In Defense of the PR Crisis Playbook

June 30, 2025

Recently, our team was discussing this cheeky article from PR Daily, which declares that the time has come for PR crisis playbooks to die. The article goes as far as to call playbooks PR “sales assets” that are “seldom worth the amount of time and trouble they cost to create.” Hear that? That’s our team’s collective gasp.

 Let’s level set: it’s true that the dusty, doorstopper playbooks of yore, begrudgingly updated once a year, are not going to be effective in a modern-day crisis – much like a Rolodex is no match for our smartphones. As the shapes and forms of risk evolve, so should our approaches to evaluating and mitigating it. But does that mean the crisis playbook needs to die entirely? We say absolutely not – though it can (and should) evolve to meet the ever-changing risk landscape that organizations face today.

We see the true value of a crisis playbook as three-fold:

• It helps ensure your organization’s internal alignment on critical steps and key questions and responses.
• To keep it updated (and therefore effective), you’re forced to pay closer attention to impending risks and issues before they become a crisis.
• It helps build a culture of preparedness.

To further break things down:

#1: It helps ensure your organization’s internal alignment on critical steps and key questions and responses.

I’m in the market for a new car, so recently, I sought advice from a friend who has decades of experience buying and selling cars. His counsel? Before even setting foot in a dealership, write down on a piece of paper exactly what I’m looking for: the model, the trim, desired monthly payment, etc. In other words, he asked me to jot down a mini playbook.

His intention was not to set inflexible rules, but to create a record of my thinking without the influence of the car salespeople, the flashy floor models, and the lure of heated seats and moonroofs.

Likewise, crisis playbooks created in corporate peacetime are representative of your organization’s calm, clear-headed thinking, without the influence of the crisis itself. This is important because crises often invite an enormous influx of stress – at which point, our cognitive abilities are impaired, making it harder to focus, regulate emotions, and make decisions. Having a playbook in place will help prompt and guide your thinking, acting as a crucial baseline for decision-making.

Of course, every crisis is unique. Chances are, the plans in your playbook will need revision before they’re ready for crisis primetime. But I’d much rather be editing a statement I wrote on a calm Tuesday morning with the counsel of my team, versus staring at a blank page rife with panic.

#2: To keep a playbook updated (and therefore effective), you’re forced to pay closer attention to impending risks and issues before they become a crisis.

I was curious what other PR experts thought about the death of the crisis playbook and came across this insightful piece in Forbes, which recommends that every business needs a crisis playbook – and not just for the earth-shattering scandals.

The author focuses instead on micro-crises: “those frequent, seeming minor disruptions that don’t make headlines but drain time, resources and energy.” Cited examples include unexpected resignations, off-brand LinkedIn posts, a missing file during a product launch. The little things that accumulate like lint in your dryer vent, until they become a much scarier hazard.

In the PR Daily article, the idea of having to periodically revisit and revise a crisis playbook to keep it relevant was posited as a waste of time and resources. But I’d argue there’s a huge benefit to doing so – it forces your attention to possible micro-crises that, as the Forbes article warns, can become the mega-crisis.

Modern playbooks should be living, dynamic documents. This means yes, they will require consistent revisiting and revision. But in doing so, you’re keeping your mind nimble and alert to the micro-crises that may be brewing – and hopefully, with the right PR team by your side, mitigating the mega-crisis entirely.

#3: Playbooks help build a culture of preparedness.

 When an organization has a well-maintained playbook in place, it’s a testament to their commitment to preparedness. Although much of the discussion about a playbook’s value is centered around the external benefits, we’d be remiss if we didn’t consider the internal value of such a document.

A culture of preparedness breeds a culture of confidence. It builds trust with your employees and reinforces that there are processes to be followed during moments of extreme pressure. Think of the maps of fire exits in your building. Chances are, you don’t look at them every day, or maybe even at all. But how would you feel living or working in a building without them – without any plan in place, should there be an emergency?

Committing the time and effort (which doesn’t have to be costly!) to maintaining a crisis playbook demonstrates to your employees your belief that your organization is valuable and deserves protection. In the same vein, it sets the expectation that preparedness is part of the culture.

So, is it time to kill the crisis playbook? No, but it’s almost certainly time to breathe new life into it – and in doing so, align internally on strategy, stay alert to risk, and reassure your team that your organization can weather a storm with clarity, confidence, and preparedness.