‘Aviate, navigate, communicate’
I was watching this video titled “Airline Pilot Breaks Down Airplane Scenes from Movies” by GQ when the expert, commercial airline pilot Viktor Fors, got to the part where he commented on Sully (2016) and he mentioned those three words.
“There is a basic rule that all pilots in the world know, that we have to follow. It’s the ‘aviate, navigate, communicate’ rule,” he said.
Sully (2016), directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Tom Hanks, is based on the true story of Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, who made an emergency landing of US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River in 2009. After both engines were disabled by a bird strike shortly after takeoff, Sully heroically landed the plane in the river, saving all 155 passengers and crew on board. The film focuses not only on the miraculous landing but also on the intense investigation that followed, where Sully's decisions were questioned.
In the context of the movie, aviate is the part where Sully, as a captain, takes control of the plane, saying ‘My aircraft’ to First Officer Skiles (played by Aaron Eckhart). In this part, the highest priority is to keep the airplane flying and under control. Then, comes the navigate stage where they work together as a team to assess the situation and continue identifying the failure. Once that is done, Captain Sully communicates with the Air Traffic Control (ATC) about the problem to try and get help.
Aviate, navigate, and communicate as Sully did in the movie are part of crisis management. According to Ian Mitroff (1994), crisis management is the process by which an organization prepares for major unexpected events that pose significant threats to the organization’s operations and its stakeholders. Essentially, crisis management is the overall process of preparing for, responding to, and recovering from crises.
Another crucial part of managing a crisis is effective communication. While crisis management focuses on mitigating the immediate and long-term impacts of a crisis, crisis communication ensures that accurate information is disseminated, stakeholders are informed, and the organization’s reputation is protected.
Like Sully, there are ways that you can implement the ‘aviate, navigate, communicate’ principle in your crisis communication tactics.
1. Aviate
In Sully, ‘aviate’ means keeping control of the aircraft before doing anything else. In public relations, this translates to managing and stabilizing the crisis before focusing on communication.
During this stage, several key actions that you need to take are:
- Assess the severity of the crisis. Before releasing any statements to the public, as a company, we need to understand the situation fully. This includes identifying the root cause of the crisis and evaluating the potential impact on the organization.
- Contain the damage. Take immediate steps to mitigate the crisis, whether that is resolving the issue, halting operations, or ensuring public safety. Without control over the situation, communication can easily backfire.
- Activate your crisis team. According to Smartsheet, a crisis team might consist of subteams such as the command team which directs the whole crisis team and coordinates with executives; an operations team which handles the tactical operations in the crisis response; a planning and intelligence team whose task is to gather, analyze, and share information on the crisis, where crisis communication plays a major role; to finance team that tracks and documents all costs and expenditures of the crisis response.
2. Navigate
Once you have a firmer grasp of the situation and mitigate the immediate risks, you can start planning the strategy of where the ‘plane’ is going.
- Develop the crisis communications strategy. This includes determining what messages need to be conveyed, stakeholders mapping, and deciding on the channels you’ll use. Start delegating tasks to the crisis team that you have established to prevent bottlenecks.
- Craft key message. Clear, honest, emphatetic, and consistent; these are the things that you should keep in mind when coming up with the key message. Your messages should address key concerns, convey the actions you’re taking to resolve the crisis, and express empathy for those affected. Ensure consistency across all communication platforms to avoid confusion.
3. Communicate
By this stage, you should have every information available about the crisis at hand. You have also developed a strategy and key message to be conveyed. So what is left to do is execute the messaging and communicate it to other stakeholders. Several things to keep in mind:
- Be transparent and timely. Prepare your assigned spokesperson and start communicating as soon as you have the facts and strategy in place. Delays or silence can lead to speculation and misinformation.
- Maintain ongoing communication. Crisis situations are often dynamic and ever-changing, so you must keep stakeholders informed as new developments occur. Provide updates regularly to demonstrate that the situation is being handled. Remember to communicate consistently across all channels and ensure everyone in the organization is aligned with the messaging.
- Monitor feedback and adjust. Your job is not done yet! Track public and media reactions, and be prepared to adjust your communication strategy based on feedback or new information. Two-way communication is key to building trust during a crisis.
At Praxis, in addition to supporting clients with their public relations efforts, we specialize in guiding them through crisis situations with strategic and effective communication. Working closely with companies, we develop key messages tailored for various stakeholders, including the government and regulators. These messages form the foundation for press materials such as standby statements, press releases, and anticipated Q&A. In certain cases, we even conduct media briefings or press conferences to provide further clarification.
Furthermore, we also prioritize feedback by continuously monitoring the crisis, particularly after implementing crisis communication strategies. This involves tracking coverage in both traditional and social media, as well as leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to monitor real-time conversations.
In conclusion, the ‘aviate, navigate, communicate’ principle is a useful basis for navigating crisis situations. However, be mindful that it may not always be linear, sometimes, you need to cycle through the steps to fully address the issue. By applying the ‘aviate, navigate, communicate’ rule, you ensure that your actions are prioritized effectively: first by controlling the situation, then planning a strategy, and finally communicating with the public and other stakeholders.
Ever encountered a crisis yourself? Looking for someone to discuss how we, as public relations practitioners can handle the ‘communicate’ part better? Feel free to reach out to jessica@praxis.co.id!