It will be a long time before we are able to write the complete case study on how BP has handled the oil disaster in the Gulf. But what can we learn from how they’ve handled their message through this crisis?

The most important lesson learned is to expect the unexpected. It’s pretty obvious the oil company never envisioned a disaster of this magnitude. And unfortunately, most higher education institutions also do not plan for the unforeseen. Preparing for the inevitable seems like the most logical thing in the world. And yet, we don’t take the time to draw up a crisis plan for the same reason we don’t write our wills. We assume there will be plenty of time when the time comes. Take it from someone who has lived through the experience many times: you will never see the crisis coming and planning in the midst of a meltdown is not your best option.

So what should your crisis plan include? Here are five suggestions:

• Decide ahead of time who will make the key decisions and speak on behalf of your college. Make sure they receive adequate media training and are skilled in communicating through crisis. And remember that you need a contingency plan in case your key people aren’t available. It took BP more than two months, and way too many gaffes, before they identified the right spokesman for the crisis.
• Keep your message to the media and public simple. Be transparent; BP has committed a series of blunders in answering questions and circulating photo shopped images of the damage. As hard as it may seem at the time, tell the truth and tell it quickly. There are no secrets anymore. Defuse the crisis by making it a one-day story.
• Listen carefully to the public’s perception of the crisis and adjust your message accordingly. BP hasn’t had much trouble getting feedback to its messaging, but response to your crisis may not come through as clearly. Many a campus leader has unnecessarily found himself in trouble simply because he or she did not listen to the storm warnings. Set up a rumor hotline if you must; don’t let anyone distort your message with misinformation.
• Think about building a long-range campaign around your crisis to help re-brand the institution. You don’t need to keep talking about the specific crisis, but you do need to reflect how the situation has transformed your institution. If I was BP’s marketing guy, I would be planning campaigns for years to come talking about the company’s concern and care for the environment.
• And finally, if you’re trying to decide what action to take in the midst of a crisis, forget what the public may think and simply do the right thing. Act quickly and deliberately. In its initial stages, it seemed like BP was watching the crisis unfold along with the rest of us. When mistakes happen, and they do, what the public wants to see is leadership.

When your turn for crisis comes, and it will, it may seem like the end is near, but it needn’t be. Preparation can take a lot of pain out of your problem. Unfortunately, your community or the world is, at the time, focused on your 15 minutes of infamy. What the world will remember, however, is not what happened, but how you responded to the crisis. And the question they will ask is: “Were you prepared for the unexpected?”

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