Crisis Communication and Reputation Management Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Public Relations Managers, Corporate Communications Managers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 9 Nov 2026 Course code SD-PRC-032

Before you join: Participants should have practical experience in communications, public relations, customer communication, risk, operations or stakeholder engagement.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

A crisis can move from an operational incident to a public trust issue within hours. Product failures, data breaches, executive misconduct, service disruptions, workplace incidents and regulatory investigations can trigger scrutiny from customers, employees, regulators, investors, communities and journalists. Communications teams must establish facts under pressure, advise decision-makers, protect affected people, respond credibly and prevent inaccurate information from setting the public narrative.

This course develops the judgement, planning methods and communication discipline needed to manage high-stakes incidents. Participants assess reputation risk, map stakeholders, activate a crisis communications structure and build messages that acknowledge concern without speculating or creating avoidable legal exposure. They use Situational Crisis Communication Theory, stakeholder salience analysis, message mapping, media response protocols and social listening methods. The course also addresses spokesperson preparation, employee communications, regulator relations, misinformation, post-crisis recovery and evaluation.

Instruction combines short practitioner briefings with cases, group analysis, message drafting, media simulations and facilitated incident-room decision making. Participants work through realistic scenarios such as a cyber breach, product safety recall, executive allegation and public-service disruption. They leave with a practical crisis communications toolkit, including a stakeholder map, holding statement set, message map, crisis response checklist, monitoring dashboard and recovery action plan that can be adapted for their organisation.

The course suits communications and public relations professionals who contribute to incident response or advise senior leaders during sensitive events. It is also valuable for risk, operations, customer experience and public affairs managers who need to coordinate communications decisions with operational, legal and stakeholder requirements.

What you will be able to do

  • Assess reputation exposure using stakeholder salience analysis and a crisis risk register
  • Build a crisis communications plan with governance, escalation routes and approval controls
  • Develop holding statements and message maps for uncertain and fast-moving incidents
  • Apply Situational Crisis Communication Theory to select appropriate response strategies
  • Prepare spokespersons for hostile interviews, press conferences and broadcast questioning
  • Manage stakeholder communications across employees, customers, regulators, partners and communities
  • Monitor media and social channels using issue tracking, sentiment coding and escalation thresholds
  • Design post-crisis recovery plans using evaluation findings, corrective actions and trust measures

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Greater confidence advising leaders during uncertain and high-pressure incidents
  • Practical language for holding statements, apologies and corrective-action updates
  • A repeatable method for prioritising audiences and communication decisions
  • Stronger spokesperson briefing and hostile-question handling skills
  • Evidence for improving organisational crisis readiness and response procedures

For your organisation

  • Faster approval and release of accurate initial crisis communications
  • Clearer coordination between communications, operations, legal and executive teams
  • Reduced risk of conflicting messages across media, employees and customer channels
  • More credible engagement with regulators, affected communities and key partners
  • Documented recovery actions that support trust rebuilding after an incident

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can identify reputation exposures and define the communications preparations required before an incident.

  • Reputation value drivers mapped across stakeholders, services, markets and jurisdictions
  • Trust equation applied to credibility, reliability, intimacy and self-orientation
  • Corporate character, conduct and communication assessed for expectation gaps
  • Material issues ranked through stakeholder salience: power, legitimacy and urgency
  • Early warning indicators drawn from complaints, media, employee channels and regulators
  • Reputation risk register links events, stakeholders, impacts, owners and controls

Participants can establish crisis communications roles, escalation routes and decision controls.

  • Crisis team roles defined using incident commander and communications lead accountabilities
  • RACI matrix assigns drafting, approval, release and monitoring responsibilities
  • Escalation thresholds distinguish routine complaints, issues, incidents and organisational crises
  • Decision logs capture facts, assumptions, approvals, actions and outstanding questions
  • ISO 22320 principles inform command, coordination and information management arrangements
  • Legal, operational and communications advice reconciled through structured briefing meetings

Participants can establish verified facts and prioritise communication with affected stakeholders.

  • The 5W1H briefing method separates confirmed facts from assumptions and rumours
  • Affected groups segmented by harm, information need, influence and communication access
  • Stakeholder maps identify primary, secondary, internal and third-party audiences
  • Information gaps assigned to operational owners with timed update commitments
  • Duty-of-care considerations shape communication with harmed or vulnerable groups
  • Communication sequencing protects affected people before wider public announcements

Participants can draft clear, defensible messages for the first hours of a crisis.

  • Message maps organise headline statements, supporting points and proof sources
  • Holding statements acknowledge incidents without speculation or premature attribution
  • CERC principles guide empathy, action, risk explanation and update commitments
  • Apology choices distinguish regret, responsibility, remedy and prevention commitments
  • Plain-language editing removes jargon, ambiguity, defensiveness and unsupported assurances
  • Question-and-answer documents anticipate stakeholder concerns, hostile claims and information gaps

Participants can select response strategies that match responsibility, harm and stakeholder expectations.

  • Situational Crisis Communication Theory matches response posture to responsibility attribution
  • Victim, accidental and preventable clusters shape apology and compensation choices
  • Deny, diminish, rebuild and bolstering strategies tested against available evidence
  • Corrective-action statements specify ownership, timing, verification and affected stakeholder support
  • Values-based decisions tested against prior commitments, conduct and public expectations
  • Message consistency checked across executive, customer service, media and digital channels

Participants can prepare spokespeople and manage media engagement under sustained scrutiny.

