A Wren Says

A tragedy happened at the most recent CrossFit Games that rocked the community. One of their strongest competitors died by drowning in an open water event. For month, athletes, spectators, and general fans of the sport awaited the results of the independent third-party investigation launched by the sporting body. The results: we can’t tell you because it’s private, but here are some changes we are going to make. Perhaps, not surprisingly, there has been social media backlash across the platforms. Why do an investigation if you are not going to share the results? Maybe CrossFit did the right thing and made the best decisions possible based on the investigation. But with the way communication came out, the public doesn’t trust that is what happened.  The response to the crisis caused another crisis altogether.

The plan created to respond to a crisis has to include how you will communicate to the public about it. Did they fully think about the audiences they would need to speak to? Did they think about what information would need to be communicated out? Did they think about how they would deliver the messages? Did they think about the effect of that delivery? Did they consider potential PR fall out and how to minimize that?  

I am going to guess that the organization did not have a solid crisis communications plan in place. That mistake is leading to a further eroding of trust in the brand and sport. But don’t let that be the mistake you make as well. Just as you need to think through how you will minimize the chances of a crisis happening, the severity if it does, and the actions you will take, you also need to think through how you will communicate in the event.

Every organization needs a crisis management plan. Don’t wait until a crisis happens to create one.