It’s been a rough couple of weeks with all of the coronavirus news.
Just yesterday, CBS News reported the U.S. deaths from the disease have doubled.
To 11.
Now, I don’t want to take anything away from those 11 deaths. That’s horrible. But more people died in the Nashville tornado the night before last.
And maybe it IS double, but it’s certainly not THAT sensational.
All of this sensationalism is causing people to freak out—I mean, Costco is out of toilet paper!
I’m not going to sit here and pretend I haven’t been a little freaked out myself. I’ve been hoarding food (and wine and olive oil) since the 2016 election.
If anyone goes down in my house, we have enough to get a small village by for at least six weeks.
(But not enough toilet paper…I’ll have to start hoarding leaves next.)
And it’s been a topic of conversation both with my internal team and in the Spin Sucks Community:
Melissa Agnes’s newsletter focused on coronavirus and being prepared this week, from a crisis perspective.
There are a few questions she suggests you answer internally, if only to be prepared. Insurance, if you will.
I told my team yesterday that I feel very lucky that we’re already a virtual organization.
Business continuity isn’t a problem for us.
What could become a problem, though, is two-fold:
I also have the added stress that if they do close schools, it’ll be challenging for me to work full days.
There are only so many crafts, sewing projects, puzzles, and reading a six-year-old will do on their own.
It might very well be much ado about nothing.
From what I’m reading, it’s akin to getting a really bad cold or the flu—if you’re healthy and don’t have a compromised immune system.
But it’s highly contagious and it could very easily spread so fast, we’re all sick at once.
For some, that means hospitalization, which they’re fearful our infrastructure can’t handle.
So they may very well shut things down to prevent that.
In Chicago, alone, most of the major conferences held at McCormick Place have been canceled. And United Airlines just slashed their domestic flights.
THAT is what you need to be prepared for.
Yes, be ready to call it if people need to work from home or to stop all travel (not just non-essential) or to cancel your participation in a conference.
And be ready if business comes to a screeching halt for a few days or a week or two.
But what you really need to be prepared for are sluggish second and third quarters.
All of this hoopla is going to affect us this summer—when sales are down and leads are dry because the major events, where a good portion of leads are generated every year, didn’t happen.
If you’re not already, start having conversations with your bosses and/or clients.
Communicators need to be at the table for these conversations, leading them, not just listening and taking notes.
You need to ask the following questions—and get answers:
There should be a series of meetings you’re holding to get answers to all of these questions (and more).
Start with Melissa’s first question in every meeting:
How might coronavirus affect our business? What are the measurable indicators that will alert us when certain thresholds are reached? How has it affected us, so far?
No question is too alarming. In these conversations, the sky should be falling. That’s the only way to truly be prepared.
Hopefully, we can continue business as usual, but hope is not a strategy.
Preparation is key. I don’t know about you, but I’d much prefer to be ready, just in case, then not be ready and have the sky come crashing down on us.
Been there, done that. It’s not fun.
Get yourselves prepared. Force the hard conversations. Lead the communications.
This is your time to shine. It’s not a fun time, but it certainly allows you to step up and take a leadership position, either internally or with your clients.
And, as always, if you need help thinking through things or brainstorming ideas, the comments below and the Spin Sucks Community are there for you.
Gini Dietrich is the founder, CEO, and author of Spin Sucks, host of the Spin Sucks podcast, and author of Spin Sucks (the book). She is the creator of the PESO Model and has crafted a certification for it in partnership with Syracuse University. She has run and grown an agency for the past 15 years. She is co-author of Marketing in the Round, co-host of Inside PR, and co-host of The Agency Leadership podcast.