Imagine you worked at a diamond mine and a shaft collapsed, or a hostage situation arose. These were some of the (imaginary) crisis situations that were presented by the Flow Communications team as part of an extended media training programme at Petra Diamonds.
Flow has put a total of 30 managers through their paces at Petra’s Cullinan and Kimberley operations, as well as at the company’s South African head office in Bryanston, Johannesburg.
“The training is highly immersive, which is where its real benefit lies,” says Flow’s Colin Ford, one of the team members who presented the training. “Until you’ve been set upon by a pack of journalists baying for answers, you cannot possibly know what it feels like. It can render even the most confident person dumbfounded.”
For the media and crisis management training workshops, Flow teamed up with Camilla Bath from Eyewitness News and Jeremy Maggs from eNews Channel Africa to provide the Petra Diamonds managers with an accurately intimidating simulation of their engagement with the media during a crisis.
Petra Diamonds finance director David Abery says he found the training to be very useful: “To experience a complex interview situation, rather than the more gentle media we’re used to, was very beneficial.”
Cathy Malins, Petra Diamonds corporate communications manager, who is based in the UK, explains that the sessions formed part of Petra Diamonds’ ongoing management training programme.
“It was a good opportunity for the whole team to work together in a simulated crisis situation. It really brought the individual strengths of each person to the fore,” she says.
Cathy adds that the outcomes of the training will be fed into Petra Diamonds’ global communications strategy.
Gert Klopper, communications manager: operations, says the training proved highly beneficial to everyone who attended.
“Based on the success of the sessions in April and May, we will seriously consider making this training a regular part of the development calendar for the Petra Diamonds group,” he says.
