Benjamin Franklin once said, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” While he probably wasn’t referring to a public relations crisis, this mentality can surely be applied to PR. Planning can make the difference between quickly stomping out a fire or going up in flames.

You can never hope to predict every PR blunder—wouldn’t crises be easier if you could?—but there are a few things credit unions can do to make the inevitable less damaging and less stressful.

1. Take a Look at the Past

Crises typically occur without warning and can often have long-lasting effects. How the crisis is handled can negatively or positively affect your organization’s reputation. Credit unions can better prepare for this by looking at the past—both at crises they’ve previously dealt with and those other credit unions have faced.

To quote another wise individual, Winston Churchill, “Those who fail to learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.” So take time to reflect on how those other crises were handled: What can you learn from a successfully resolved crisis? What can you learn from the mistakes? What approach should you take if you’re handed a similar disaster?

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