I fly.  A lot.

I’m Star Alliance Gold – which means I not racking up “Up in the Air” levels of frequent flyer miles, but I’ll exceed 100,000 miles in the air this year. In my travels, I have learned that some airlines are just better than others when it comes to breaking bad news.  I won’t name names, but let’s just say that I’m amazed that an airline so good at landing on the Hudson River can be so BAD at basic customer service.

But for every horror story, you run into a story which just makes you pause, and gives you hope.

I was flying with a different airline, United (notorious for breaking guitars), through Dulles International Airport in Washington, DC.  It was the end of the day, and a group of passengers – about 30 – boarded a small regional jet for what was supposed to be a short flight into Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

We were seated and ready to leave when the dreaded disembodied voice came on.  You all know the voice I’m talking about – the voice where some strange man introduces himself, says he’s the pilot… and that “we’re expecting a short delay.”  And inevitably, you know what happens next… you sit on the plane doing nothing, wondering what the problem is and why can’t they just fix it.

There’s no sugar coating this – delays suck.  You’re stuck on a plane, watching the minute’s tick by; increasingly convinced you’re going to miss a connection.  It’s the sense of helplessness that makes it untenable.

But this time it was different.

The pilot came on to say, “Folks, I know you’re not going to like this.  I’m sorry, but we have a problem.  The folks on the ground here have given us too much fuel.  Now, I know you’re wondering ‘Hey, what’s the problem with a little extra gas on board’ but they gave us an extra 4,000 pounds of fuel.  That’s going to make us too heavy.”

“Now, we’re not going to kick anyone off the plane to save weight, or anything like that.  You’ll all get there, but what we’ve done is asked them to come and offload some of the extra fuel.  But it’s not a simple process.  They need to find a spare truck, empty its existing load of fuel, and have it come over here.  I’ve been on the phone with them and they’re working on it, but I’ve heard two reports – one says ten minutes, the other says forty-five.  I’m going to keep working on them and as soon as I have anything else to report back, I’ll let you know.  On behalf of United, please accept our apologies.  We’re doing everything we can to get us going.”

Lets take a quick look here. First, Mr. Pilot absolutely nailed the cardinal rule of breaking bad news – serve up a healthy dose of empathy.  I’m pretty sure United doesn’t teach that to their pilots, but he did a good job.

Interestingly, from a risk communication perspective, it was a classic stand-by statement: Tell them what you know, tell them what you don’t know, tell them where they can go for more information.  And here’s the beauty of it – it worked. Rather than mass grumbling, I look around and saw a few resigned shrugs and whispered conversations.  People were resigned to the problem, but didn’t appear to be upset with the pilot or more importantly, the airline.

Ten minutes later, we heard back from my pilot with “OK folks, I’ve got a bit of an update.  I’ve been on the phone with ground control.  They assure me a fuel truck is on its way.  They told me five minutes.  Now, we all know five minutes means different things to different people, I’m happy they’re doing something about it.”

“We thought about offloading you, but it’s just not worth making everyone disembark, getting new boarding passes, unloading the carry-on luggage and making you go sit in hard plastic chairs in the lobby rather than the chairs you’re in now.  But if any of you have any needs or concerns, please talk to Debbie, your flight attendant.  She’ll bring it up to me and we’ll do all we can to look after you.

Here’s our pilot nailing a second rule – anticipate the hot button issues and answer the underlying concerns.  (Concern – are we stuck on this little tiny plane?  Answer: Yes, but let me give you a valid reason why, and serve it up with a healthy dose of empathy.)

Again, I look around, and this time the (now 30 minute delayed) passengers were actually chuckling to themselves.

It was great – a beautiful example of taking what could have been an ugly situation and calming everyone down.

(And for the record – five minutes later there was, indeed, a fuel truck outside our window.  We all made it to Harrisburg.)

I’m sure we’ve all seen the pictures of what a cruise ship looks like when it hits a rock off the coast of Tuscany…

At the time I’m writing this, the share price for Carnival Cruise Lines is down 17%.  That’s quite a tumble.

There are quite a bit of black and white reasons for such a kick in the face.  The loss of revenue from future cruises while this particular ship is recovered and restored will be significant, to be sure.  Heck, recovery costs alone could costs millions upon millions of dollars.

But there’s a different cost here, and it’s one that Costa, the cruise operator, is going to have to deal with for years and years.  The Captain, Francesco Schettino, has been charged with multiple counts of manslaughter and abandoning the ship before all the passengers were rescued.

