Ten Lessons for Managing Uncertainty in Crisis

I was assigned to read chapter two in the Ulmer et al. text about “Managing Crisis Uncertainty.” The chapter defines uncertainty as “the inability to determine the present or predict the future” (Ulmer, 2007, p. 18). Uncertainty in a crisis situation is one of the most difficult things for an organization to deal with properly. The chapter provides ten lessons in order manage the uncertainty that usually accompanies a major crisis. Since all of us are not reading this chapter, I broke down the chapter into the ten lessons to provide you with the “highlights.”
Lesson one is “organization members must accept that a crisis can start quickly and unexpectedly” (p. 18). This seemed somewhat obvious to me, but I guess it is an important thing to remember in practice since the simplest concepts can at times be the easiest to look over when planning.
Lesson two: An average solution is not the best formula for responding to a crisis situation. Responding to a crisis like an organization would respond to an everyday occurrence is not going to make the public feel more comfortable about the current situation.
Lesson three: “Threat is perceptual” (p. 20). It does not matter what the threat actually is, it is what the threat is perceived as that is important. The book gives an example of the Y2K scare as an example of real threat versus perceived threat.
Lesson four: A quick response is important to relieving the uncertainties of the public, whether you have anything new to say or not. This can create stress for the communicator because they “must communicate about events with little, no, or competing information about how the crisis happened, who is affected, and whether the event was managed effectively” (p. 21).
Lesson five: “Organizations should not purposely heighten the ambiguity of a crisis to deceive or distract the public” (p. 25). Communication ambiguity is defined by the chapter as “multiple interpretations of a crisis event” (p. 24). Increasing ambiguity is only ethical when it aids in the eventual understanding of the crisis situation.
Lesson six: “Be prepared to defend your interpretation of the evidence surrounding a crisis” (p. 25).
Lesson seven: Remember that if your organization’s intentions were not honest or honorable prior to the crisis, the chances of recovery are slim to none. In other words, if there was intent to cause a crisis, the truth will come out and the stakeholders will not be very forgiving because, “There is a clear between an organization having an accident and an organization having an accident and an organization knowingly causing or allowing crisis to occur” (p. 26).
Lesson eight: If the organization is not responsible for the crisis, evidence must be gathered to find out who actually is. Simply claiming no fault in the incident will not satisfy anyone.
Lesson nine: Simulating a crisis is the best way to prepare for one as a professional communicator. Let’s face it, getting crisis experience for the first time would not be pleasant in the first place, but without adequate preparation the results could be disastrous. Simulation exercises will make a tough situation a little bit easier to handle.
Lesson ten: A crisis can completely alter the belief systems of the organization. An example that the book gives are the events of 9/11 and how it completely changed our outlook on the world, the way we do business, and the way we view our personal safety.
Overall, I think these lessons are an important checklist for any professional communicator to have on hand even if they initially seem simplistic. Because, when a crisis occurs, it is easy to get frantic and forget the most basic principles.
The question(s) I would like to pose to the class: Do you think these ten lessons are adequate for managing uncertainty? To those of you with more professional experience, I’m sure you have learned more lessons in managing uncertainty than just these ten. What are a few of those lessons?