Throughout each crisis, one of the fundamentals is really good internal coordination and communication. Facts are hard to gather; particularly early on. So, keeping the team and leadership connected and on the same page is critical to ensure you have the best information to make decisions, and that you are communicating accurately to your various constituencies.

During most crises, I lead two conference calls per day.

An early call and an end-of-day call. (During high-intensity crises, I’ll add a midday call when necessary.) The goals were to gather information, develop action plans, and track progress. The better our level of connectivity, the better our execution.

If you were on any of those calls with me, you’d hear a few fundamentals:

First, we tackled one topic at a time. You have to stay linear to avoid confusion.

Second, we established clear accountability on who is doing what and when. You want names, times, and dates. Otherwise, you can’t track progress and responsibility.

Third, before each call ends, we always did an “around the horn.” I called on each person, by name, just to make sure I had not missed a data point or something important. It’s both an invitation to speak and an expectation to share needed information as necessary. I never ceased to be amazed at what we learned through this process. It was always a reminder that some folks simply don’t speak without being asked to do so.

Fourth and finally, before the call ended, I repeated the highlights and key takeaways from the call, the action steps decided upon, and the expectations heading into the next call.

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