Crisis Communications Media Training: Lessons from Training CEOs, Presidents, Billionaires and Ambassadors Around the World (Video)

No matter where you are in the world the importance of getting across key messages in a crisis is the same, says David Wagner, President of David Wagner & Company, a media, crisis and business communications consultancy, in the latest Communicators-to-Communicators (C2C) 3-Minute Insights Video.

Wagner who has trained CEOs, Presidents, billionaires and ambassadors around the globe, notes content will change, but the key is to deliver messages in an effective way. 

Although there are cultural differences between countries - in Japan, he notes press conferences may start with a bow as a sign of regret, not necessarily guilt – irrespective of location it is essential to deliver messages that are believable.  As with politicians, when they are not credible, executives get into trouble.

His advice to communicators - to encourage CEOs to be media trained - is to talk about the importance of company’s reputation and highlight the risk of getting it wrong to the company’s brand.

In the video, Wagner shares perspective on one of the techniques he uses to make the lessons from media training stick – have the CEO fail the first time.  It’s important for them to get it wrong to learn lessons from the process.

Wagner is interviewed by Simon Erskine Locke, Founder & CEO of CommunicationsMatch.

Click to watch the video.