Category: Organization Development

I very seldom write an article that spans across my Grandma Chronicles and professional -Nonprofit Blogs. But once in a while inspiration hits and out comes a blog post such as this one. It It is being published at The Grandma Chronicles and Nonprofit Capacity Building. The question is: “Should you and nonprofits get involved with mentoring?” It actually can be a lot of work to get started and sustained and takes a very strong leader who inspires, has good organization and is willing to work hard on the project for it to work. Sounds a bit discouraging, doesn’t it? But is it worth it? The answer is a resounding yes!

Strong communication is an essential ingredient for crisis management

Merrie Spaeth’s BIMBO Awards nominations never fail to provide perfect examples of what NOT to do when speaking to the media. In fact, it certainly looks like foot-in-mouth disease is making the rounds again, because this month brings us quite a few displays of poor communication, including this one from a typically strong communicator, New York’s Mayor Bloomberg:

“We’re not banning everything,” New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg told a caller on his radio show who complained that the city was “on a track to ban everything.” (This is an example of how we pick up words. The caller used the phrase “banning everything,” and the mayor repeated it back as a denial – and then put it on steroids, saying “You can still buy cigarettes, we haven’t banned that!” This is also as an example of how deadlines are a thing of the past. After the original story posted, a reader pointed out that a few years ago, when it was noted that it is illegal to ride Segways on New York City streets and sidewalk, the Mayor said, “I think we banned them. We ban everything.” Note that the denial became the headline.)

Politicker, “Mayor Bloomberg: ‘We’re Not Banning Everything,’” Feb. 15, 2013

When defending yourself, or your organization, it’s never a good idea to use the negative terms you’re combating. Repeating negative terms gives them even more power, as well as more page space and, as the example shows, often a spot in the headline.

It’s been proven many times that, while the full headline may read, “Mayor Bloomberg: ‘We’re Not Banning Everything,'” what will most often stick in reader’s minds is “Mayor Bloomberg, Banning Everything.”

Remember this when planning your crisis management messaging. Instead of repeating, and thereby further enforcing, negative terms in your denial, create a list of positive terms that can be used in discussion.

Of course, it’s not enough to simply make the list. Without practice, you’re bound to fall into old habits, and for most of us that will mean automatically using the negative term.

Handling the media well is often tricky, and can be treacherous for the unprepared. If you truly want to be ready to communicate in crisis, you have to put in some serious practice, especially in front of hostile audiences. Simulating this with peers or employees is fine, but make sure the “hostile” crowd isn’t afraid to be harsh. After all, the public, and media, certainly won’t be pulling any punches.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc., an international crisis management consultancy, author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is Social Media Manager for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

[Editor’s note: In this guest post, Don Martin, president of Don Martin Public Affairs, outlines the dangers that arise when legal and PR don’t work together, as well as the benefits to be reaped when they cooperate.]

In most corporate situations or crisis the inevitable question arises about which role is paramount — the legal team, the PR/Crisis Manager, or a combination of the two — and who trumps who, when and why.

In a corporate crisis, there is often a battle between attorneys and the PR/Crisis Manager but a decision about which path to follow must be made by corporate leadership. Usually the attorney’s job is to point out every conceivable reason NOT to do something. And occasionally legal wins. After all, their role is to protect the corporation. But often that strategy wins the battle but loses the war.

Many times there is a pressing need for the corporate President to step up to the microphone, admit mistakes, apologize, and to say that every effort will be made to correct the situation.

Over the years I’ve found many attorneys who are willing and able to work hand in hand with PR with the common goal of what’s best for the organization. My best clients recognize and practice this. We have generic statements ready to go in advance. Sometimes PR wins, sometimes the attorney wins, but 90% of the time it is a joint win/win. A lot depends on attitude and direction from the top boss.

The right course of action is most often a balancing act with what is the best action relating to public perception being the number one goal.

Example: When the glass started falling out of balconies at a new Class A hotel in Austin that had just opened, the President and CEO of the hotel owner immediately held a news conference in front of the hotel, stating that the reason regarding the falling glass was as yet unknown, but that he was taking responsibility and their number one goal was safety and they would do whatever was necessary to protect the public. You can bet that some of his lawyers advised against taking responsibility when contractors, subcontractors or suppliers were ultimately at fault. But it was the right thing to do, calmed fears, created empathy for the company, and won his company praise and public support.

While it is easy to develop all the reasons NOT to do something, it is the PR/Crisis Manager’s role to point out the dangers of inaction. Doing nothing is often the worst thing to do. Avoiding the press and a “no comment” about a breaking crisis might win a momentary reprieve for a few hours, but could end up damaging the company’s reputation for months if not years to come. Calm, confident action eases public concerns, employee concerns and often protects stock values

(PS “no comment” almost always connotes “I’m guilty” in the minds both reporters and the public. There are a hundred better phrases if needed. “No comment” should never be used.)

