Crisis Preparedness Toolkit

When to use this toolkit

Use the Crisis Preparedness Toolkit before a crisis happens. This is about preparation, not response.

Ideal triggers to start this work:

Annual planning — Build crisis readiness into your comms calendar
New risk identification — When leadership or risk teams flag emerging threats
Post-incident review — After a near-miss or actual crisis, update your preparedness
Regulatory changes — New compliance requirements that could create exposure
Leadership transitions — New executives need to be briefed on crisis protocols

If you’re currently in a crisis, this toolkit will still help—but you’ll be building the plane while flying it.

How the workflow fits together

Phase 1: Stakeholder Identification

Start with the Stakeholder Mapping Matrix to identify every group that matters during a crisis. Map them by power and interest. In a crisis, you don’t have time to figure out who to call—you need that list ready.

Key stakeholders typically include:

Board and leadership
Employees and unions
Customers and partners
Media and analysts
Regulators and government

Phase 2: Pre-Approved Content

The Crisis Content Pre-Approval Pack is the heart of this toolkit. Create holding statements for your most likely crisis scenarios:

Product/service failures
Data breaches or security incidents
Executive misconduct
Workplace safety incidents
Financial difficulties
Reputational attacks

These statements don’t solve the crisis—they buy you time to respond properly.

Phase 3: Monitoring and Escalation

Use the Issue Log Tracker to establish your early warning system. Define what constitutes a Level 1, 2, or 3 issue and who gets notified at each level.

The Moderation Guidelines & Escalation template extends this to social and community channels. Your community managers need clear rules for when to escalate and when to hold.

Phase 4: Response Messaging

Build your FAQ with anticipated questions for each crisis scenario. These won’t be perfect for the actual crisis, but they’ll be 70% right—and that’s faster than starting from zero.

The Myth vs Fact Sheet prepares you for misinformation. In modern crises, false narratives spread faster than facts. Have your counter-messaging ready.

Finally, the Executive Quote Pack ensures your spokespeople know what they can and can’t say. Pre-approved quotes prevent executives from going off-script under pressure.

Tips for success

Start with your top 3 scenarios — You can’t prepare for everything, so prioritise the most likely and most damaging
Get legal sign-off now — Approving crisis content during a crisis takes too long
Test your escalation paths — Run a tabletop exercise to confirm everyone knows their role
Update quarterly — Crisis scenarios change; your preparedness should too
Keep it accessible — Crisis content in a shared drive no one can find is useless

What’s not included

This toolkit focuses on preparation. During an actual crisis, you may also need:

All-Staff Update Format for internal communications
Manager Cascade Notes to brief people managers
Weekly Monitoring Brief to track the crisis as it unfolds

Estimated time

Phase	Time
Stakeholder identification	2-3 hours
Pre-approved content (3 scenarios)	4-6 hours
Monitoring and escalation setup	2-3 hours
Response messaging	4-6 hours
Total	12-18 hours over 1-2 days

Add time for legal/compliance review cycles, which can double the calendar time.