Most organizations assume their crisis communications plan will function as intended. However, many of these plans fail to account for real-world delays, stakeholder confusion, or platform-specific risks. As a result, well-documented procedures often fall short when at the most critical time.
Consider the early hours of a reputational incident. The internal response is delayed by outdated contact lists. External messaging stalls due to unclear approvals. Meanwhile, social media escalates the issue. By the time the organization responds, the narrative is no longer in its control.
In this blog, we highlight 10 most overlooked issues in your crisis communication plan and how to correct them.
1. Unclear Chain of Command
Crisis plans often list team members and their roles but fail to define who has final decision-making authority. This causes internal delays and fractured responses. OpenAI’s leadership crisis in 2023 revealed the risk of moving without a coordinated communication plan. They lacked a clear internal chain that caused confusion among the stakeholders and customers.
Organizations can easily prevent this by formalizing a decision-making structure for crisis conditions. Identify who owns final approvals, who speaks externally, and who coordinates internally.
2. Outdated Stakeholder Contact Lists
Many organizations find themselves unable to reach regulators, media contacts, or partners because their contact databases are outdated or decentralized. Delta’s 2024 operational failure is a classic example of this.
As a business, you must keep stakeholder contact information updated with the same rigour as financial records. A centralized system with regular audits ensures that every team has access to accurate data, even under pressure.
3. No Plan for First-Mover Narratives
Without clear messaging, stakeholders turn to third-party sources, often amplifying misinformation. Even leadership will hesitate, and within hours, social platforms will accelerate panic that ultimately contributes to your institution’s failure.
Our team of former journalists and PR strategists works alongside executive leadership to anticipate narrative risks, craft high-impact messaging, and ensure your brand leads and is heard correctly.
4. Inadequate Internal Communication Protocol
It’s quite common for companies to prioritize external messaging while neglecting internal communication. It’s often regarded as secondary but actually leads to reputational fallout.
Your employees are your internal stakeholders and must be treated as a core audience in any crisis. Internal updates should precede public releases and include a clear channel for questions, clarifications, and leadership presence.
5. Lack of Platform-Specific Messaging
A formal press release may satisfy legal requirements, but it often fails on social platforms where tone, speed, and directness carry more weight. Make social media, email, investor briefings, and internal dashboards integral parts of your strategy as each demand different expectations.
6. No Simulation of Real-Time Volume
Many crisis exercises test procedures but not pressure. In a real scenario, teams face hundreds of inquiries, shifting facts, and overlapping approvals. Delta’s 2024 IT outage highlighted this challenge when systems and communication staff became overwhelmed by volume.
Stress-testing should include simultaneous requests, time constraints, and real-world volume to ensure systems and personnel can keep up.
7. Over Reliance on External PR Counsel
Outside advisors offer valuable guidance, but excessive dependence can create operational drag. When internal teams defer every communication decision to external counsel, responses slow and opportunities to lead the narrative are lost. Communication and legal teams should work within clear pre-approved frameworks that enable timely action without requiring external approval at every step.
8. Untrained Spokespersons
Without active executive media training and scenario-based preparation, even senior leaders may underperform. Executives must participate in regular mock interviews, hostile questions, and real-time scenarios to help build the confidence and clarity required in high-stakes situations.
9. No Red Team Review
In April 2025, CS Energy failed to respond effectively to an incident due to internal communication flaws that had gone unchallenged for years.
Red team reviews offer an independent test of crisis resilience. These sessions uncover blind spots and challenge assumptions before they become public failures. Involving senior leaders who operate outside the daily response structure helps surface strategic weaknesses early.
10. Failure to Document Learnings Post-Crisis
Once a crisis resolves, many organizations shift their focus back to daily operations without formally reviewing what occurred. As a result, the same gaps resurface during the next incident and push the company into deeper scrutiny.
Post-crisis reviews must evaluate the effectiveness of messaging, leadership response time, internal coordination, and external perception. Report key findings at the executive or board level to ensure visibility and accountability.
Feel Supported During A Crisis
Partner with Verified Communications to strengthen your internal capability and lead with confidence in any scenario. Schedule a free consultation today.
Verified Communications is a Toronto-based public relations and communications agency trusted by startups, founders, CEOs, and business leaders since 2016. We’ve worked with the likes of Gap Inc., Amazon, and Walmart. Now, we partner with clients that demand big-brand thinking without the big agency bloat.
Lean by design and built to scale, we blend strategy with storytelling to make audiences feel something real. Our project and retained services for startups, established brands, and executives include public relations, executive communications, corporate communications, media relations, media training, message development, crisis communications, and thought leadership content development.
