crisis-communication_skill

Overview

This skill offers practical frameworks, templates, and checklists for communicating during company crises. It focuses on speed, honesty, clarity, and empathy to preserve trust and minimize confusion. Use it for layoffs, pivots, funding issues, executive changes, and customer-impacting incidents.

How this skill works

The skill outlines a communication hierarchy and audience-specific guidance so you know who to tell first and what to say. It provides ready-to-use scripts and templates for all-hands, investor updates, board briefings, and customer notices, plus a three-stage checklist for before, during, and after any announcement. Follow the four rules—be fast, be honest, be clear, be human—and adapt the templates to your context.

When to use it

• Announcing layoffs or role eliminations
• Announcing a strategic pivot or product change
• Communicating funding shortfalls or runway concerns
• Responding to PR, security, or service disruptions
• Delivering executive departures or leadership changes

Best practices

• Tell those directly affected first, then leadership, employees, board/investors, customers, then public
• Prepare managers and FAQs before any all-hands or group announcement
• Lead with impact for each audience: what happened, what you’re doing, what it means for them
• Be concise and factual; avoid corporate spin and changing stories
• Commit to follow-up and make a clear timeline for updates

Example use cases

• A CEO preparing an all-hands script for a planned reduction in force
• A founder drafting a concise investor email about delayed fundraising
• A head of customer success composing a customer-facing outage note with timelines
• A COO briefing the board with facts, options considered, and clear asks
• A product leader announcing a strategic pivot and outlining role impacts