Guide 36 / 50 · Organisations & response
A Crisis Communications Checklist for Leadership Teams
When a reputational issue develops, leadership needs a simple process for finding facts, making decisions, and keeping messages consistent.
Establish the facts
Create a timeline, source list, and list of what remains unconfirmed. Preserve relevant records. Identify immediate safety, operational, or legal issues that require action beyond communications.
Assign roles
Name the decision maker, fact owner, spokesperson, and person monitoring incoming questions. Set approval routes for staff messages, customer notices, and public statements. Give teams one current source of truth.
Plan the next update
Write a holding statement only if an audience needs one. State what is known, what action is underway, and when more information will be available. Record each published version and review the response as facts change.
Keep versions together
A shared incident log should hold the approved facts, stakeholder questions, current statement, previous versions, and next update time. Mark unconfirmed points clearly. This protects teams from quoting an early assumption after it has changed and helps leadership explain why a later message differs.
Take action
A practical checklist
- Confirm the incident, affected groups and what remains unknown.
- Name a decision owner, spokesperson and operational lead.
- Create one dated fact sheet with source evidence.
- Set approval rules and the next update time.
- Log questions, decisions and changes as the situation develops.
Illustrative example
How this can play out
A company discovers an outage affecting some customers, but the cause is still under investigation. The first statement can confirm the observed outage, affected services and next update time. It should not guess at the cause. The operations team and communications lead work from the same dated fact sheet.
This is a hypothetical illustration, not a client case or a claimed FAMA Bureau result.
Questions people ask
Questions and limits
Do we need a complete explanation before speaking?
When people need immediate instructions, communicate verified facts and uncertainty clearly. Promise the next update, not an unsupported answer.
How do we handle changed facts?
Version statements and correct the record promptly. Explain what was known at each stage where relevant.
In brief
A useful checklist supports decisions under pressure; it does not replace action on the underlying issue.
These guides provide general information. Publisher, platform, search-engine and legal decisions depend on the facts of each matter. Where legal advice is needed, consult a qualified independent professional.
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