Crisis Communications Playbook Checklist

A crisis communications playbook should help leaders make decisions while facts are incomplete and pressure is rising. A contact list or a folder of statements is only part of that preparation. The working plan needs to explain who acts, who decides, how information is verified, and how the organization communicates with the people affected.

Use this checklist to review an existing plan or define the work needed to build one. For each item, record Ready, Needs work, or Not applicable, together with an owner and a next action. A plan is ready to use only when the people responsible can find it and carry out their roles.

1. Define activation and decision authority

  • Activation triggers: Specify the events or developments that require escalation. Distinguish an ordinary complaint from a material reputational issue or an operational emergency.

  • Decision owner: Name the person authorized to activate the communications response and define the decisions that need executive approval.

  • Alternates: Assign backups for the decision owner, communications lead, spokesperson, and critical fact owners.

  • Escalation route: State how to reach the response team when normal channels or business hours are unavailable.

Working record: [Trigger] · [Who assesses it] · [Who decides] · [Backup] · [How the decision is recorded].

2. Connect communications to the operating response

A communications plan needs a reliable view of what the organization is doing. Establish the connection with operations, leadership, legal, HR, security, IT, and other relevant teams before an issue occurs.

  • Response roles: Separate responsibility for addressing the incident from responsibility for explaining the response. Identify where the roles meet.

  • Fact collection: Name the people who can verify material information and the route for unresolved questions.

  • Shared working record: Maintain one current situation log with timestamps, sources, decisions, and open questions.

  • Access: Confirm that authorized response-team members can reach the plan and working records through an alternative channel if a primary system fails.

Current plan and access location: [Location] · [Owner] · [Backup access method].

3. Identify audiences and information needs

  • Affected people: Identify who may experience harm, disruption, uncertainty, or loss of trust.

  • Internal audiences: Plan how employees, managers, and relevant leaders will receive accurate information.

  • External audiences: Consider customers, partners, investors, communities, journalists, and other stakeholders relevant to the situation.

  • Audience owners: Assign a contact owner and communication route for each priority group.

  • Practical needs: Record what each audience needs to know or do, rather than sending the same announcement to everyone.

Audience record: [Audience] · [Immediate concern] · [Information needed] · [Contact owner] · [Channel].

4. Establish the message and approval process

  • Initial communication: Prepare a structure that acknowledges the issue, identifies confirmed information, explains action underway, and provides an update route.

  • Uncertainty: State what remains unknown and who is responsible for resolving it.

  • Verification: Require a source and a fact owner for material statements, figures, and timelines.

  • Approval: Specify who approves which communications, how they are contacted, and what happens if the primary approver is unavailable.

  • Consistency: Keep employees, spokespeople, customer-facing teams, and leadership working from current information.

  • Corrections: Define how a material error will be corrected and how the corrected version reaches the same audiences.

Approval record: [Communication] · [Fact owner] · [Approver and backup] · [Required time] · [Version].

5. Prepare the spokesperson and communication channels

  • Spokesperson: Select the person appropriate to the issue and prepare a backup.

  • Interview preparation: Rehearse difficult questions, factual limits, accountability, and the actions the organization can substantiate.

  • Media inquiries: Establish one intake route that records the reporter, outlet, question, deadline, owner, and response status.

  • Publishing access: Test who can update the website, employee channels, customer notices, and other channels the plan relies on.

  • Monitoring: Decide who tracks relevant coverage and stakeholder concerns, and how significant developments reach the decision owner.

Use the Executive Media Interview Preparation Worksheet to prepare a spokesperson for a difficult exchange.

6. Exercise the plan under realistic pressure

A review meeting can confirm that a document exists. An exercise tests whether it works. Choose a plausible scenario, assign the real response roles, and require participants to make decisions with incomplete information.

An illustrative exercise: a reporter gives the company a one-hour deadline to address allegations circulating publicly. Some claims can be verified; others cannot. The primary approver is unavailable.

Test whether the team can:

  • Activate the right people and reach an alternate decision owner.

  • Establish confirmed facts without treating an allegation as a finding.

  • Decide what affected people and employees need to hear.

  • Prepare and approve an accurate response within the scenario’s deadline.

  • Assign the next actions, updates, and unresolved questions.

Exercise record: [Scenario] · [Date] · [Participants] · [What failed or stalled] · [Action owner] · [Due date] · [Retest date].

7. Maintain the working playbook

Assign an owner for the plan itself. Recheck it when leadership, operations, communication systems, stakeholders, or material risks change. Review what an exercise or real incident revealed, then update the plan and confirm that the affected people understand the change.

Plan control: [Version] · [Owner] · [Last review] · [Changes made] · [Next review trigger].

Turn the checklist into a usable playbook

Chase Global develops crisis playbooks around an organization’s leadership, risks, stakeholders, and decision process. Explore Crisis Playbook development or contact Chase Global.

Sources and further reading

This is a proposed Chase Global review framework. The checklist structure and working records are original to this draft.