The situation: A mid-sized manufacturing company came to us after watching a competitor stumble through a poorly handled workplace accident that made regional headlines for weeks. Leadership knew they had no formal crisis plan, no designated spokesperson, and no protocol for the first hour after an incident, when reporters call, employees ask questions, and rumors start to spread before anyone has confirmed the facts.
What we did: We worked with leadership to identify their most likely risks, from workplace safety incidents to environmental concerns to potential product issues, and built a crisis playbook tailored to each scenario. We drafted holding statements in advance, established a clear chain of command for who speaks and who approves messaging, and trained key executives to serve as company spokespeople. Then we ran a live drill, simulating a workplace accident in real time, complete with mock media calls and employee questions, to test the plan under realistic pressure.
The takeaway: Six months later, the company experienced an actual on-site incident. Because the plan was already built and rehearsed, leadership had a statement issued within 30 minutes, a trained spokesperson ready for media inquiries, and a clear internal communication process that kept employees informed instead of anxious. What could have been a chaotic, reactive scramble instead became a controlled, credible response, because the hardest decisions had already been made before the crisis started.
