Here you are. Your phone is ringing off the hook, the people around you do not know what to do, and you feel like anything you say or do now will only make the crisis worse.

Crisis communication is something you do before a crisis erupts.

Good crisis communications preparation can ensure that when a crisis does occur, you at least have a structure and a set of agreements to fall back on. Together, we can prepare your organisation for a potential crisis in terms of communications. If your organisation is in crisis, give me a call so I can help.

And when the crisis is over, together we can create a plan for the next crisis.

Actually, the pandemic was expected much earlier! In 2006, the federal government established the Interministerial Commission on Influenza. Fears were high that avian flu would mutate and spread to humans. People not resistant to this new virus would fall ill en masse and public life would be disrupted.

Sounds familiar, doesn't it? The inter-ministerial committee was given the task of creating a contingency plan, and I was in charge of the communications part. A year and many consultations later, the plan was on the table, but the feared pandemic didn't occur at that time.

In early May 2021, it became known that Veerle Heeren (CD &V), mayor of Sint-Truiden, had arranged for herself, some family members and acquaintances to receive accelerated Corona vaccination. The public outcry was justifiably great.

Pressure on Mayor Heeren quickly mounted and a mea culpa was inevitable. Although the mayor had thoroughly prepared her crisis communications with her team, there are some critical lessons to be learned from her pitiful performance on VTM Niews. As a viewer, you immediately notice that her responses are too artificial. She underscores this herself by glancing at her printed preparations during the interview. The fact that her spokesperson also interjects from the sidelines completely undermines the message.

The most painful lesson, however, is that even a thoroughly prepared message cannot straighten out what is askew. The only thing you can do in such a situation is to apologize as sincerely as possible. From the heart, not from a preconceived and defensive preparation.  

Here you can watch the performance of Mayor Veerle Heren again on TV.