Where Media Meets Communication
The biggest AI reputational risks I’m seeing inside organisations right now:
I’ve advised leadership teams through all four in the last 12 months.
The fix isn’t just technical – it’s cultural and procedural.
Every team, from comms to legal to IT, needs to know their role before it happens.
In 80% of crises I handle, the damage isn’t caused by the event itself
It is caused by what is said or not said in the first 24 hours.
I have seen small incidents spiral into national headlines because leaders guessed their way through the response.
I have also seen major crises vanish from public conversation in days because the messaging was prepared in advance.
Crisis communication is not spin.
If you want that level of readiness for your organisation, we should talk now, not when the crisis has already arrived.
You don’t need to go viral
You need to stay credible.
The next headline won’t care how many views your last post got.
What matters is
A tech founder I worked with had all the right metrics online. But when their product failed and the media called they froze.
The polish cracked. The trust dropped.
In crisis comms, reach is nice. But reputation is everything.
Build that. And everything else follows.
After following my son onto a roller coaster, I realised something about crisis leadership.
I have led crisis teams through events watched by millions.
I have guided CEOs through live interviews knowing the wrong phrase could cost them everything.
But on a rollercoaster in Florida, my youngest son was the leader.
I just followed.
It reminded me that in a crisis, leadership is not always about the job title.
It is about the person with the calm, clear head when everything feels like it is going off the rails.
I have been that person in the middle of breaking news and corporate storms.
It is why organisations keep me close before they need me.
If you do not have someone like that in your corner, you are leaving it to chance.
And chance is not a strategy.
There’s one question I’ve asked in dozens of boardrooms, training rooms and crisis management rooms over the years.
No matter the sector, the size of the organisation or the titles in the room – it always changes the energy.
I usually wait for the right moment. The conversation is flowing. People are confident. They think they’re prepared.
Then I ask it.
“What’s the one thing you’ve not told me that you hope no one ever finds out?”
It’s not about digging for secrets. It’s about surfacing risk. Because that’s usually where the real vulnerability lives and where the real comms work begins.
You cannot build a credible crisis comms strategy without being truly honest about what would do the real damage, if revealed.
That one question has shaped entire strategies. It has revealed gaps, rebuilt trust and prepared teams for headlines they never thought they’d face.
What’s the hardest question you’ve ever had to ask a client or a leader? I’d love to hear.
At Mangold Consultancy we help teams prepare for crisis situations through practical communication training. Get in touch to find out more
Global Media and Entertainment; Health, Sports and Fitness; High Street Brands, City Law Firms and Entrepreneurs. Over the last 12 months we’ve trained senior leaders from some of the world’s biggest and most successful brands.
When we pivoted to virtual media training, we never imagined the roll call of people we would work with. And yet a year on, we have had a privileged and unique insight into a diverse roster of senior leaders from many industries.
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