This is the second post to a series I’m doing on effective communication plans and exercises.  Previously, I covered the importance of creating a communication matrix so you know who needs to be communicated to, who owns that communication, and how you’ll be communicating to them in an emergency situation.  These communication matrices should be made for various scenarios so you’re always prepared.  After these are completed the next step is having your communication templates locked and loaded.  Here’s my advice:

Be Prepared with Communication Templates

It’s important to be prepared for every situation.  To do that, you should have pre-built communication templates.  When drafting your messages, its important to think about the styles of messages you’ll be sending.  Different parts of the business need to be notified in different ways for different situations.  For example, messages should be broadcasted to the people affected, but at the same time, messages should be sent to the people responsible for resolving the issue.  Having these two different messages prepared and ready to go will ensure that you’re ready to go when an emergency arises.

It is also difficult to think creatively and effectively under pressure and during the height of the disaster.  One very effective tool is SMS and yet there is a 140 character restriction.  It is really hard to think of everything you need to say in 140 characters!  This is one form of communication that is very helpful to have many prewritten options that can be quickly reviewed and modified as need be. 

Staring at a blank piece of paper when the flames are dancing around you and then coming up with the right words to the right audience is pretty darn hard!  Do it now, get it approved by legal and then put them in your backpocket for a rainy day!