Louise Pay, PhD MCIPR
CRISIS ADVISOR
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You already know what you should do.
You've read the frameworks. You've been in the training. You understand, intellectually, that you should stay calm, assess the situation clearly, and respond with intention.
Then the moment arrives... a colleague challenges you in front of the team. A complaint lands on your desk. A situation starts to spiral. And the gap between knowing and doing becomes very, very clear.
"If you don't have this skill, you won't be able to effectively implement a plan... no matter how explicitly someone outlines the steps for you."
DR. LOUISE PAY, MCIPR
This course is built on what I have observed in my crisis management work: When professionals fail under pressure, it's because they lack the internal capacity to deploy their knowledge about managing difficult situations.
This is the skill AI cannot replicate
AI can generate a crisis communications plan. It can draft a response, map stakeholders, and outline a strategy. What it cannot do is sit in a difficult room, read what's actually happening beneath the surface, regulate its own emotional response, and make a judgment call that holds up under scrutiny.
That capacity is human. It is learnable. And in a world where employers are rapidly outsourcing cognitive tasks to AI, the professionals who demonstrably have it will have leverage that cannot be automated away.
85%
of job success is attributed to soft skills, including conflict management
HARVARD / STANFORD / CARNEGIE FOUNDATION
#1
skill employers say is hardest to find in candidates at all levels
LINKEDIN WORKPLACE LEARNING REPORT
0%
of this skill can be outsourced to AI; it requires human judgement in the moment
REPUTATION SKILLS POSITION
What the course builds
Three interconnected skills, drawn from crisis management practice, adapted for the professional conflicts you face every day.
Read
Most people respond to what they think is happening, not what is actually happening. This module builds the capacity to distinguish between the two and work strategically with both. This is the skill that separates reactive from effective professionals.
1
REALITY VS. PERCEPTION
Regulate
Emotion doesn't disappear under pressure... and it drives decisions. This module teaches you to recognise what you're feeling, why it's happening, and how to use it as information rather than let it control your response. Including, critically, the ability to be OK with being wrong.
2
EMOTION AS A TOOL
Respond
A plan is only as good as the preparation of the person executing it. This module closes the gap between knowing what to do and actually doing it, building the composure, clarity, and judgment to respond effectively when the stakes are real.
3
EFFECTIVE ACTION UNDER PRESSURE
Who this course is for
This is neither a leadership programme for the C-suite nor an entry-level communication course: this is for professionals in the middle who deal with conflict directly, often without a team behind them.
Managers & Team Leads
You're the first point of contact when conflict surfaces. You need to handle it before it escalates, and without a comms team behind you.
Project & Programme Leads
High-stakes decisions, competing stakeholders, tight timelines. The pressure is constant. The margin for error is small.
HR & People Professionals
You advise others on navigating conflict. This course ensures your own capacity matches the advice you give.
Ambitious Professionals
You want skills that compound over a career and make you indispensable in ways AI cannot replicate.
Built by a crisis advisor
designed for you
Dr. Louise Pay, MCIPR, is a crisis management and communications advisor who works with executives, academics, and public figures at the moment when internal issues risk becoming public reputational crises.
Read, Regulate, Respond is built on what she has observed repeatedly in that work: the gap between having a plan and being able to execute it is not a knowledge gap. It is a capacity gap. And it is a gap that can be closed.
BBC
CLIENTS HAVE BEEN AFFILIATED WITH:
London School of Economics
Yale University
Notre Dame University
University of Cambridge
Stanford University
GE
Syracuse University
Client identities are protected by NDA.
Join the Waitlist
The course will go live only once 100 people have registered their interest. If you're one of them, you'll be the first to know when it launches... and the first to access it.
No spam. No sales calls. Just one email when the course is ready.