On this special episode of the Park Leader Show, Dan Cockerell, and former VP of the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World, and Lee Cockerell, retired Executive Vice President of Walt Disney World,  talk about how to handle a crisis.

Here are four steps to keep in mind while dealing with a crisis:

Safety First. Before anything else, the safety of employees, customers, and yourself comes before anything else.

Deal with the Facts. During a crisis people get emotional. People speculate and gossip. You should deal only with the facts when you communicate with people.

Be Empathetic. Everybody is dealing with a crisis in different ways for different reasons. Understand people are worried.

Use the situation to get better. You and your organization can learn plenty from a crisis. Use it as a training opportunity.

During a crisis, your culture is on show for everyone to see. Your actions should match your words. What you say doesn’t build a culture. Culture is built through actions.

Jim Bryson, Deputy Commissioner of Parks and Conservation of Tennessee State Parks, discusses the benefit of leaning on your team and the importance of innovation in how you handle communication across your organization.

Joining Tennessee State Parks from a corporate background in marketing research, Jim has discovered how central building a culture of trust within your organization is. As a leader, you set the pillars and vision, and you lean on your staff to fill in the how to your why. Being confident in your leadership allows you to pull from the experience of those around you.

Jim also shares his experience in starting the first internal podcast dedicated to communication and recognition within the Tennessee State Park staff. As leaders, communicating across a widespread team can be challenging, but it is imperative for building a strong organization. By taping into the deeply held passion for the mission and sharing wins and initiatives, you can meet three key needs: provide information, entertainment, and recognition.

Today’s social media-driven culture is saturated with negativity, politics and sales pitches. From Glacier National Park, Jeff Noel and Jody Maberry discuss the impact of Jody’s “Minute in Nature” moments on Instagram Stories.

Pausing to capture a minute of beauty in nature is a way of taking a moment and quieting ourselves. As Jody shares today, being intentional to put some positivity into the world is good for the soul and can help expose more people to the beauty that is found in the great outdoors, especially national parks.

Join the #minuteinnature movement and share your own minute in nature with the world.