Mike Tyson said it best: everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face. He was talking about boxing. He could have been talking about crisis planning.
Most organizations have some version of a crisis plan. A binder. A shared drive folder. Maybe a flowchart someone made three years ago. And almost all of them make the same mistake: they plan for what they think will happen. They write down the likely scenarios, map out the responses, and call it done. That’s bare minimum. That’s planning for the punch you can see coming.
There are three levels of crisis preparedness, and most organizations stop at level one.
Level one is the binder. You’ve identified the scenarios, written down who does what, maybe drafted a few holding statements. This is table stakes. It makes auditors happy. It does not prepare you for anything you didn’t already predict.
Level two is getting punched in the face. Real simulation. Spokespeople on camera. Curveballs mid-exercise. A journalist who doesn’t play nice. You find out where your team breaks before a real crisis does it for you. This is where organizations learn something.
Level three is getting punched a second time and measuring the difference. Did you adapt? Did you freeze? Where did communication break down? Where did it hold? You take what you learned and build it back into the plan. The plan evolves based on what you actually experienced, not what you assumed.
Most organizations are still at level one. They have a plan they’ve never tested, for a crisis they probably won’t face, managed by spokespeople who’ve never been under real pressure.
Find out where you break before the cameras do.