The Information Vacuum: How Crises Escalate

When something happens, at first, only a handful of people know. Leadership starts gathering facts. Calls are made. Meetings are scheduled. Legal weighs in. Everyone agrees they need more information before saying anything.

Meanwhile, outside the room, people start asking questions.

An employee texts a colleague. A customer posts online. A reporter makes a call. Someone shares a screenshot. Someone else offers a theory.

And suddenly, the organization isn't the only one telling the story.

That's the information vacuum.

Crises rarely remain static. They grow as new information, stakeholders and events increase attention, uncertainty or concern. And when people want answers they aren't getting, they'll begin filling in the blanks themselves with assumptions, rumors, speculation and information from other sources.

The answer isn't to rush out a statement before you know the facts. Speed without accuracy creates its own risk.

But waiting until you know everything can be equally dangerous.

Often, the better response is simply to establish what you can credibly say now:

Here's what we know. Here's what we don't know. Here's what we're doing. Here's when you'll hear from us again.

That may not satisfy every question, but it establishes the organization as a credible source and buys something invaluable during a crisis: time to learn more without surrendering the narrative.

When a situation begins to escalate before you’re ready to respond, ask yourself: If we're not talking, who is?

It's a principle we reinforce in PRESS POWER | SURGE, our Crisis Communications Readiness & Response Lab:

If you don't help fill the information vacuum, someone else will.

To learn more about The Communications Group's crisis communications services and how we help organizations prepare, respond and recover, click here.