Communication Readiness
When the
questions come,
be ready.
Your people deserve clear information.
Your team deserves a plan they can use.
I help your team build a communication plan, decide who speaks and approves messages, and practice what to do before a real incident.
Start with a real situation
starts before the moment.
A moment to think ahead
The first few minutes.
Put yourself in the moment.
Choose a situation your team could face. Four questions. No score. Just a chance to think it through, with guidance when you want it.
Illustrative scenario
Your service is down.
The cause is still being checked. Your staff and the people who rely on you need an update.
“People are calling. What can we tell them?”
Keep your own organization in mind.
Question 01 of 04
Who needs to hear from you first?
If this happened tomorrow, whose phone would ring first?
Show a starting point
Think about the people affected, the staff answering questions, and any partners who need the same information.
Start by naming who needs information, and what they need to do.
Where would your team feel confident? Where would it hesitate?
See how I can help
Ringing the bell in remembrance at the 9/11 Stair Climb.
Guidance for your team
Knowing the questions
is a start.
Helping your team answer them is where I come in.
Who speaks? Who approves? What can you say while facts are still developing? I’ve faced these decisions in public information across law enforcement, emergency management, and the fire service, and spent five years teaching public information with TEEX.
I can help your organization clarify responsibilities, build practical communication plans, and exercise them together, so your people have something dependable to draw on when the questions start coming.
Know who depends on you. Identify the people, partners, and relationships that need attention.
Make the plan usable. Clarify roles, approvals, channels, and the next update.
Practice it together. Work through a scenario, learn where the friction is, and improve.
The readiness cycle
Readiness
keeps moving.
A question your team hesitated over gives us somewhere to begin. These six stages connect understanding your needs with building, practicing, and maintaining readiness. They also guide the app’s development. Select a stage to explore.
People.
Plans.
Practice.
Stage 01 / 06
Assess
Understand where you are today.
Look at your people, plans, relationships, and resources. Identify strengths and the arrangements that need attention.
As people, risks, and circumstances change, maintaining readiness brings you back to assessing it.
Firebase Communication Readiness
Research-informed development
Connected plans.
A clearer path
to action.
The app is being developed around the full readiness cycle. Connected strategic, crisis, and social media communication plans are one part of that continuing work.
Guided sections, saved workspaces, and editable review documents support the work of gathering information, clarifying responsibilities, and preparing a draft for your organization to review.
The app remains in development. Public access will be shared here when it is ready.
Connected planning paths in the development build
Strategic communication
Establish priorities, audiences, responsibilities, and the outcomes your communication should support. This foundation connects the supporting plans.
Crisis communication
Work through activation, verified information, authority, coordination, and updates before an unfolding situation puts them to the test.
Social media communication
Connect channels, content, listening, and a manageable communication rhythm to your strategic priorities and crisis arrangements.
Drafts support local review and decisions. Your organization confirms its own facts, responsibilities, and approval.
From information to action
Sending a message
is only the beginning.
Can people receive it, understand it, trust it, and use it to decide what to do?
Firebase’s development is informed by a cross-hazard study of public information and communication readiness in major disasters from 2001 through 2025.
The study examines documented strengths and breakdowns in authoritative incident reviews, from how organizations handle information to how people receive and act on it.
The research is ongoing. Source verification and review are guiding the development of the capability model.
A separate tool in development
The 2 A.M.
Readiness Check
Eight questions about the decisions that cannot wait: who can approve an update, who can step in, how people will hear from you, and whether your arrangements have been tested.
This short Gap Check is separate from the connected planning app. It is also in development; access details will be shared when it is ready.
You can start while the tools take shape
What would help your
people feel more prepared?
Tell me where communication gets difficult for your organization. We can start with a conversation about your people, your plan, and what needs attention.
Start a conversation