When a person finds himself in a tight spot, they often say they are in a pinch. You can visualize pain – like being caught between a rock and a hard place. This term can be used to describe what it feels like when you are in the middle of a crisis, especially when the media is breathing down your neck. By recalling the word "PINCH," you can remember five basic principles that should govern your crisis communications.

P – Prompt
It is vital that you get word out to your key audiences as quickly as possible. Rumors will multiply exponentially to fill the vacuum. If you delay providing people with what they need to know because you want to be positive that you have every last point of fact before you start communicating, the crisis will have built up a tremendous head of steam that you will find hard to counteract. As soon as you recognize that something has gone wrong that could develop into a major issue with negative impacts on the organization and its people, you need to start communicating. You must let people know what is going on as soon as you can so it does not appear that you are covering anything up.

An organization with which I am very familiar can be helpful here. The Community Alert Network (CAN) has the ability to use up to 800 phone lines at one time to communicate a message via telephone to people who need to know something quickly. Phone chains just don't work fast enough in many instances. It can be used to contact employees, facility neighbors, local emergency or elected officials, customers, or any group that needs to know information quickly. (For more details on this service, please call 1-800-848-3907 PIN 2145.)

I – Informative
Your initial statements cannot be "puff" pieces where you just tell everyone what a good company you are. There are times for those types of communication. A crisis is not one of them. When bad news is breaking, people need facts. Even though I encourage my clients to be prompt in their communications, this does not mean that speculation is ever in order. By providing people with facts as they become known, you let concerned parties know that you are going to be the source to which they should turn.

N – Non-technical
Be very careful not to load up your statements with jargon. Everyone in your organization may know the terms and abbreviations you use in your daily business life. But if you are trying to communicate with outside audiences who do not operate in your world on a daily basis, they will be lost when they encounter these words. What seems like clear language to you is Greek to them. Not only will you not be able to communicate well, you may well get them really mad at you!

C – Compassionate
Among the very first messages must be expressions of caring and concern for anyone who is, or who sees himself as, a victim. Someone who has been negatively impacted, whether physically, emotionally or financially, has to hear that the organization cares about him. There is a real tendency to allow fear of possible litigation to overrule our desire to apologize if something went wrong and hurt someone. Certainly good judgment must be used in the wording of statements made to those who have been hurt, but hiding behind a wall of silence simply makes the company look cold and uncaring. Such a stance can cause smoldering anger to burst into flame where the injured party decides to take any action they must to wring an apology out of the organization. This is what often leads to negative publicity and even lawsuits.

H – Honest
In order to survive a crisis, company personnel must demonstrate its credibility at all times. A lie – even a little white one – will call into question everything that is said, not only in the case of this crisis, but for any future ones as well. In all relationships – whether among human beings or between an organization and its major audiences – trust is critical. Anything that undermines that trust is to be avoided. Honesty IS the best policy. That does not mean that it is always easy. It may require admission of a serious gap in procedures, or a lack of knowledge or training or good judgment on the part of an employee. To try to deny a fact or to withhold important information because it will prove embarrassing is counter-productive. People tend to be willing to forgive a mistake; they generally believe that everyone makes them from time to time. What they will NOT forgive is an attempt to deny the truth or efforts to cover it up.

So the next time you are faced with a difficult situation that could easily grow into a crisis, do not:

• delay communicating
• try to sidetrack people with fluff about the company
• use technical terms that fail to communicate
• hide behind a cold legal defense and
• lie or withhold important information

Instead remember PINCH and keep implementing these concepts until the crisis passes. Long after the exact details of the particular incident have faded from the collective memory of those who hear about it, they will remember whether or not your company acted responsibly to let affected audiences know what was going on in a way that earned their respect and support.

Judy Hoffman is an author, speaker, and consultant who specializes in the areas of dealing with the media during a crisis and handling angry people. 

She can be reached at jchent@frontiernet.net and you can find out more about her at www.judyhoffman.com