Few of the ways to maintain and handle the unknown problems in the contingency plan are:
1. Maintain congruency. The fastest way to get into trouble with anyone listening to your story is to be incongruent. Discrepancies stand out. Information reported as facts that don’t seem to fit observations cause people to question your sincerity. This whole planning model is built on your telling a congruent, authentic, believable story. Doesn’t lose the game now in the contingency stage. A good technique, suggested by Dr. Larry Barton, a crisis management expert consultant, is to get clarity about your goal, your message, and your audience. Think through your goal. What is the outcome of your contingency plan? What message do you want to convey while executing your contingency plan? Keep your audience in mind. Who are you trying to reach? Cross-check every angle of your story to look for breaches of continuity.
2. Be prepared. A number of tools can be developed to help you manage perceptions and control damage during a crisis. They include:
- Press kits
- Video news releases
- News conferences
- Documentation
3. Practice for perfection. Prepare for the real thing by practicing as close to reality as possible. There are two scenarios for rehearsals:
- Business Situations. Put together a team and practice simulated situations using scenario scripts. This is a technique that has been around for years. It is highly effective to get teams to think and practice how to respond to specific conditions found in contingency situations.
- Crisis Situations. Rehearsals for crisis conditions are critical. We should have firsthand experience with alert procedures and the necessary actions to get an organization on the move in a compressed time.