Thomas A. Cole, ‘75, Discusses His Book “Collaborative Crisis Management”
Five Questions with Thomas A. Cole and Paul Verbinnen, authors of “Collaborative Crisis Management: Prepare, Execute, Recover, Repeat”
All organizations face crises from time to time, and at a time when news, information (or misinformation), and rumors can spread quickly, a timely and thoughtful response to a crisis, is critical. In Collaborative Crisis Management, two industry insiders offer a primer on how organizational leadership should prepare for and handle crises. We spoke with them recently about the steps, plans, and cautions they offer about how organizations can deal openly and honestly with challenges while continuing to survive and prosper.
You are both extremely experienced crisis advisors, but from different angles—Tom from Law and Paul from communications. How does this come together in the book and how do you think it differentiates it from other crisis guides one might find?
We both recognized early in our careers that collaboration across relevant disciplines and reconciling different perspectives was key to achieving the best outcome in any crisis. Much has been written about handling crises, but most of the work centers around “war stories.” We have tried to present a practical hands-on guide to organizing and preparing to be effective when a crisis happens and to answer the kinds of questions we often get from clients in a crisis.
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