Crisis Leadership Blog
Insights and perspectives on being the lighthouse during a crisis.
Manage Smarter: Coronavirus Crisis Communications
Join hosts Audrey Strong and C. Lee Smith as they speak with Kith founder Bill Coletti on Crisis Communications in the current pandemic.

Thankful in a Thankless Year
I’m thankful that so many strategic communicators and companies have recognized the critical importance of “always be communicating” with your audiences who matter most.

Hacking Humans: The Public’s Expectations are Changing
Converstation with Bill Coletti, crisis communications and reputation management expert at Kith, and author of the book Critical Moments: A New Mindset for Reputation Management.

Social Risk Webinar Recap
The public’s expectations of corporations and brands are higher, and writing a check to a cause or saying “that’s not our lane” won’t cut it anymore. Even a well-crafted statement is not enough. Actions must follow words.

Top Tips for Running Crisis Management Simulations
Crisis simulations are a sure fire way to build “muscle memory” of response and action that can be deployed during an actual crisis impacting you or your organization. We believe simulations are one of the most effective tools in a communication team’s toolbox. Here are some Top Tips for running your own crisis simulations.
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

Crisis on the edge – Part II
Critical takeaways Nature doesn’t have clear-cut edges and neither do crises. Taking an edgeless, long-term view of a crisis improves our ability to learn after an event and also helps us prepare and improve our actions beforehand. Here are five ways that an ‘edgeless’ mindset will help you better prepare and give you a significant advantage in the period...

Leadership Happy Hour: Critical Moments With Bill Coletti
"If you don't like what people are saying, change the conversation." -Don Draper (AMC's Madman Series) The quote I have above is one of my favorite quotes of all time. We live in a time of immediacy of communication. People know what's happening when it's happening and it's up to us, as leader's to stop acting tactically and start being strategic in how...

The Modern Leadership Podcast: Reputation Management with Bill Coletti
Bill Coletti sits down with The Modern Leadership Podcast host Jake Carlson to share his insights and expertise on reputation management and dives in deeper on strategy while sharing best practices for crisis response and planning. LISTEN NOW

Crisis Edges
Critical takeaways Situations in nature that appear to have clear edges are often more complex and blurry at the boundaries. This is the same in a crisis where there isn’t as clear a start and end as we might think. Thinking about crises as ‘edgeless’ allows us to learn more which improves our crisis response and may even prevent similar situations in the...

Crises as infinite games
Critical takeaways Infinite games are games where the objective is to excel and to pursue a worthy goal over the long term. Finite games with set structures and a winner/loser are limiting and ill-suited to long-term success. These two ideas are encapsulated in Simon Sinek’s book The Infinite Game and Sinek’s ‘infinite’ mindset is very similar to what we...

2018 Blog Recap
In addition to seeing what we can learn from the biggest issues of year, at Kith, we also like to conduct an annual review of our own writing. This is a good opportunity for us to reassess our thinking and to make sure that our core values and beliefs are properly reflected in our writing. I wanted to share these with you as an end-of-year recap of our...

2018 Crisis Year in Review
Critical takeaways Social media still matters. Companies must have a presence and use these platforms in a crisis. Pre-closure is the new disclosure. Be proactive, ‘take the trash out’, be clear about what you stand for and get out in front of the issue. Data breach is a waning public concern but still needs to be appropriately managed. These situations...

Crises Require Active Engagement
Critical takeaways Success in a crisis requires active engagement by the organization's senior leadership. Active decision-making is key to success and this is supported by active monitoring of the media landscape. Active preparation shouldn't be mistaken for overreaction. The eventual decision could still be ‘do nothing’ but an active stance ensures you...

Crisis EQ versus Crisis IQ
The best crisis managers I have seen have both a high Crisis IQ and a high Crisis EQ.

Staying on course: follow your crisis rhumb line
Critical takeaways In sailing, the rhumb line is the shortest, most direct route between Point A and B. However, external factors such as tides, weather or obstacles seldom allow ships to take this direct route, and they must compensate for these factors. Businesses in crisis also need a clear sense of their endpoint - the Point B on their crisis rhumb...
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.