Author: Jonathan & Erik Bernstein

Crisis: an unstable or crucial time or state of affairs whose outcome will make a decisive difference for better or worse (Webster’s New Collegiate).

How many public relations spokespersons does your company have?

The correct answer is, “as many employees as we have.” Sure, any organization can and should have a policy whereby only certain individuals are “officially” authorized to speak for the record. If a reporter calls and you have a designated spokesperson policy, the call will be probably be routed correctly — but that doesn’t prevent your secretary, an intern or a junior executive from giving their version of the facts to family members, friends, PTA members, golfing buddies and anyone else they know.

Internal audiences are as, if not more, important than external audiences during a crisis, and yet those who aren’t actually on the crisis response team often receive the least consideration when the stuff hits the fan. It is vital, during the crisis communications planning process, to formulate key messages not only for employees, but also for others who are close enough to the organization to be considered “internal” — e.g., regular consultants and major vendors. They’re the ones who are going to be asked first, by external audiences (including reporters, when they try to go around you), “what’s going on?”

Here are some tips for preparing internal audiences to be an asset to crisis response:

Develop one to three key messages about the situation which are simple enough for everyone to understand, remember and use in their day-to-day affairs. In an extremely sensitive situation, messages might be nothing more than reassuring statements and “nice no comments” — e.g., “our day-to-day business is completely unaffected by this,” “we know this is going to come out well for us when all the facts are known,” or “we’re a damn good company and I’m proud to work here.”

Brief all employees in person about what’s happening and keep them informed on a regular basis. In-person briefings say “we care about you” in a manner which no memo or internal newsletter can accomplish, although sometimes written communications are the only option. And you don’t want internal audiences to read facts, or alleged facts, in your local newspaper first!

Identify your best “unofficial spokespersons” and your “loose cannons.” The former are employees who you know are loyal, know when to speak and when to keep their mouths shut, and who are admired by their peers; if they feel that they’re receiving accurate information and are being cared for, they’ll pass that feeling on to others along with the key messages you’ve shared. Loose cannons are those who just don’t know when to shut up, whose feelings — sometimes disloyal/disgruntled, sometimes zealously loyal — lead them to communicate not only facts, but rumors and innuendo. During crises, loose cannons need to receive gentle, but firm extra counseling about appropriate communication and/or be particularly well isolated from sensitive information.

Create a rumor-control system. Provide means by which internal audiences can ask questions and get rapid responses. You can designate certain trusted individuals (white and blue-collar) as “rumor control reps” who will field questions and then obtain answers from someone on the official crisis response team. And it’s important to also have an anonymous means of asking questions, such as a locked drop box combined with a bulletin board on which answers to anonymous questions are posted. All employees can be encouraged to use either communication method without fear of reprisal.

Successful implementation of an internal communications program will carry your key message better, longer and farther than most external communications, while a lack of internal communications can completely undermine even the best external strategy. The two can, and must, go hand-in-hand.

——————————-
For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
——————————-

Crises can be divided into three categories:

1. Creeping Crises – foreshadowed by a series of events that decision makers don’t view as part of a pattern.

2. Slow-Burn Crises – some advance warning, before the situation has caused any actual damage.

3. Sudden Crises – damage has already occurred and will get worse the longer it takes to respond.

It is not uncommon for what seems to be a sudden crisis to have actually, first, been a creeping crisis that was not detected. Appropriate measures, early in the process, can often prevent or, at least, minimize the damage from slow-burn and sudden crises.

Below are some examples from the healthcare industry. From this, readers in other industries should be able to develop comparable lists.

1. Creeping Crises

• Lack of a rumor-control system, resulting in damaging rumors.
• Inadequate preparation for partial or complete business interruption.
• Inadequate steps to protect life and property in the event of emergencies.
• Inadequate two-way communication with all audiences, internal and external.

2. Slow-Burn Crises

• Internet activism
• Most lawsuits.
• Most discrimination complaints.
• Company reputation
• Lack of regulatory compliance – safety, immigration, environment, hiring, permits, etc.
• Major operational decisions that may distress any important audience, internal or external.
• Local/state/national governmental actions that negatively impact operations.
• Official/governmental investigations involving your healthcare organization and/or any of its employees.
• Labor unrest.
• Sudden management changes – voluntary or involuntary.
• Marketing misrepresentation.

