Challenge
A higher education institution faced internal and external pressure stemming from a legal situation tied to staff contract matters. With both its campus community and the wider public paying attention, the institution needed to be ready for difficult questions, potential press interest, and internal conversations, rather than responding reactively as pressure mounted.
Solution
Red Banyan® was engaged to help the institution prepare for and manage communications through a sensitive period.
- Message Preparation: Red Banyan® developed messaging and holding responses so the institution was ready for potential press commentary and internal discussion.
- Stakeholder Communications: Red Banyan® helped shape clear, consistent communication for both internal and external audiences to maintain trust and reduce speculation.
- Scenario Readiness: Red Banyan® prepared the institution for a range of possible developments, giving leadership the confidence to respond calmly to whatever emerged.
Results
Before the engagement, leadership was bracing for questions it had no agreed answers to, with the risk that different administrators would say different things to faculty, to the campus, or to a reporter. That gap closed. The institution went into the sensitive stretch with holding statements drafted, key messages settled, and a shared understanding of who would say what if the matter surfaced, so that a single off-the-cuff comment couldn’t become the story. Rather than waiting to see what would happen and scrambling if it did, leadership could turn its attention back to running the institution, knowing the communications groundwork was already laid for whichever way the situation broke.