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The attorney says: I’ve been in crisis situations when the attorney’s advice is that we shouldn’t do anything publicly. We shouldn’t issue any statements. We’ll probably be hit with hundreds of lawsuits. Don’t say anything. Whatever we say will come back to haunt us….

The crisis manager says: That’s certainly possible, but if we don’t say anything we look and act guilty. We have to speak to our employees, shareholders, and the public for the good of the company. We’ll use tactics that will show compassion and action while protecting the corporation. And the sooner we do it the better chance we have of limiting damage and shortening the life of the story.

It’s a tough call. But more often that not being open and transparent is usually the right course of action. Attorneys can and should help craft the message, but not to the point of burdening the message with legalese, caveats or equivocations.

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When in doubt, give us a call. We specialize in crisis communications. (512) 328-2900

Don Martin
Don Martin Public Affairs

This article was originally published in The Don Martin Public Affairs quarterly newsletter.

Dishonesty is a major crisis management no-no

Last Friday, after the sudden resignation of its CEO, the chairman of local news website network Daily Voice sent all employees an email promising good news and big changes.

However, upon arrival Monday morning, many of the excited employees were devastated to discover that the “good news” included the fact that they were being laid off, and would be receiving no severance pay to boot.

In an interview with Ragan.com’s Matt Wilson, discussing the Daily Voice situation, Jonathan Bernstein shared his opinion regarding dishonest internal communication:

Jonathan Bernstein of Bernstein Crisis Management says the company flat-out lied to employees.

“There is no universe in which lying to your employees is acceptable,” he says. “It only makes a bad situation worse.”

By lying, Daily Voice further angered a group of people who were already rather upset due to losing their jobs. Instead of regretfully packing up and moving on to look for new work, ex-employees went to the press to share their story, surely taking some satisfaction in knowing that their former employer’s reputation was going to take a beating as a result.

Do you think the next time Daily Voice is looking for some new talent there’s going to be a line of top prospects eager to apply? How about when it comes time to drum up extra funding from investors?

Certainly not if this mess is topping the Google search results.

There are four ways to lie:

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

Crisis Management 101 dictates that all communications MUST be honest. If they’re not, you will eventually be found out, and your reputation, along with any credibility you may have held, will land straight in the gutter.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc., an international crisis management consultancy, author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is Social Media Manager for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

How to avoid a crisis of ownership

Several legal spats have recently drawn attention to arguments between prominent social media users and their former employers in which both argue that they have rights to the followers and contacts gained via said accounts.

On one hand, the accounts of employees are their own, where they connect with friends, family and associates. On the other hand, the personal accounts of many businesspeople today also become marketing engines where company content is regularly promoted, and may interact with customers, clients and vendors more than the official @CompanyName twitter account ever does.

The experts say…

In a recent article, InfoWorld’s Zach Miners spoke with experts on the topic, and offered up some crucial advice:

Determining what makes an account personal versus professional is tricky in an age of near-constant social networking, said Archie of Latham & Watkins.

“People’s professional work often bleeds over into their personal time thanks to the interconnectedness of mobile devices, and that’s only one way ownership disputes can arise,” Archie said.

Facebook and LinkedIn each said via email that their official stance is that users own their accounts. Twitter’s terms of service say its users own all the content they post to its site.

Because the dividing line between personal and professional is so blurry and varies with the job, the best way for employers to avoid legal disputes is to craft clear policies about how employees should use social media, and what happens to an account when an employee leaves the company.

Because social media is still very much growing and evolving, there really is no established set of standards, and that’s why setting these policies is absolutely critical to avoiding trouble.

Preventing problems

As part of your ongoing crisis management efforts, prepare specific policies for all aspects of social media, from ownership and promotional use, to whether they can make personal posts from work, to exactly what topics are OK to discuss online, as well as which are totally off-limits.

This isn’t a “set it and forget it” policy either. The ways we use social media are changing by the day, and we’d suggest taking a regular look back at the rulebook and considering what changes or additions are required.

As with any sort of policy, it’s not going to do any good if it’s just one more sheet in the stack of new hire paperwork. Enforce mandatory training when its introduced, and take the steps necessary to impress its importance on anyone joining the organization.

Legal leanings may change, but if you have clear policy agreements and can prove everyone has been trained accordingly then both employer and employee will know what to expect and, if desired, can change their social media use accordingly.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc., an international crisis management consultancy, author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is Social Media Manager for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

No satire in social media crisis management from the kings of fake news

The Onion is well known across the ‘net for lampooning, well, everything. Headlines on its front page right now include, “Republicans Reach Out To Women With New ‘No Punch Pretty Lady’ Bill” and “Bob Dylan Lays Off 2,000 Workers From Songwriting Factory.”