3. Sudden Crises

• Patient death – Your healthcare organization perceived to be liable in some way.
• Patient condition worsened – Your healthcare organization perceived to be liable in some way.
• Serious on-site accident.
• Insane/dangerous behavior by anyone at a location controlled by your healthcare organization.
• Criminal activity at a company site and/or committed by company employees.
• Lawsuits with no advance notice or clue whatsoever.
• Natural disasters.
• Loss of workplace/business interruption (for any reason).
• Fires.
• Perceptions of significant impropriety that damage reputation and/or result in legal liability, e.g., publicized involvement of company employee in a group or activity perceived to be a threat to the U.S. government or society; inappropriate comments by a “loose cannon;” business activities not officially authorized by management.

Typically, reviewing a list like this triggers thoughts of other situations that need to be addressed during the crisis planning process.

——————————-
For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
——————————-

[The following is an excerpt from my newly published Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training.]

I would love to be able to tell you that with regards to media interview skills, ‘practice makes perfect,’ but that would be disingenuous, a fancy way of saying it would be a lie.

No amount of practice will make you a ‘perfect’ interview subject; similarly, one or two days of media training, alone, will not leave you with lasting skills in this area unless you practice them on your own.

Some job descriptions – e.g., politician, celebrity, Fortune 100 CEO – have a lot of real life interview practice built in. Those individuals and subordinate spokespersons are going to get plenty of opportunity to refine their skills via actual interviews. But most of the people I have trained aren’t in that kind of job; instead, they are designated spokespersons who may not have to handle a really hard media interview for years after their initial training. However, just like a police officer who may never have to shoot a suspect for years after going through the police academy, they still have to maintain their skills so that when they’re needed, they are intuitively available.

Methods of Practice

All methods of practice should:

• Simulate a situation/scenario that, realistically, could occur to you/your organization.
• Simulate one or more of the types of interviews described earlier in the Media Logistics section of this manual.
• Include some method of recording and playing back performance for self- or peer-critique.

There are a wide variety of ways to simulate interviews realistically enough for spokespersons to practice and improve their skills. These include:

1. Re-enact Media Training. Recreate the conditions under which you were media trained (e.g., tripod-mounted video camera of at least moderately high quality, someone to operate the camera, someone to play interviewer).
2. Practice ‘Phoner’ Interviews. Let yourself be interviewed by telephone, which is the mostly likely scenario for most interviews, with video becoming increasingly likely when a crisis is particularly newsworthy.
3. Staff Meeting Practices. Take 15-30 minutes at a staff meeting and put one or more spokespersons on the spot, with other staff members playing the role of media at a press conference.
4. Webcam-Based Practice. You don’t have to have a media trainer return for a full training session to just get some ‘brush up’ practice periodically. Instead, hook up with him/her for an hour or two by webcam periodically. That’s not only useful for routine practice, but also for spot practice right before you have to give an important interview.

I have trained countless executives who claimed to have been trained in the past – but who never practiced. Most of the time, their skills were little better than the novice trainee, and sometimes what they did remember was so out of context that they actually did worse than if they had remembered nothing at all about their past training.

No, media training practice doesn’t make perfect, but it sure as heck makes you a better spokesperson.

——————————-
For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
——————————-

7. Don’t Listen to Your Stakeholders

Make sure that all your decisions are based on your best thinking alone. After all, how would your clients/customers, employees, referral sources, investors, industry leaders or other stakeholders’ feedback be at all useful to determining how to communicate with them?

8. Assume That Truth Will Triumph over All

You have the facts on your side, by golly, and you know the American public will eventually come around and realize that. Disregard the proven concept that perception is as damaging as reality — sometimes more so.

9. Address Only Issues and Ignore Feelings

* The green goo which spilled on our property is absolutely harmless to humans.

* Our development plans are all in accordance with appropriate regulations.

* The lawsuit is totally without merit.

So what if people are scared? Angry? You’re not a psychologist…right?

10. Make Only Written Statements

Face it, it’s a lot easier to communicate via written statements only. No fear of looking or sounding foolish. Less chance of being misquoted. Sure, it’s impersonal and some people think it means you’re hiding and afraid, but you know they’re wrong and that’s what’s important.

11. Use “Best Guess” Methods of Assessing Damage

“Oh my God, we’re the front page (negative) story, we’re ruined!” Congratulations — you may have just made a mountain out of a molehill….OK, maybe you only made a small building out of a molehill. See item 7, above, for the best source of information on the real impact of a crisis.

12. Do the Same Thing Over and Over Again Expecting Different Results

The last time you had negative news coverage you just ignored media calls, perhaps at the advice of legal counsel or simply because you felt that no matter what you said, the media would get it wrong. The result was a lot of concern amongst all of your audiences, internal and external, and the aftermath took quite a while to fade away.

So, the next time you have a crisis, you’re going to do the same thing, right? Because “stuff happens” and you can’t improve the situation by attempting to improve communications… can you?

