Fight, Flight or Freeze: Knowing your crisis comms reflex
Last week, a friend of mine called for some advice. We’ve all been in a situation where an email has landed, or the phone has rung and the journalist on the end of the line has mentioned a story they’re wanting comment on.
I was listening to this episode of No Such Thing As A Fish over the weekend, and they were discussing how the two Fs – Fight or Flight – have been joined by four more Fs: Freeze, Fawn, Fine or Faint. At the same time, I was thinking about communications in crises and how each of us has an instinctive reaction on how we should respond.
So, when that email lands, or that journalist rings, we need to first acknowledge our gut response. When this happens to you, what’s your initial instinct?
- Fight – do you want to rebut?
- Flight – do you want to delay or deflect?
- Freeze – do you feel paralysis?
- Fawn – do you lean on relationships?
- Fine – do you accept and absorb?
- Faint – do you completely shut down and miss the window?
It’s really important. As communications professionals, this can shape our entire response to a crisis, and ultimately can have far-reaching consequences.
There can be a lot of pressure, and that’s why understanding our own reaction is paramount – so we can be intentional and deliberate, keeping the organisation’s best interests in mind rather than reacting on reflex. Rushing into a rebuttal, for example, can turn a one-day story into a week-long one.
None of the above is a plan, or a way to respond. There are a number of tactics we can prepare for different, difficult and challenging scenarios to ensure we can shape narratives as best we can.
If your instinct is Fight, then you will want to practice discipline around reframing the narrative, not rebutting point-by-point. Remember: if you’re explaining, you’re losing. And never repeat the criticism directly – this only gives it even more air.
If your instinct is Flight or Faint, then are you able to get ahead of the story? There are often early warning signs before anything becomes formalised – can you use that time to your benefit and take the wind out of their sails?
If your instinct is Freeze, you could be preparing reactive lines in advance. These are pre-agreed and pre-approved, so that paralysis has nowhere to take hold: the decisions have already been validated, so instead it’s a case of implementation.
If your instinct is Fawn, you should know which relationships can be useful, over those which are just avoidance. Who can you call to help give your organisation’s perspective? Who can you trust with additional context?
And if your instinct is Fine, you need to distinguish between whether something genuinely doesn’t need a response or whether you’re telling yourself it’s fine because taking action feels harder.
When my friend called me to explain the situation, my initial reaction was that they should Fight. Yet real situations often draw on more than one tactic, and after I gave the story some space, I reflected on reshaping the narrative and landed on an approach that would – at the same time – move the narrative forwards, rather than dwelling on the past.
But as a story carrying real risks, I also started to think about reactive lines, so that we could quickly respond to future questions on the topic too.
At its core, our job as communicators is simple: to promote and protect an organisation’s brand, its values and its reputation. We might not be able to choose our gut reaction, but we can choose what we do with it.
So, the next time you’re on the frontline of a communications crisis, take a breath, step away for a moment and let the story sit with you – then breathe out and reflect on your gut reaction, and get to work.