Crisis Communication
Certificate Program

Every crisis is a business problem before it is a communication problem, and you can’t communicate your way out of a business problem. However, effective crisis communication has what the military calls a “force multiplier” effect: It isn’t sufficient to accomplish your goal; but it helps you to do more, better, and faster.

Why? Because maintaining the trust and confidence of those who matter most is essential for an organization to get through a crisis with little to no harm to its competitive position. And that is the focus of crisis communication.

Our Crisis Communication Certificate Program is designed to help senior communicators and their teams engage with stakeholders to maintain, restore, or enhance trust and confidence when something goes wrong. It covers both core principles and best practices of effective crisis communication, as well as how to navigate the business decisions necessary to anticipate, plan for, manage through, and recover from crises affecting corporations and other complex organizations.

There are three levels of the Crisis Communication Certificate Program. The duration and intensity of each certificate level is based on the depth and level of skill desired.

This certification program is designed to build foundational crisis communication skills. This program is focused on those skills required for individuals to support their organizations in effectively planning for and communicating during a crisis.

This certification program is designed for professional communicators, public relations professionals, and individuals who support organizations and/or senior leaders in times of crisis.

By the end of this certification program, participants will:

Understand the patterns of crises and effective crisis response.
Understand the role of mental readiness in successful crisis response.
Recognize the power of decision criteria and the importance of asking the right questions at the right time.
Learn the best practice decision criteria for what to do and what to say in a crisis and when to do or say it in a crisis.
Understand the dynamics of victims and victimhood in a crisis.
Understand how to attain public forgiveness.
Understand how to get executive and legal buy in for best practice crisis response strategies and protocols.
Understand how communicators can overcome marginalization and become trusted strategic advisors to senior leaders.
Understand how to plan effectively for foreseeable crises and how to manage unforeseen crises.

This certification program is designed to help those who lead an organization’s crisis communication efforts understand the skills necessary to maintain and protect stakeholder trust in a crisis.

This certification program is designed for communication department heads, communication teams, professional communicators, public relations professionals, and individuals who help or seek to help lead an organization’s crisis communication.

By the end of this certification program, participants will:

Develop mental readiness for a crisis and recognize the patterns of crises and effective crisis response.
Recognize importance of decision criteria and utilize decision criteria based on asking the right questions.
Predict the dynamics of victims and understand how to obtain public forgiveness.
Develop practices to reverse marginalization and to become a trusted strategic advisor to senior leaders.
Understand how to work meaningfully with lawyers and how to get legal buy-in for best practice crisis response strategies and protocols.
Plan effectively for foreseeable crises and recognize how to manage unforeseen crises.
Understand the dynamics and best practices for crisis prevention.
Understand the importance of framing and how to craft a persuasive message and compelling crisis response materials.
Understand how to manage the news media and social media in a crisis.

This certification program is designed to help individuals lead crisis communication and crisis response initiatives on behalf of their organizations. This program is focused on advanced crisis communication skills that can create a meaningful competitive advantage for organizations.

This certification program is designed for mid- to senior- level communication professionals and those who will be leading or supporting an organization’s communication before, during, and after crises.

By the end of this certification program, participants will:

Develop mental readiness for a crisis and recognize the patterns of crises and effective crisis response.
Utilize decision criteria based on asking the right questions.
Predict the dynamics of victims and understand how to obtain public forgiveness.
Become a trusted strategic advisor to senior leaders and an effective partner with legal counsel and other experts.
Understand related and adjacent crisis capabilities, such as disaster recovery, business continuity, enterprise risk management, emergency incident management, etc.
Understand the dynamics and best practices for crisis prevention, crisis planning, and crisis response.
Understand the readiness cycle and how to continuously improve an organization’s crisis readiness.
Understand the role and optimal structure of crisis response teams.
Understand the importance of framing and how to craft a persuasive message and compelling crisis response materials.
Understand how to manage the news media and social media in a crisis.
Understand the qualities of an effective spokesperson in a crisis.