——————————-
For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
——————————-

DON’T make the media your primary means of communicating on pending or current litigation in progress. Journalists are not a reliable means of ensuring that your key audiences receive your messages, nor is it a reporter’s job to make sure everything you think is important gets to the right people.

DO communicate directly with your important audiences, internally and externally, to ensure they have the information you want them to have about matters being tried in the media.

DO consider the option of informing certain key audiences of the probability of media coverage on a legal matter before it appears in the press.

DO remember that employees are a critical audience — all employees are PR representatives for the organization whether you want them to be or not.

DO integrate legal and PR strategy, because you’ll be educating the jury pool while also minimizing damage that could occur to your organization in the short-term, even if you win the legal case in the long-term.

DO explore the use of publicity about generic or related issues relevant to your particular case or client as a legitimate means of bringing attention to issues that might result in pre-trial settlements, or to develop similar examples to illustrate the issues in your case.

DON’T say “no comment” if you haven’t had a chance to review the case. Say “I’d very much like to comment on this as soon as I’ve read what’s been filed.” If appropriate, add: “I still don’t have a copy of it myself, could you fax or email one over?”

DO tell journalists that you want to respect their deadlines, but would appreciate their respecting your need to have the information you need to make an intelligent response.

DON’T attack the media. Ever. Neither directly, nor in communication with other audiences, because it will get back to them. The media can hurt you more than you can hurt them. Most media outlets LOVE being sued or threatened, it sells more papers or air time.

DON’T judge the impact of media coverage by the sensationalism of headlines or length of news coverage. Ask your important audiences, internal and external, how THEY are reacting to the coverage — in some cases, you’ll find they don’t believe it!

DO consider becoming your own publisher, using the Internet to post your perspective on issues of public concern — IF the general public is, in fact, an important audience for you. Or even on a password-protected website for selected audiences that are important to you.

DON’T assume that you know how to talk to reporters about negative news just because you’re skilled at “good news” interviews — get media trained.

DO establish both internal and external rumor control systems to short-circuit rumors early on, before they do too much damage.

——————————-
For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
——————————-

Welcome to Crisis Management in the 21st Century and to Internet: The Ultimate Medium. A cross between tabloid journalism and a gladiator competition, between Pollyanna and Pandora, where minds meet and merge, clash and clamor, and where you can get more of anything you want than was EVER available at Alice’s Restaurant.

The Internet has become the largest media outlet in our known universe. Interactive print, audio and video communications are all available, with the line between “amateur” and “professional”, “traditional” and “untraditional” media blurred almost beyond ken. This massive medium has spawned what I have been calling “The I-Reporter” since long before CNN started using that term.

Consider these realities:

• Anyone can be an I-Reporter.
• While some I-Reporters compete for commercial gain, others compete simply for the joy of recognition. Just as traditional media reporters want to show up on page one of a newspaper, or at the top of the broadcast news, I-Reporters want their material showing up on page one of a Google search and – better yet – staying there for a while.
• Often, I-Reporters are also their own publishers and site promoters, or work in small teams to provide these functions, and through their skill can get better search engine placement and more attention on the Internet than “competing” entities.
• Search engine ranking has very little – and sometimes nothing – to do with quality or accuracy of content.
• Information posted on the Internet propagates virally – it finds a “home” via links or reprinted pages on websites run by people of like mind, and even misinformation is blatantly re-reported at websites operated by supposedly legitimate organizations.
• Some I-Reporters are constrained by the conditions of their employer, some are constrained by a sense of ethics, and some are completely unconstrained except by law – where it can be enforced.

Throw into that cauldron the fact that the general public still hasn’t fully realized how easy it is to misrepresent information on the Internet, and the witches’ brew has now become the most difficult environment challenging many ethical and honest organizations.

Organizations have always had individuals who disagree with their policies, dislike their products or services, are disgruntled former employees, or just had a bad experience with a receptionist. In the past, unhappy individuals could call or write letters to the company, contact the Better Business Bureau, or even seek the help of their local Consumer Reporter. Today, as or more quickly, they can just launch their own website.

Try this fascinating demonstration, given to me by a client recently. In a Google search bar, enter the word “socks” only substitute a “u” for the “o.” I am being obtuse so that readers’ spam-filters don’t delete this article! There were something like 23 million results as I write this article, and almost all of the first 20 Google pages – 200 entries (which is as far as I looked) – were complaints about companies or products.