  • Spokesperson selection considers authority, empathy, credibility and subject-matter knowledge
  • Interview briefs define objectives, key messages, red lines and evidence sources
  • Bridging techniques redirect difficult questions toward relevant, verified information
  • Flagging and hooking methods make priority messages clear and memorable
  • Press conference protocols cover opening remarks, question order and closing commitments
  • Broadcast interview review examines tone, body language, pace and answer discipline

Participants can monitor digital discussion and respond proportionately to misinformation and stakeholder concerns.

  • Social listening queries track brand, incident, executive and misinformation keywords
  • Sentiment coding distinguishes concern, anger, support, confusion and malicious content
  • Rumour-control protocols verify claims before correction, amplification or escalation decisions
  • Channel matrices assign response formats for websites, social posts, email and messaging
  • Community management guidelines distinguish genuine complaints from coordinated hostile activity
  • Screenshot and timestamp evidence preserves deleted posts and evolving public claims

Participants can coordinate sensitive communications with employees, regulators, suppliers and partners.

  • Employee briefings prevent internal rumour cycles and unauthorised external commentary
  • Regulator notifications distinguish statutory reporting duties from public communication requirements
  • Partner communication packs align distributors, suppliers and outsourced service providers
  • Customer service scripts explain disruption, remedy routes and escalation arrangements
  • Union and workforce representative engagement addresses safety, welfare and operational concerns
  • Confidentiality boundaries protect personal data, investigations and commercially sensitive information

Participants can coordinate communications decisions as incident information, scrutiny and pressure increase.

  • Incident injects test fact verification, escalation, message approval and release timing
  • Communications cell prioritises audiences using impact, urgency and dependency criteria
  • Media enquiry logs record deadlines, questions, responses and follow-up commitments
  • Approval bottlenecks identified through timed decision and publication sequences
  • Cross-functional briefings resolve conflicts between operational, legal and reputational priorities
  • After-action reviews capture decision quality, communication gaps and improvement actions

Participants can plan reputation recovery and improve crisis communications readiness after an incident.

  • Recovery narrative connects corrective action, independent assurance and stakeholder evidence
  • AMEC Integrated Evaluation Framework links outputs, outtakes, outcomes and organisational impact
  • Trust indicators track confidence, recommendation, complaint patterns and stakeholder sentiment
  • Post-incident review distinguishes immediate fixes from structural prevention measures
  • Lessons-learned reports assign owners, deadlines, resources and assurance checks
  • Ninety-day application plans schedule plan updates, training and stakeholder engagement

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Crisis communications plan template
  2. Stakeholder salience map
  3. Holding statement library
  4. Crisis message map
  5. Media response checklist
  6. Ninety-day readiness action plan

Who should attend

  • Public Relations Managers — responsible for protecting reputation during sensitive incidents
  • Corporate Communications Managers — coordinate internal and external response communications
  • Media Relations Officers — handle journalist enquiries and prepare organisational spokespeople
  • Public Affairs Managers — manage regulator, government and community communications
  • Customer Experience Managers — communicate service failures and recovery commitments credibly
  • Risk and Operations Managers — align incident decisions with stakeholder communication needs

Skills and tools covered

Crisis response planningStakeholder communicationMedia interview handlingMessage developmentSocial listeningReputation recovery

Tools and standards

Situational Crisis Communication Theory, ISO 22320, Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication, AMEC Integrated Evaluation Framework

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short briefings to introduce methods, followed by case analysis, facilitated group work, message drafting and timed response simulations. Participants assess incident facts, prioritise stakeholders, prepare statements and make communications decisions as new information emerges. Media interview practice focuses on question handling, bridging, empathy and disciplined language. Facilitated reviews examine what strengthened or weakened each response. Individual application planning helps participants adapt the methods, templates and approval controls to their own organisation.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical experience in communications, public relations, customer communication, risk, operations or stakeholder engagement. They should understand their organisation's usual approval process, key audiences and communication channels. Familiarity with media relations, incident management or social media monitoring is helpful but not essential. The course assumes confidence writing short professional communications and participating in group discussions. No prior crisis management qualification, legal training, media spokesperson experience or specialist monitoring software knowledge is required.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

Participants should have experience in communications, public relations, stakeholder engagement, operations or risk-related work. No previous crisis management qualification or spokesperson experience is required.

Participants should bring a laptop or tablet if possible, along with their organisation's public crisis policies, communication protocols or recent incident examples where sharing is permitted. Sensitive documents are not required.

It is suited to communications, public relations, media relations, public affairs, customer experience, risk and operations professionals. It is particularly useful for people who may advise senior leaders or coordinate communications during an incident.

Media training concentrates mainly on spokesperson performance, while business continuity training focuses on maintaining operations. This course connects incident response, stakeholder priorities, crisis messaging, media relations, digital response and reputation recovery.

Participants leave with reusable planning and response materials that can be adapted to their organisation's approval routes, audiences and channels. The final module also produces a ninety-day readiness plan for updating communications arrangements.

Each day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides about 6.5 contact hours. The programme progresses from readiness and governance through messaging, media handling, digital response, simulations and recovery planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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