CMC — Crisis Management and Communication
Managing Threats to Strategy and Reputation
The Crisis Management and Communication (CMC) discipline deals with crises that are managed primarily by senior management and at a strategic level of the organization. ICOR courses in this discipline teach how to manage a crisis and how to communicate effectively.
Request the proposalInstructor and school credentials
Courses in this track
CMC 2050Crisis Communication Planner
Communicating to preserve your reputation
- Course hours
- 16h
Who it's for: Those who work in public relations, communications and those responsible for planning communications before, during and after a crisis.
Understanding the elements of communication during a crisis or incident is an essential planning component for all organizations. This course provides valuable information on how to protect an organization's reputation, the role of the spokesperson(s), message development, how to write the communication plan, and includes a crisis communication plan template. Protecting the organization from threats to its reputation requires careful, thorough and detailed planning, as well as a methodology to instill a culture of organizational crisis preparedness and of what must be done, after a crisis has passed, before the next threats occur.
Course content — 5 sections
Reputation
The concept of reputation and its vulnerabilities is essential to crisis communication planning. We will examine the value of preserving an organization's reputation and then examine how reputations are strengthened and weakened.
The role of the spokesperson in a crisis
The spokesperson is the person who runs toward the “burning building” while everyone else is evacuating. To manage this person, you must first understand the importance of media training for a spokesperson as you learn the attributes of a spokesperson.
Message development
Developing the right message for the right audience at the right time is as much an art as a science. We will prepare you for the science. In the practical exercises, you will develop the art. You will learn to craft strong, common-sense and verifiable messages that you can state and defend.
The Crisis Communication Team
The Crisis Communication Team executes the plan, but its members are often unwilling, untrained or unprepared to successfully complete their tasks. We will discuss the team's composition and the individual roles of each member.
Writing the Crisis Communication Plan
The second day of the course will be devoted to the details of building a Crisis Communication Plan. We will list the essential elements that must be included in a Crisis Communication Plan and show you the specific questions you should ask and the documents you should examine to build a plan. We will identify in detail what to do and what to avoid when responding to a crisis event. Finally, we will discuss how to evaluate communication performance before, during and after a communication crisis.
CMC 5000Crisis Management & Communication Professional
- Course hours
- 24h
Who it's for: Ideal for management responsible for leading their organization during a crisis, public sector personnel, professional communicators and those in public relations or public affairs.
Understanding the elements of crisis management and communications is crucial to adapting and responding appropriately when dealing with an incident. It is important for any company to have an understanding of Crisis Management, as it represents the greatest threat to an organization's survival. This can only be achieved by adopting a management philosophy that includes the prevention of potential crises, the mitigation of those that occur, and recovery and restoration after a crisis. The importance of effective crisis communications cannot be underestimated. Internal and external messages need to be crafted, and spokespersons trained. Who speaks to the media? What do they say? Crisis communications planning ensures that your organization is in control of what the public and stakeholders hear, to protect its reputation. The course includes sample policies and templates.
Course content — 8 sections
The discipline of crisis management
- A. The discipline of crisis management
- B. Defining a crisis for your organization
- C. Characteristics of a crisis and crisis scenarios
- D. Crisis management principles
Understanding the Impact of Reputational Damage
- A. The Importance of Reputation
- B. Identifying potential causes of reputational damage
- C. Reputation risk mitigation
- D. Rebuilding from reputational damage
Developing a crisis management capability
- A. Crisis management structure
- B. How structure and design impact the response
- C. How culture affects your crisis management capability
- D. Crisis management and competence
The Crisis Management Process
- A. Crisis readiness
- B. Techniques for forecasting change
- C. Issue identification and emerging issues management
- D. Crisis response
Managing Crisis Communications
- A. The role of crisis communications
- B. Crisis communication principles
- C. Crisis communication strategies
- D. Managing stakeholder communications
The Crisis Communication and Management Plan
- A. Essential policies and documentation
- B. Managing information during a crisis
- C. Transitioning from response to recovery
- D. Joint plan content - procedures
Crisis leadership and decision-making
- A. Leadership skills in crisis management
- B. Crisis leadership model
- C. Strategies for leading during a crisis
- D. Decision-making in a crisis
Teams and their role in managing a crisis
- A. The crisis management team
- B. Crisis management team structure and roles
- C. Resource management
- D. Managing team conflict and stress
Syllabi and course hours per CURSOS ICOR_CE_CMC_05 26.pdf (Rev. MAI 2026).