Crisis communications training

We run crisis communications training and social media crisis training courses and workshops, all of which can be tailored to your timescales and budgets. Our courses typically run for either a half-day, a full-day, or over two days, and include an interactive crisis simulation exercise to give your team practical experience of handling a crisis.

Crisis communications training packages

Our off-the-shelf crisis communications or social media crisis training packages include:

The core principles of crisis communications

A one-day course  

Morning session: 

  • The principles of crisis communication
    • What is a crisis? Knowing when to activate your crisis plan
    • Approaching a crisis: acknowledgement, apology, action
    • The currency of crisis: truth, trust, transparency
  • Strong leadership in a crisis: decision making, action and empathy
  • First steps in a crisis
  • Handling the media
  • Handling social media (and understanding behaviour)
  • Building team resilience

Afternoon session: 

  • A live, interactive crisis simulation to put the theory to the test. Using Polpeo’s simulation platform, delegates will experience managing a crisis as it breaks and spreads over social and digital media. They will feel the pressure of making decisions, leading a team, setting the strategy for the crisis and managing the organisation’s response. The simulation will stress-test crisis plans and processes, and put the full team through their paces. 

Leadership and crisis communication: a one-day course 

Morning session:

The theory of leadership in a crisis. The course will cover:
  1. Strategic planning
  2. Decision making and action
  3. Listening and building the right team
  4. Acting on and communicating Values
  5. Communicating with empathy
  6. Leading a team under pressure
  7. Recovery planning

Afternoon session:

Putting the theory into practice

Experience a live simulation breaking, and put some of these theories to the test. Using Polpeo’s simulation platform, delegates will experience managing a crisis as it breaks and spreads over social and digital media. They will feel the pressure of making decisions, leading a team, setting the strategy for the crisis and managing the organisation’s response.

The simulation will stress-test crisis plans and processes, and put the full team through their paces.

A crisis communications masterclass

A two-day course

Day one:

  • Principles of crisis communication
    • What is a crisis and what is a routine issue? Knowing when to activate your crisis plan
    • Approaching a crisis: acknowledgement, apology, action
    • Tone and style of communication
    • The currency of crisis: truth, trust, transparency
  • Strong leadership in a crisis:
    • Strategic direction
    • Decision making
    • Getting to the facts
    • Action and empathy
  • First steps in a crisis
    • The principle of the ‘Golden Hour’
  • Handling the media
    • Principles of media relations in a crisis
    • Choosing and training your spokesperson
  • Case studies of good and bad crisis communications
  • Measuring success

Day two:

  • Applying the principles of crisis communication to a social media environment
  • Managing social media in a crisis
    • Managing outrage, anger and trolling behaviour
    • Managing the expectation of immediate information
    • Dealing with misinformation and disinformation
    • Dealing with high volumes of posts on social media and the speed at which a crisis escalates
  • Building team resilience to manage a crisis successfully
  • A live three-hour crisis simulation, using Polpeo’s interactive simulation technology, to put the theory to the test. Delegates will experience managing a crisis as it breaks and spreads over social and digital media. They will feel the pressure of making decisions, leading a team, setting the strategy for the crisis and managing the organisation’s response. The simulation will stress-test crisis plans and processes, and put the full team through their paces.

Outstanding training day in London with the @polpeo team, real time simulation managing a crisis over social and digital media. In this day and age all our businesses should be prepared and be prepared to respond quickly. We can no longer bury our heads in the sand and just “switch it off” – brilliant day. I highly recommend looking these guys up. Quite honestly the best training event I’ve ever been on. Started at 1pm, I blinked and it was 5.30pm!

JCP Solicitors
Amy Seppman
Marketing Director

Reduce the risk of lasting damage to your brand