Manager's Guide to Crisis Management [Paperback]

A Manager's Guide to Crisis Management is Jonathan Bernstein's second book. There are two main pieces of crisis management, operations and communications, and this book touches on planning for both. Highly recommend.

It's hard to touch on everything related to crisis planning, but this book does a good job. Bernstein calls crisis management "an art rather than a science" because he believes handling crises is not a formulaic operation. It's true, one template doesn't fit all, but there are several pieces of crisis management that are predictable, and the book goes one to expound.
Bernstein labels three types of crises: creeping (the kind that goes unnoticed due to poor planning and monitoring), slow-burn (the type that lags forever such as lawsuits or internet activism), and sudden. He gives tips on working with all three and points out how effective crisis planning can benefit any business or organization. In fact, failure to plan could be catastrophic.

There's no shortage of practical tips and advice in the book and it's presented in an easy-to-read manner with a series of key terms, smart managing tips, tricks of the trade, and cautions laid out in graphic boxes with notifying icons.

The social media section of the book is a good inclusion (of course), and I would supplement (not contradict) his suggestions on monitoring software and online apps. As with any book on social media, the day after you write it some of the information is obsolete. But the bones of his strategy are right on. There is also a much-needed discussion of the relationship of legal to crisis. This is an ongoing tug-of-war in our sector and anyone who works in crisis management needs to get a handle on the importance of working with legal.

He also includes several chapters with specific info: crises in publicly-owned companies, cultural issues, and how to hire a crisis consultant. The book is a good read and I recommend it highly for anyone whose organization may ever have a crisis (that's everybody, folks). Get it and start planning now.

Bernstien's book on crisis management should be read by all C-level managers in corporation today. It should also be required reading for anyone in all MBA programs. Crisis prevention and planning are important business topics that are often overlooked due to critical things going on in the here and now of both profit and non-profit organizations.

In this book, the author talks about what to expect from the 3 types of crises: creeping, slow-burn, and sudden. Managers are asked to think about where employees might need to report to work if a crisis should occur and how they might communicate with their various stakeholders and other potential audiences related to a particular situation. The author also suggests all crisis-related communications should be prompt, compassionate, honest, informative, and interactive. According to Bernstein "crisis management is mainly abut averting a crisis" although quick response is necessary when one occurs, prevention and planning are the key to successfully coming out of the crisis with a good company reputation intact. Within the 16 chapters, various crisis management aspects are touched upon including: prevention and planning, training and holding drills, media and internet use, internal and external communications, requirements and law, risks and potential global cultural issues, plus useful tools, as well as hiring of consultants.

This is a great book and should be mandatory reading for anyone running a business or working in PR or communications. As Bernstein explains, Crisis Management "is the art of avoiding trouble when you can, and reacting appropriately when you can't." The potential to find yourself in a crisis exists for all of us. This book will help you minimize that risk and ensure that you deal with a crisis 'the right way' should you find yourself in that position. I posted a more in-depth review of this book on our site, Business Consulting Buzz (consulting-business.com) and also interviewed the author.