How does today’s crisis manager deal with this when his or her organization is under fire? Here are some strategic considerations, offered as do’s and don’ts:

• Do not depend solely on the Web-based tactics to correct information that has been misreported on websites of any kind (Web pages, blogs, wikis, etc.) Use direct-to-stakeholder communications.
• Do your best to balance the results of a search for the keywords important to your organization, but remember that a totally balanced search – just like a totally balanced traditional news story – may be, at best, only 50 percent “your side” of a story when there is any controversy already brewing.
• Do not automatically think that you have to respond to every Internet critic.
• Do monitor critics to see if they either (a) draw the attention of your stakeholders and/or (b) start to achieve high search engine ranking. Then have your crisis team meet to discuss the pros and cons of PR and legal responses which could force inaccuracies off the Web or demonstrate to concerned stakeholders, on your own Web pages and/or through off-line tactics, why they have no reason for concern.
• Do not engage in debates with critics on “neutral” sites which allow such interchanges. There are ways to defuse those bombs that don’t make you a target for yet more negativity.
• Do consider getting more aggressive from a PR and legal perspective if allegations have already propagated widely, with considerable damage and the promise of worse damage.
• Do insist, as the top executive officer of any organization, that legal actions against hostile websites not be implemented without professional consideration of the PR implications, and that PR actions against hostile websites not be implemented without legal consideration.
• Do be sufficiently aware of the thoughts and feelings of your stakeholders – internal and external – that you know when and how severely Internet-centered negativity is impacting them. If you do, you will also know when they think you’re doing a good job responding to such negativity.

Virtually all of the crises to which I’ve helped clients respond in the past five years have had a Web-centered/Internet component, with the impact of the Internet on crisis management strategies and tactics growing exponentially every year. While many organizations have “IT people” on staff or on-call, IT expertise often does not translate to “Internet Communication” expertise. With the growth of the Internet, companies were very quick to experiment with it and sometimes learn how to use its capabilities to PROMOTE their products and services, to build brand awareness and enhance their reputation.

But now, just as it was “pre-Web,” the purpose of crisis management is to PRESERVE what has been gained through promotion. To, ideally, prevent crises from happening but, when that isn’t possible, to minimize damage. In the 21st Century, crisis managers need a new paradigm and an expanded skill-set to help their organizations or clients achieve that critical goal.

——————————-
For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
——————————-

What do September 11, Enron and the news about sexual molestation by Catholic priests have in common?

They were all what I’ve previously termed “creeping crises,” vulnerabilities, bombs (literally and figuratively) waiting to explode. There were people — the American intelligence community, some employees of Enron and Church leaders, respectively — who had information that could have prevented or reduced the damage from these situations. And who perpetuated and exacerbated the crises by acts of commission or omission.

They were all terrorism if you define it as “parties inflicting suffering on innocent victims as a means to an end.”

They are all the tip of massive icebergs of creeping crises. Who dares to say that there aren’t other terrorism groups poised to wreak unprecedented damage, corporations whose fiscal and legal practices will lead to Enron-like ruin, and criminal sexual behavior by clergy of possibly every major world religion?

They are all crises which strike at our emotional infrastructure: our desires for physical, psychological and financial security.

Human beings have an immense capacity for enduring pain individually and as organizations. And an immense resistance to change. That’s a bad combination, because for most individuals, and most organizations, it seems to take a great deal of pain to motivate change.

There is a psychological concept called “hitting bottom” that refers to the point at which an individual feels so much pain from what he or she has been doing that the fear of continuing “as is” is greater than the fear of change. At that point, the individual is willing to take some direction from someone other than him- or herself.

It has been my experience that organizations, too, usually have to “hit bottom,” to feel enough crisis-related pain from their actions, or lack thereof, that they’re willing to realize that their own best thinking isn’t making them crisis-resistant, versus crisis-prone. And that’s when they start getting proactive about crisis management.

Here’s the catch, however. Sometimes, that willingness to change comes too late. Sometimes, for an individual or an organization, that delay is fatal.

So ask yourselves at your next board meeting: how much pain does it take?

——————————-
For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
——————————-

My clients, and my kids, have been told that there are four ways that they can be perceived as lying:

1. Dishonesty by commission — literally saying black is white.
2. Dishonesty by omission — leaving important information out of your communications.
3. Dishonesty by understatement for the purpose of obfuscating the truth.
4. Dishonesty by overstatement for the purpose of obfuscating the truth.

We have all been witnessing — first in the Church’s initial communication and handling of sexual abuses by priests in the United States, now by the Church’s bungling of what seems to be an even worse situation in Europe — dishonesty in all four categories.

There was a time when, to the vast majority of Christians, not just to Catholics, the word of the Vatican equated to the word of God, and even non-Christians had great respect for most statements coming out of the Vactican. But in the 21st Century, “consumers” are too savvy to believe that God directed his representatives on Earth to lie. The Vatican must put down the proverbial shovel before it digs its way to a place much less inviting than Heaven.

——————————-
For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
——————————-