On Oscar night, however, the most famous fake news outlet in the world went too far with the joking. In a tasteless, even by Onion standards, attempt at humor, someone posted to the @TheOnion Twitter feed sarcastically referring to nine-year-old actress Quvenzhane Wallis using a four-letter word that starts with C.

Suddenly, the social media-verse was alight with furious tweets from concerned parents, longtime Onion fans, and just about everyone in between. In other words, it was very, very clear that people weren’t just upset or offended, but completely irate over the tweet.

Within the hour the tweet was deleted, but the virtual downpour continued through the night and Onion staffers must have awoken to inboxes absolutely bursting with rage. On Monday morning, the day after the Oscars, The Onion CEO Steve Hannah engaged in crisis management, publishing the following on Facebook, and later The Onion’s site:

For the CEO of a paper that fills its (virtual) pages with some pretty vicious humor, Hannah issued a solid, human apology. Not only did he announce how his company would avoid making such a mistake again and express his own shock at the joke, but he also profusely apologized and gave his acclaim to the young Ms. Wallis.

The one thing that could have made it a home-run as far as crisis communications go? Well, he acknowledged Wallis and the Academy, but how about a little compassion for all of the other parties who were offended or disappointed?

All in all, surprisingly strong crisis management from an organization that most wouldn’t expect to apologize for anything at all. It looks like they’re taking the mistake as a learning experience, and that’s a good thing. Keep being funny Onion, but watch your step when it comes to bashing little kids.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc., an international crisis management consultancy, author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is Social Media Manager for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

Merge strong traditions with new vision…its the way to go… Once a year, at the end of the year I write a blog article that I post both at Marion Conway-Nonprofit Consultant blog and at my other blog – The Grandma Chronicles. This is my favorite post of the year and it is always a popular post. It is a post in which I reflect on the year coming to an end with examples from my personal and professional life and describe my wish for you for the coming year.

This year my wish was for merging strong traditions with new vision. I suggested that we use our imagination to make it happen. Imagination is on my agenda for forging a Happy New Year with joy and courage to face what the world brings us. And this is my wish for you. Read my original post to see my personal examples from 2012.

For the nonprofits I work with, I described 2012 as a year of adapting to the new normal. This has meant adapting programs to new funding realities, new forms of fundraising, getting serious about social media, and new staff finding their sea legs and bringing new perspectives to organizations which – like me – are steeped in tradition. There has been an increased serious interest in strategic planning and desire to discuss vision for the future. It has been a privilege to work with nonprofits as they navigate through these changes. I have been in awe of the leaders of so many organizations I’ve worked with. I have seen difficult situations dealt with and stronger organizations emerge – even if they don’t recognize that yet themselves. It has been inspiring.

As for 2013, I predict it will beckon more change and need to adapt even more so. And I am hopeful that many nonprofits are up to the challenge. Nonprofits are becoming more nimble and finding their own voice. There is less of this “you should run more like a business” and more of “we need to establish priorities and focus on what we do best.” I see a new energy among Boards and readiness to try new approaches. Like me, many Boards have strong ties to traditions but we both must realize that traditions must find new ways to manifest themselves.

All this generality is quite nice, but lets get down to a specific.

Boards – In the last few years there has been a great deal of progress with governance – even for small organizations. Board members are taking this responsibility much more seriously and this is good news. Now what is also happening is that Boards are beginning to wake up to their responsibility for financial management and fundraising. They are connecting the dots…if you approve a budget you also need to ensure that the revenue is there to support that budget. And Behold! That often requires fundraising.

As Boards ask more questions about the budget and finances they are learning more about what are the gems and millstones around the neck of the organization. Do you know an organization that has this situation? : A longstanding program that serves few people, is poorly funded but is lauded as a shining star of the nonprofit – I know more than one. It frequently is run by someone well respected but the program no longer is the best practice way of serving a need. As Board members ask more questions the sacred cows are being overhauled or put on the chopping block. Sometimes a program can benefit from things like a fresh grant, new marketing, new time frame or new approach. I knew an after school program that ran for four days a week leaving those using it as childcare a day short and those involved with multiple after school programs uninterested. Expanding to five days and offering different “clubs” on each day made the program interesting to more people. Redesign and additional funding rejuvenated the program dear to the heart and mission of this nonprofit.

When nonprofits find ways to honor the tradition of their programs and infuse new vision into to them they stay healthy. When they let these problem children linger, they can often be on the path to failure – caused by financial issues and harm to reputation among funders, clients and other supporters. This approach – honoring your traditions and infusing new vision can make a difference in the sustainability of a nonprofit.

