Crisis Leadership Blog
Insights and perspectives on being the lighthouse during a crisis.
Speed: The Foundation of Becoming Crisis Confident
In my last blog post, I introduced the concept of Crisis Confidence, and that confidence is born out of speed, clarity, and trust. Over the next three weeks, I want to dig in on each of those elements and give them context and specific recommendations on what you can...

Clarity, Trust, and Speed are the Building Blocks of Crisis Confidence
"The crucible of crisis doesn't develop your skill sets; it reveals them." I've said these words to many leaders over the years, and as people pause and reflect on it, it dawns on them: if they're honest with themselves, they don't think they'll like what the crucible...

Give comms a seat at the table
COVID changed so many of our lives in dramatic and also small ways. For me, one was watching TV. I’ve never been a huge TV person so I’ve been fortunate to have great programs to watch as I focused on sticking close to home. The other night I started to watch a show...

Breaking the Crisis Wheel
Like my Kith colleagues, I cut my proverbial teeth in politics. Not as a candidate, but as a campaign staffer and, later, a political consultant. Campaigns are great places to train for reputation management and crisis communications because everything is a crisis....

Politics is coming for you
Have you ever stood at the grocery store trying to decide which pasta to buy and thought about the CEO of one pasta company making a political statement? You remember you didn’t appreciate what she said, but you really prefer how that pasta cooks. Or maybe you agreed...
By definition, Kith means a cadre of peers who shape opinions and attitudes while instilling sophisticated habits for action. As a way to live this value, we like to share resources that are building blocks to good crisis management and can help you start the path of protecting your reputation.
More Recent Insights

Communicating and Defending a Mask Policy
Critical takeaways: Setting customer expectations is critical to maximizing acceptance of COVID-19 policy changes, and communicating clearly is the key. The reputation risk of mask policies should be evaluated as a balance between the strategic risk of requiring a mask and the preventable risk of someone getting COVID-19 if you do not. Do not over-index...

Along Those Lines: Co-op Communications in Times of Crisis
Stephen Bell, NRECA’s senior director for media and public relations, and Bill Coletti, CEO of the reputation management firm Kith, talk us through their advice on how to plan for, respond to and recover from events that interrupt our normal course of business. LISTEN HERE

Everyone Is Just “Over It”
Critical Takeaways Communicators do not have the luxury of being “over it.” We have to figure out what to say next. Learn to surf when you are stuck in crashing waves. Ask three questions to help create a bigger future. In the spirit of being real, let’s just start here: everyone is just over it. COVID-19 is a drag. I’ve noticed it with our clients, in...

Kith’s COVID-19 Crisis Communications Playbook
Over the past eight weeks, we have hosted a series of webinars sharing our insights, observations, and recommendations for responding to the COVID-19 crisis. We sincerely hope the content we have shared has been helpful to you and the organizations you serve. Our goal from the beginning has been to be of service to our “kith” and generously help as many...

Creating Value as Strategic Communicators
Critical takeaways As a crisis recedes, a strategic communicator needs to focus on how we create value for our organization’s leadership and our teams. Especially now, we receive an overabundance of information, but there’s very little wisdom. Strategic communicators are looked to for clarity in a crisis. Three components – leadership, relationship and...

COVID-19 Crisis Q&A with Bill Coletti
In this webinar Bill Coletti hosts a live Q&A session to answers questions related to COVID-19 crisis communications strategy and tactics. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNIqFPlHtcg&feature=youtu.be You can download the PDF version of the deck here. In the webinar, Bill references a toolkit from Johns Hopkins for businesses considering...

Kith’s 6+2 Framework: Keys to Telling a Reassuring Reopening Story
Critical takeaways Communicating about reopening during the COVID-19 pandemic is proving harder than messaging about closing. Kith’s 6+2 framework can help communicators tell a story that reasonable people expect a responsible organization to tell. In times of uncertainty and anxiety, placing a particular emphasis on empathy, reassurance and transparency...

Kith’s Crisis Frameworks: Real-World Application in the Age of COVID
In this webinar Bill Coletti and Jeff Blaylock : Recap the crisis response models and framework we shared in the past six webinars as part of Kith’s COVID-19 Communications Series. Deconstruct real-world responses and statements from companies who have followed the frameworks and others who have missed the mark. ...

‘Crucial Conversations’: Lessons for Crisis Communicators
Critical takeaways The book ‘Crucial Conversations’ is a great guide to managing high-stakes conversations but it also provides useful guidance for crises. Many of the same techniques the authors advise for critical conversations can be used by crisis communicators to shape messages - externally and internally. Crucially, self-awareness and introspection...

Crafting Hard Messaging: How to Communicate Difficult Decisions
As we continue to face the daily uncertainty of how this pandemic will unfold, there is one thing we know for sure. Companies will continue to make extremely difficult decisions in the weeks ahead and will be faced with communicating those tough decisions to those who matter most. This webinar covers: The importance of conducting a "changed" policy...
The Kith Method
Good crisis management comes from a plan. Great crisis management comes from capability – and starts before you even smell smoke. That’s why we developed the Kith Method. We can help build and maintain a flexible capability that works for you.
Your reputation is an investment; time-consuming and costly to build and expensive to repair. Protect it.