Add Politics to Your Crisis Playbooks

Is your 2024 political cross hairs crisis playbook ready? In the past year, we have seen the largest brands serve as targets for candidates seeking higher office. Candidates stand ready to exploit a political divide for headlines and at your company’s expense. You are trying to do the right things but it appears as if there is no winning path. Your company is charged with doing the wrong thing when all you thought you were doing was ensuring a diverse and inclusive workplace or addressing the economic impacts of climate change. The largest brands are prime targets to drive campaign headlines. Companies and organizations of any size are vulnerable. This trend will only continue to increase between now and the 2024 election. Many company responses have been confusing or flatfooted. One possible reason why is that while they have “crisis playbooks” for most every other sort of major crisis, they may not have had playbooks and deep earnest internal discussions about their positions in advance of a politician’s challenge. The issues, the cross hairs, and the willingness of politicians to use big companies and organizations to gain headlines are all predictable. Just as a company needs a good philosophical conversation about whether to pay ransom in a cyber-attack before a cyber-attack ever occurs, these same conversations about how to respond to national political discussions should be happening right now. Scenarios and responses are predictable. No battle plan goes unchanged, but deciding to fight a war without one, is folly. Public relations and government relations leaders need to step back and reassess. Maintaining alignment between what you message to your employees and to external stakeholders is critical. It’s time to update your playbooks to recognize your company’s need to anticipate cross hairs. Hoping you will be left alone is a bad risk management practice. You might still need to weather the storm, but at least you will have decided upon a path.