Define the key messages for public figure controversy management and hold to them under pressure.
Designing Strategies to Manage Media Controversy Around Public Figures
A senior-level treatment of public figure controversy management, focused on what changes outcomes.
📍 Tunis🗓️ 5 training days📚 4 modules🎓 Accredited certificate
5intensive training days
4scientific modules
8training sessions
32detailed points
Course Overview
Journalists covering public figure controversy management are working to a deadline you do not control. Internal audiences learn about controversy management from the news unless you reach them first. Cases are chosen to expose the trade-offs in the communications and media practice capability rather than to illustrate ideal conditions. Field experience suggests that the barrier to better public figure controversy management is rarely technical. Plans for this area of communications and media practice often fail at the handover point between functions. The programme converts controversy management from an area of general awareness into a set of repeatable practices. The course leaves participants able to diagnose weaknesses in public figure controversy management before they become incidents. Participants who influence controversy management without directly controlling it will find the content directly usable. Participants leave with a plan for the communications and media practice discipline sized to what their organisation can realistically absorb.
Expected Learning Outcomes
Manage communication with regulators and officials about controversy management.
Establish what evidence would demonstrate that public figure controversy management is under control.
Recognise early indicators that controversy management is drifting away from its intended design.
Align public figure controversy management with the wider objectives of the communications function rather than optimising it in isolation.
Write materials on controversy management that a journalist can use without rewriting.
Protect the personal reputation of leaders associated with public figure controversy management.
Who Should Attend
Operations staff who encounter the consequences of public figure controversy management directly.
Internal communications staff explaining controversy management to employees.
Experienced practitioners formalising an approach to public figure controversy management that has grown up informally.
Spokespeople and executives who speak publicly about controversy management.
Investor relations officers communicating public figure controversy management to markets.
Community relations staff engaging stakeholders about controversy management.
Course Modules
Public figure controversy management: measurement beyond coverage volume
2 sessions · 8 pointsSession 1Coordinating public figure controversy management across markets and languages
- Write down the assumptions underpinning the approach to public figure controversy management.
- Decide what will be stopped to create capacity for controversy management.
- Anticipate the objections public figure controversy management will raise and prepare the answers.
- Agree what will be standardised in controversy management and what will not.
Session 2Correcting a false story about controversy management without amplifying it
- Identify where judgement in public figure controversy management is legitimate and where it is not.
- Review whether coverage of controversy management changed anything that matters.
- Confirm that contractual obligations around public figure controversy management are understood.
- Rehearse the hostile interview on controversy management with a real challenger.
Controversy management: monitoring, sentiment and early warning
2 sessions · 8 pointsSession 1Apologising for controversy management credibly
- Check that public figure controversy management still works when volumes rise unexpectedly.
- Prepare the holding statement for controversy management in advance.
- Debrief after each significant episode involving public figure controversy management.
- Agree the indicators that will show whether controversy management is improving.
Session 2Who decides what during a crisis involving controversy management
- Archive every statement issued on public figure controversy management with date and approver.
- Identify single points of dependency in controversy management and reduce them.
- Sequence internal notification about public figure controversy management ahead of external release.
- Set out how exceptions to controversy management are requested and approved.
Controversy management: internal audiences and sequencing
2 sessions · 8 pointsSession 1Building the method for controversy management step by step
- Set escalation thresholds for public figure controversy management that work out of hours.
- Name the crisis roles for controversy management and confirm authority to speak.
- Identify the journalists who actually cover public figure controversy management and what they need.
- Localise messaging on controversy management without fragmenting it.
Session 2Answering the hostile question about public figure controversy management
- Set the response time target for enquiries about public figure controversy management.
- Map the handovers in controversy management between functions and secure them.
- Assign responsibility for keeping documentation of public figure controversy management current.
- Agree who signs off statements on controversy management outside working hours.
Controversy management: spokesperson skill under hostile questioning
2 sessions · 8 pointsSession 1Keeping controversy management alive after the initial push
- Plan the recovery sequence after a reputational event involving public figure controversy management.
- Decide in advance when to correct misinformation about controversy management and when not to.
- Define what success in communicating public figure controversy management looks like, numerically.
- Prepare the acknowledgement for controversy management that does not evade responsibility.
Session 2Reviewing controversy management when nothing has gone wrong
- Verify six months later that changes to public figure controversy management have held.
- Configure monitoring that flags coverage of controversy management within the hour.
- Benchmark the organisation's public figure controversy management against comparable operations.
- Set out the decisions in controversy management that require sign-off and by whom.
Choose the package that suits you
Silver Package
At least 3 people
USD1,250
- Workshop or Program Participation
- Airport Transfers
- Customized Badge
- Expert Mentorship (Private Sessions)
- Supervision & Secretarial Services
- Accredited Certificate of Participation
- Complete Training Kit
- Coffee Break
- Closing Ceremony
Gold Package
At least 3 people
USD1,850
- 5-night stay in a 5-star hotel
- Workshop or Program Participation
- Airport Transfers
- Customized Badge
- Expert Mentorship (Private Sessions)
- Supervision & Secretarial Services
- Accredited Certificate of Participation
- Complete Training Kit
- Coffee Break
- Closing Ceremony
Complete your registration
We will contact you within one business day to confirm.