Coordinating internal and external messaging during a crisis
Launch library · evergreen read
Employees who learn about a crisis from external media coverage before hearing anything at all from their own organisation tend to lose confidence in that organisation's leadership, regardless of how the crisis itself is eventually resolved down the line. Coordinating internal and external messaging carefully protects that confidence by keeping both audiences genuinely informed on a similar timeline.
This does not mean both messages need to be entirely identical in every respect, since employees often need considerably more operational detail than an external audience genuinely requires to understand the situation. But the core facts and overall tone should remain consistent, so employees are never left contradicting the organisation's public position without even realising they are doing so.
Practical coordination usually means briefing internal audiences just before, or at the very same time as, external statements go out publicly, rather than well after the fact. Even a short internal note simply acknowledging that a situation is unfolding gives employees something accurate to rely on before external coverage inevitably reaches them first through other channels.