MAINTAINING COMMUNICATION AND PR DURING THE LOCK DOWN PERIOD & THEREAFTER

MAINTAINING COMMUNICATION AND PR DURING THE LOCK DOWN PERIOD & THEREAFTER

- Anabil Bhattacharya

Prologue:

Crisis comes in diverse intensities. As a landscape scale event, the corona virus has created great ambiguity, elevated stress and anxiety, and prompted tunnel vision, in which people focus only on the present rather than toward the future. During such a crisis, when information is unavailable or inconsistent, and when people feel unsure about what they know (or anyone knows), behavioral science points to an increased human desire for transparency, guidance, and making sense out of what has happened.

At such times, a director's words and actions can help keep people safe, help them adjust and cope emotionally, help them put their experience into context - and draw meaning from it. But as this crisis leaps from life-and-death direction on public health and workplace safety to existential matters of business continuity, job loss, and radically different ways of working, an end point may not be apparent. While some may already be seeking meaning from the crisis and moving planning into the next normal, others, feeling rising uncertainty and worried about the future, may not yet be ready for hope.

COVID-19's parallel unfolding crises present Indian leaders with infinitely complicated challenges and no easy answers. Tough trade-offs abound, and with them, tough decisions about communicating complex issues to diverse audiences. Never have executives been put under such an intense spotlight by a skeptical public gauging the care, authenticity, and purpose that companies demonstrates. Leaders lack a clear playbook to quickly connect with rattled employees and communities about immediate matters of great importance, much less reassure them as they ponder about the future.