aftermath, the limitations of training and how to improve it, and some psychological areas to be aware of.
When it comes to well-being in a crisis, rank must be left at the door – the whole team has to support each other, whatever their position in the hierarchy.
Team needs
When it comes to well-being in a crisis, rank must be left at the door – the whole team has to support each other, whatever their position in the hierarchy. This comes with individual and collective responsibilities:
- Every individual should enter the crisis with knowledge about what provides relief for them. How do they want to regulate themselves? What do they need? This will be unique to the individual but they should be prepared in advance.
- Recovery for the team must be embedded moment-by-moment in the crisis. This doesn’t have to be long but it must be intentional. Ensure that all team members find at least one minute every hour to reset:
- have a walk outside
- put fuel into their system (a basic need, often overlooked in a crisis)
- text a loved one
- make a quick journal entry
These practices start to create a virtuous circle. The speakers noted that it is OK to aim low here, although that can be difficult when everyone in the room is an overachiever – which is generally the case in crisis management.
- When stepping away from a crisis momentarily to focus on their recovery, people often fear they are dropping the ball or letting the team down. Emotional labelling is important to counteract these human instincts – say what you are feeling right now. Doing this forces an interruption of the stress response, and allows us to hold cognitive flexibility… ‘name it to tame it’.
Get the narrative right inside (and out)
It appears to be a truism of PR that even the very best communicators can be lousy at talking to each other, especially when they are under acute pressure. The way that leaders talk about a crisis to those that are managing it can be just as important for success as those external messages we spend so much time agonizing over.
Framing is an essential part of psychological safety. Team expectations should be set from the beginning. Be straightforward. Tell people the situation is going to be bad. Prepare them, but don’t overburden them.
- Framing is an essential part of psychological safety. Team expectations should be set from the beginning. Be straightforward. Tell people the situation is going to be bad. Prepare them, but don’t overburden them. Ensuring a balance between informing and panicking the team is vital (and takes real leadership).
- Think about your organisational culture around seeking help. Are people willing to make use of available supports? Is there an endemic perception that by doing so you’re weak? Leadership is essential here through modelling behaviour and providing appropriate messages about taking advantage of the supports that are available.
- Although leaders invariably want to get it right, it can be terrifying for even the most seasoned leader to open the lid on staff emotions during a crisis. Avoid asking team members if they are OK. Ask instead where their recovery is coming in the next 4-5 hours. Avoid open-ended questions, as that can often make matters worse.
Remember the practicalities
Simple measures can be taken to minimise the external pressures on the team.
- Ensure that you make provisions for the people in your team, not just those they are caring for. These can and should include daily ‘diffusion sessions’, and psychological support for those managing the situation.
- Rest is fundamental – if individuals are flying into a crisis, encourage them to take advantage of the time on the flight to rest (it may be the last proper rest they get for weeks).
- When working on a crisis, everyone should be encouraged to lighten the load of their ‘always on stress’ (i.e. all those day-to-day stresses that we manage at regular times but which can become overwhelming in a crisis).
Training
A recurrent theme in the talk was that nothing can fully prepare you and your teams for a live crisis. Yes, training and desktop exercises are important but after every crisis you must ‘re-learn and unlearn’.
- Training always happens in stable environments, but that’s never the reality. There is a need to train people in unstable environments where things don’t go to plan.
- People should not be trained in how to avoid stress, which is impossible during a crisis, but rather how to respond optimally in a coming crisis.
Psychological considerations
Our brains are programmed to problem solve or to address human needs. In a crisis the instinct is to problem solve, with the associated risk that focus is lost on employees.
Leaders must retain a dual focus, especially if the crisis deals with trauma and grief. When stress elevates, our brains narrow in focus. There is a tendency for leaders to just focus on the current crisis, but there is a need to think flexibly about what else is required.
- Leaders must retain a dual focus, especially if the crisis deals with trauma and grief. When stress elevates, our brains narrow in focus. There is a tendency for leaders to just focus on the current crisis, but there is a need to think flexibly about what else is required. For example, with those team members who are not directly involved with the crisis management but who may well be deeply impacted by the event.
- Be highly aware of vicarious trauma (where an individual starts to experience trauma after being exposed to the traumatic experiences of those they’re helping). This needs to be mediated to reduce the individual’s feeling of threat, so that team members can function effectively. Threat limits the ability of the pre-frontal cortex to problem solve.
The talk was sensitively and deftly moderated by Rod Cartwright and Sara Naylor from the CIPR Crisis Communications Network. Rod Cartwright spoke powerfully about some of his own experiences when working on MH370.
Author: Crispin Thorold is an international communications consultant who has managed communications during a wide range of crises at international organisations, global not for profits and a world top 20 university.