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Imagine walking into a crisis room with a complete first-draft playbook—roles, spans of control, holding lines, and a 48-hour plan—ready in minutes. That’s the promise we explore with Chris Hamilton and Peter Heneghan, veterans of 10 Downing Street, BP, and AstraZeneca, and now the co-founders of Albie.ai. Their take isn’t hype: it’s a grounded, human-first approach to using AI as a co-pilot that speeds up the work without sacrificing judgment, empathy, and trust. If you're a comms professional, you won't want to miss this very grounded discussion around incorporating AI into your resource mix.

We talk about why AI in communications is different from past tech shifts. The web and social took years to mature; AI is arriving on top of mature infrastructure and accelerating everything at once. Chris and Peter argue that general-purpose tools like Copilot, Gemini, and Claude have a place, but comms teams also need domain-specific workflows that reflect how we plan, align, and respond—especially under pressure. They unpack their 20‑60‑20 method: set up with context and guardrails, let AI generate structured drafts fast, then apply rigorous human review to ensure accuracy, tone, and strategic fit.

Whether you’re in corporate affairs, media relations, or issues management, you’ll leave with usable ideas to future-proof your function and keep humans at the helm. If this episode sparks ideas or pushback, we want to hear it—subscribe, share with your team, and send us your questions or experiences so we can build on them next time.

Reach Chris Hamilton or Peter Heneghan at https://www.albie.ai/contact

We'd love to hear from you. Email the show at Tom@leadinginacrisis.com.

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Crises don’t wait for perfect plans, which is why Michelle Ehrhart’s mantra—practice makes permanent—hits so hard. Michelle, former VP of global communications at FedEx and now CMO at the University of Memphis, joins us to share the field‑tested playbook behind her new book, Crisis Compass. Tom and Michele share stories from their experiences and dig into the habits that turn panic into poise: understanding operations, running rigorous tabletop drills, and being ready to respond when crisis strikes.

Michelle considers crisis comms a “muscle memory” skill that needs to be practiced over time. That means regular - and impactful - tabletop exercises that help your team maintain an edge and a readiness to engage when the phone rings at 2 a.m.

We also tackle the messenger problem. Not every executive belongs at the podium, and it is your job to protect credibility, not egos. Michelle and Tom discuss how to match the spokesperson to the moment—technical depth for complex updates, empathy for community harm, operational authority for corrective action—and why media training must happen before the cameras arrive. Then they parse “strategic silence”: when speaking fuels someone else’s story, and when going dark—like Volkswagen’s five‑day gap—looks like guilt. The rule of thumb: own your issue quickly with verified facts, next steps, and a specific time for updates.

If you lead communications, manage risk, or simply want a sharper crisis response, you’ll leave with concrete tactics you can put into practice this week. Subscribe, share with a colleague who handles tough calls, and leave a review to tell us which tactic you’ll drill first.

We'd love to hear from you. Email the show at Tom@leadinginacrisis.com.

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A deadly crash at UPS’s Louisville hub put crisis leadership under a microscope—and the first 24 hours told a powerful story about timing, empathy, and restraint. We invited Michele Ehrhart, former VP of Global Communications at FedEx and author of Crisis Compass, to unpack how the early communications played out in this heartbreaking incident.

We walk through the initial statements that landed within hours: awareness first, compassion next, and a clear handoff to the NTSB as the authority on cause and timeline. From there, we explore why “do no harm” is more than a slogan—it’s a filter that keeps leaders from filling silence with speculation. You’ll hear how family hotlines, verified safety guidance, and precise update cadence support trust when uncertainty is high, and why a CEO video isn’t an automatic lever on day one.

Our guest, Michele Ehrhart is author of the new crisis guide book, Crisis Compass, available now. She is Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at the University of Memphis, and also serves as CEO at Hart Communications, a reputation management firm.

We'd love to hear from you. Email the show at Tom@leadinginacrisis.com.