Leaders and strategic communication advisors make thousands upon thousands of decisions during their tenure. This blog post will focus on ways to approach situations and develop a strategy to handle media inquiries, incidents, and crises.

Executives need a way to receive information when something is going on. This could be an official news inquiry, a viral social media post, or an email from a community member about a situation. Once an executive receives the information, they need a way to assess it, formulate a plan on how to deal with it, and execute the plan (strategy). Once the response is provided, leaders need to evaluate the effectiveness of the messaging strategy to see if additional information needs to be disseminated.

The approach I have used over my more than two decades of executive experience was taken and modified slightly from the military. The A.C.E. principle that is engrained throughout military service stands for Assess, Choose, and Execute. The modification for law enforcement executives includes:

• Assess the information, incident or crisis.
• Choose a plan (also known as a path strategy).
• Execute the path forward (disseminate your messaging through the appropriate channels).
• Evaluate the strategy and plan (determine if anything else should be modified or released).

This Strategic Thinking A.C.E. principle can be applied universally in a myriad of situations that law enforcement organizations experience. For example, if you’re made aware of a controversial force video that is appearing on Facebook, applying the A.C.E. principle will provide the facts needed to properly assess the situation, choose a way to deal with the incident, and respond to the public. Once those elements of the A.C.E. principle occur, evaluation will determine the effectiveness of the initial strategy to see if tweaks or modifications are needed.

I know this sounds incredibly simple. That’s because it is. We operate in fast-paced environments. As such, leaders and strategic communication advisors need a way to reconcile inquiries and get in front of evolving situations that could undermine community trust. A.C.E. provides a framework to proactively push a message or reactively respond to media or public outcries.