Good afternoon
My objectives are to create an awareness in each of you of what a public crisis is, how to protect yourself from a crisis, how to manage a crisis, and how to get one behind you if and when it occurs.
First of all what is a crisis? What are the qualities that bring you to a crisis point?
Puts your organization potentially in a bad light.
• Reputation or brand damage.
• Significant public impacts – broad or narrow
• High media and public interest
• Significant organizational change or turmoil (strike, lay offs, CEO change)
• Internal cause or external.
For the purposes of this discussion we are going to keep it to an unplanned event of major public impact or interest that presents a significant risk.
In a crisis situation the most important phase is the first 24 hours of the first news cycle.
Do that first 24 hours right what follows will be a lot easier to manage. Make a mistake and you may never get out from under it.
Let us consider a scenario:
A building collapses, killing 3, you are the company that built the building and unnamed sources have told the media that faulty construction is to blame. You have 6 reporters en route to your offices.
What do you do next?
The media are demanding someone to speak with. They are becoming increasingly aggressive. Do you speak with them or not?
Why would you want to talk to the media?
No obligation but you should. If the media don’t talk with you they will talk with
someone else. This story is going to be written and it is better to get your message out than that of an employee, competitor, victim, etc.
When should you say it? The media want an answer now.
How should you say it? Statement, news release, media conference where you will face questions you likely can’t and shouldn’t answer.
Who should say it?
What are you going to say?
You are under pressure, reacting to an event, you haven’t got much time and you don’t know what to say, who’s going to say it, when, where or how it’s going to be said.
You’ve got 30 minutes to figure it out.
The easiest thing to do is say “no comment” It’s your right to do that but it looks like you’ve got something to hide. You might say you need to consult with your lawyers before speaking but then it looks like you’re guilty of something.
You could wait until tomorrow but that doesn’t help you with today’s story. The press will write and air something.
What you are going to do? You now have 28 minutes to put something together that is going to reflect well on your organization, not put you into any more trouble.
The first thing to do is
Don’t panic.
Accept the basic fact that in a crisis situation there will be more things that you don’t know than you know.
While it may sound contradictory, you need to say something immediately but buy some time in managing the crisis.
The objective is to be prompt, establish some basic principals with the media and not make the situation worse. And don’t get bogged down into details.
It’s a tall order but there are three basic things you should do in your initial media encounter, and two things you should not do in a crisis communication environment.
Here are the three things that you should do.
1) Establish some empathy. Acknowledge the seriousness of the situation, indicate your take it seriously, and offer condolences if people have been hurt or killed.
2) Commit to getting to the root of the problem. If there is an external investigation by the police or regulatory agency commit your full cooperation with that
investigation.
3) Commit to preventing an incident like this from happening again if new and better methods are found.
That third one is a bit touchy because in a liability situation legal counsel might say that is admitting fault. He or she might be right and while I work with lawyers frequently, I believe a commitment to a solution is important. It offers reassurance to the general public that you are committed to ensuring whatever happened doesn’t happen again.
Secondly, the lawyer’s job is to win in the courts. My job is to win in the public forum. A liability case might take years to be heard but the court of public opinion renders a verdict every day. It’s up to the client in the final analysis but my recommendation is just as you wouldn’t want me doing your legal work don’t let lawyers do your
communications.
So here’s what your response should contain. Empathy, cooperation in finding the problem and a commitment to preventing it from happening again.
So with our collapsed building the response might go like this.
“First of all let me offer my condolences to the family and friends of the people who were killed in this tragic event. Our prayers and thoughts are with those who were injured.
We take situations like this very seriously. While we don’t know what caused this to happen, our company will be cooperating fully with the authorities who are conducting the investigation.
Should that investigation reveal new and better methods for our industry to do this kind of work, we shall use that information to do whatever we can to prevent something like this from happening again.
If your initial response contains nothing but these three elements then you’ve done fine.
Not brilliant but fine.
It’s far more important to not make any mistakes in those first 24 hours than to present a brilliant response. If you make a mistake in the first 24 hours you will live with it for a very long time to come.
Let’s talk about the things you shouldn’t do and the common mistakes.
Don’t be defensive in your words, tone or posture. Don’t declare your innocence, no one is going to believe you. You also don’t know for an absolute fact that you’re not at fault.
Secondly, don’t try and blame someone else even if it is a legitimate and factual statement.
Finally, do not attempt to answer speculative or hypothetical questions. Once you start answering the “what ifs” then you are going to say something that will put you in a bad light. Not answering speculative questions with the media is good advice at the best of times. A related question is “ruling out or ruling in” something or other. Stick strictly with the facts as you know them.
If you don’t absolutely know the answer to a specific question then don’t answer it.
There is nothing wrong with saying “I don’t know” or “that is a question we can’t answer at this point.” if you don’t know the facts and then bridge back to your key messages of empathy, cooperation and commitment to the future.
It is better to say less and be absolutely sure about what you are saying then to run the risk of being perceived as lying. This is important in all media relations, it is even more so in a crisis situation.
So to review:
Empathy, cooperation, commitment to a solution.
Don’t be defensive, blame someone else or answer hypothetical questions.
I’d also recommend that you issue a written statement. Not all the media who might cover your story may call you directly. Issuing a public statement on paper to media outlets through the various wire services ensures that your message gets out.
Now having done your media encounter, not made any mistakes and got your
messages out about empathy, cooperation and commitment to a solution do you think your task is complete?
There are other audiences you have to think about.
The first is your employees. You need to give them the same messages and request that if they are approached by the media that the refer the calls to your spokesperson..
If you have clients contact them and let them know what is about to take place. It is better for them to hear it from you than learn about it by reading the paper.
Consider informing your local government officials and regulatory agencies. If this becomes a prominent public issue they may be under pressure to comment and the risk of a government over reaction is not small.
Be prepared to answer questions from the public yourself.
Anticipation, Preparation, the Crisis Audit.
A crisis is often unplanned but it need not be unanticipated. Is your organization ready and prepared for a media crisis if it occurs?
Do you have a spokesperson who is trained to handle a crisis communication?
If you work for a manufacturing company and you spill toxic materials into a stream do you have a plan in place BEFORE it happens that will get you through the difficulties?
Do you have the connections in the community that will help you through the difficult process?
How is your current situation with the public and media? Have you done the right things in advance of a crisis?
You know your own business. You know your vulnerable points. If you haven’t looked at them already maybe you should. Think of the absolutely worst thing that could happen and then start considering your response now. Even a half-formed plan is better than the plan you have to put together under the stress of a crisis.
Finally, and this is my best advice to avoid a crisis, do the right thing. Protect yourself from a crisis situation by making the internal changes that prevent an event from turning into a critical situation. If your industry has standards meet or exceed them. If you cut corners in pursuit of profit you may get away with it. But if the worst happens it will be a lot less profitable to pay lawyers, communications consultants and large court
settlements.
Make yourself invulnerable to a crisis. Do the right things to prevent them from happening but be prepared for them when they do.