Do you have other examples to share? We’d love to hear them – please leave comments.

Second outbreak in as many months from Cardinal Meat Specialists

As if the beef industry wasn’t in enough trouble with the entire horsemeat debacle, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has confirmed that two people have contracted food poisoning, caused by E. coli, after eating frozen beef burgers.

The company responsible for manufacturing the burgers, Cardinal Meat Specialists, has recalled all products that were on the line that day, and according to reports is cooperating fully with authorities. Normally a single recall is not a major problem for manufacturers, provided they handle things well, but this is Cardinal’s second E. coli scare since December and that complicates things a bit.

A sleeping watchdog?

Now, it is possible for microorganisms to sneak their way into raw product, even with proper safety and handling procedures in place, but the fact that two batches of tainted meat went out within as many months is bound to put a negative tint on public perception of not only the producer, but also the organization that is supposed to be overseeing them, namely the CFIA.

The watchdog agency was criticized heavily for not demanding a recall until several people had fallen ill in the December Cardinal E. coli crisis, and another tainted batch of burgers coming out of the same facility so soon leads the public to believe, whether it’s true or not, that the CFIA isn’t doing its job. If the CFIA wants to avoid taking heavy, long-term reputation damage in the court of public opinion, then it has to put in the effort required to absolutely guarantee Cardinal is clear to produce safe product.

No comment

At the time of this writing the recall has grabbed quite a bit of news coverage, but looking through the Cardinal website we can’t find a single mention of the current situation. Their news section proudly touts the results of the December investigation (no fault found), and has an article on new plants, as well as plans to expand into the U.S., so why no word on the latest issue?

There is really no excuse to not be THE primary source of information on any crisis that centers around your organization. A bit of brainstorming, some careful construction of messaging, and 30 minutes of work from a webmaster is all it takes to publish an informative statement with easily-findable link right there on your existing website.

Frankly, not doing this is fast going the way of saying “no comment,” ie. it is far more detrimental to your reputation than getting out there and spilling the facts.

One of our favorite sayings is, “in the absence of communication, rumor and innuendo will fill the gap,” and that damaging rumor and innuendo finds a hole faster than ever given the incredible speed and volume of ‘net communication today.

When it’s clearly crisis management time, step up and start communicating. There’s no excuse not to.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc., an international crisis management consultancy, author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is Social Media Manager for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

While the term “impact investing” (or social capital) has garnered substantial attention in recent years, the more traditional field of microfinance, still by far the largest share of impact investments, gets less attention yet has decades of experience doing social capital. Here are a few of lessons from the micro finance sector worth reviewing as this strategy matures: Continue reading “Microfinance Informs Impact Investing”

Fighting back with hardball crisis management after a negative review

Tesla Motors is at the forefront of the electric car revolution, but a controversial review by the NY Times has created quite a bit of turbulence around the brand over the past couple of weeks.

Basically, NY Times reviewer John Broder took the Tesla Model S sedan for a test drive to try out Tesla’s new “Supercharging stations,” meant to make electric car travel a more viable option, but ended up having to call for a tow after his car ran out of power.

Playing hardball

While Broder’s review claimed he followed all instructions from the carmaker, Tesla CEO Elon Musk vehemently disagreed, and he wasn’t about to keep mum about it. Three days after the NY Times review appeared, Musk launched his offensive with the following tweets:

Musk is no stranger to combating reviews that he believes to be untruthful. In fact, his “Top Gear BS” comment above refers to a dustup over a negative review that’s resulted in Tesla filing two lawsuits against the show.

Tesla’s crisis management offensive included encouraging Tesla vehicle owners to recreate the Times review route, reaching out to other journalists to repeat the drive and, unlike many disputes we see, actually backing up his statements with cold, hard data pulled from the Model S’s “black box” detailing every second of the drive.

While the Times did attempt to refute, point by point, Tesla’s claims, the fact is that data from the black box directly contradicts several statements in Broder’s original review, throwing an enormous cloud of doubt on any statements from the Times camp.

The final (for now) result

Public outcry demanded that Times editors take another look at the situation, and Monday Public Editor Margaret Sullivan published an article with the headline, “Problems With Precision and Judgment, but Not Integrity, in Tesla Test.”

Was this a clear-cut victory for Tesla? Not entirely, those that didn’t follow the entire saga, and even some that did, may still come away doubting the company. Did its high-risk, hardball strategy end up generating a heck of a lot of publicity for its brand, as well as defending its reputation and public perceptions of electric vehicles, which is critical to the Tesla’s success? Absolutely.

Brassy crisis management Tesla, well played.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc., an international crisis management consultancy, author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is Social Media Manager for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]