Culture Eats Crisis Communications Plans for Breakfast

Why values, trust and behaviour are as crucial as your crisis communications plan

We all know the theory: crisis communications plans, message grids, risk registers. You might even have a 50-page document detailing what to do when the worst happens. And yes, these tools are essential.

But the reality of a crisis is something else entirely. Time and again, the organisational cracks that appear under pressure aren’t caused by the crisis—and they’re rarely solved by the plan. More often, they’re the product of a culture that wasn’t strong enough to withstand the strain in the first place.

👉 Crisis preparedness is only ever as strong as the organisational culture that underpins it.

Culture is king. I’ve worked with organisations across the public, private and charity sectors. When the culture is weak, tokenistic, or non-existent, it’s already broken—and no plan will fix that in the heat of a crisis.

You can’t build trust during a crisis if it didn’t exist beforehand. Even the most experienced PR or comms team cannot produce meaningful communications if the culture around them doesn’t empower people to act with integrity under pressure. And let’s be clear: this is not an abstract risk—it’s a consistent pattern.

This is one of the most compelling themes in Rod Cartwright’s Reputation, Risk and Resilience 2025 report—which I reflected on in this blog. It’s also something I’ve witnessed first-hand in organisations of every size and profile.

Why organisational culture is your crisis operating system

Culture is often treated as a soft concept—values, behaviours, purpose. But in a crisis, culture stops being theoretical. It becomes your operating system.

What do I mean by that? Well, you might have rehearsed your crisis plan to the letter. But if your teams don’t feel confident escalating issues, aren’t empowered to act without endless approvals, or are used to blame being the default—your response will fall apart. And quickly.

Your PR, policy and communications teams are strategic enablers. They are your organisation’s experts on how to act, speak and be seen in moments of high pressure. You need to trust them. You need to listen to their advice. You need to foster a low- or no-blame environment that enables fast, clear and values-led decision-making.

What culture looks like in a crisis

A strong culture:

• Encourages early escalation of risks—not silence

• Supports good decisions—even when they’re deeply uncomfortable

• Reinforces clear, consistent communication across the organisation

• Builds credibility that sustains you through reputational pressure

A weak culture:

• Buries problems until they explode

• Rewards risk aversion instead of responsibility

• Produces defensive, fragmented communications

• Exposes leadership gaps and erodes internal trust

In short: your culture is either your strongest foundation or your biggest liability when crisis hits.

Crisis communications without trust is just noise

There’s still a persistent myth that a well-crafted communications response can manage any crisis. It can’t—not on its own.

There are two fundamental factors in crisis response:

1. The cause of the crisis

2. The culture that responds to it

On 1. Briefly: if your organisation is genuinely in the wrong—through a poor policy, bad decision, or failure to act (new or persistent) - then even the best comms strategy will only lower the temperature not solve the problem. PR can provide breathing room to act but if the public or your stakeholders dislike what you’ve done, that’s a job for your executive and board—not your press office.

Turning to 2 - the culture that responds.

Even the most polished messaging will fail if:

• Your stakeholders don’t trust you

• Your employees don’t believe you

• Your behaviour contradicts your values

Nowhere is this felt more sharply than in internal communications. If your people felt excluded or undervalued before the crisis, and that worsens during it, the internal fallout will be swift—and it will show up externally, too. That doesn’t mean every employee needs a seat at the crisis table or that they need to satisfied with the final outcome, they should have some dedicated communication though.

Leaders are paid to make difficult decisions based on multiple inputs—not personal feelings. And sometimes, the professional advice we have to give as communications leaders doesn’t sit comfortably with our personal values. That doesn’t make us unethical—it makes us professionals.

Four critical questions to ask before your next crisis

If you’re serious about strengthening your crisis communications and reputation strategy, ask yourself:

1. Do our leaders know how to lead through ambiguity—not just repeat prepared messages?

2. Do people feel safe raising concerns early—or is risk routinely buried?

3. Are our values visible in how we make decisions under pressure?

4. Is trust something we’ve earned—or something we assume?

If the answers make you hesitate, that’s not a problem. That’s your starting point.

Culture is your crisis comms plan

Good culture won’t replace structure, decision-making protocols or trained spokespeople. But culture is the glue that helps to hold everything together when the pace quickens, the scrutiny increases, and the stakes are high.

If you’re serious about crisis communications, reputation management or organisational resilience, start with your culture. Don’t wait until the crisis to discover whether people trust your leadership—or whether your values actually hold.

📩 Need support to build a crisis-ready culture, prepare your leaders for uncertainty, or embed trust into your crisis PR strategy? Get in touch. At Summit Communications, we support organisations before, during and after the storm.