Seriously?  Does that even happen?  It boggles me that someone could assume the responsibility for thousands of lives and then have the audacity to waltz off a still floating ship.

That cavalier attitude towards responsibility and stewardship is toxic to public opinion.  Toxic.  And it should be.

Bad things happen, to really good organizations, each and every day.  In fact, REALLY bad things can happen:

Compare the two stories – they’re essentially similar except for one crucial detail…

US: Experienced crew has an accident, crashes their vehicle.
Costa: Experienced crew has an accident, crashes their vehicle.

US: All survived, several minor injuries.
Costa: Most people survive, a handful of fatalities, but thousands of people on board.

US: Rescue crews had to forcibly remove the Captain from the plane after the crew risked their own lives to manage an evacuation.
Costa: Captain bails out, leaving a sloppy evacuation horror story in his wake.

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it now, and I know I’m going to end up saying it again.  But there’s a reason for that: it’s because it’s worth repeating.  “Life is not about what happens, it’s how you react to those events.”

And now how we all know how Costa cruise ship captains react to those events,  we’ll see what it does for their long term credibility.

What do you think?  I’m really interested in knowing.  In fact, I’m running a poll on my facebook page: What’s worse for public trust – beaching an ocean liner, or having the Captain bail out?  Come on over and vote now.

We all do things in the privacy of our own home that are ‘less than delicate.’

How embarrassing if a video of those private moments was shared with friends?  How could you go to church, knowing the usher watched you clip your toe nails while sitting on the toilet (or worse?)

Seriously – stop and think about all the things you’ve done in the last few hours that you hope no one witnessed?  I’m not trying to be indelicate; I’m trying to drive home a point.

Human beings have a natural need for privacy.  But that same courtesy isn’t extended to corporations.

Companies do stuff all the time that they hope no one witnessed.  Not even illegal things, simply… embarrassing things.

• A mailman needs to visit the restroom and stops at a beckoning bush.
• A vehicle takes a wrong turn and ends up stuck.
• A pilot misjudges conditions and ends up going past the runway.
• The CEO is out for dinner with his daughter and has a credit card declined.

All of these moments used to be laughable, but forgivable.  It’s easy to avoid communicating something when no one actually notices.  But it doesn’t work like that – anymore.

The latest organization to become painfully aware of the new rules: FedEx.  You may have seen the story on the news: a stupid delivery driver did something dumb, and pitched a package over a fence.  Unfortunately, the driver didn’t count on two things.  The first was that the package contained an expensive video monitor.  The second was that the whole thing was caught on Youtube.

Ouch.  That hurts. You know what else hurts?  The video showing the ‘rush delivery’ collected over a million hits in 24 hours.  A MILLION.  Six zeroes!  At the time this post is published, it’s eight times that.

The days of ‘deadline journalism’ are long over, and have been replaced by citizen journalism.  In a world where everyone has a cellphone with a built in video camera and access to the Internet, the last thing you can count on is privacy.

So what do you do if you’re caught red handed doing something stupid?

1/ Admit it: Admit it openly, honestly, and completely.  Don’t make excuses for your behavior.  Simply admit that it happened, but it shouldn’t have.

2/ Apologize: Don’t wimp out on this one and “apologize for how they feel.”  Sincerely, authentically apologize for your actions.

3/ Consequences: Call it self-flagellation, call it throwing someone under the bus – it doesn’t matter.  If your people have done wrong, explain what happened to them.  Were they dismissed?  Were they formally warned?

(I know many places can’t release specific details, due to employment contracts and privacy laws.  In which case, explain the policies that exist. ie: We cannot specifically comment about what disciplinary action this employee will face due to privacy laws.  However, I can say that our employee contracts specifically state that anyone found stealing is subject to immediate dismissal with cause.)

4/ Prevention: Are you changing your training procedures?  Are you reminding employees not to pee on customer bushes?  Are you reviewing your training criteria for wet runways?  If you are making changes, explain what they are.

5/ Ongoing commitment: Demonstrate that you take this seriously, and you don’t want to see it happen again either.  Once may be forgivable… get caught doing it again and the public will angrily strike back, twice as hard.

The public has a remarkable ability to forgive you, once – if you give them an opportunity.  But you have to create the conditions that allow them that opportunity.

Do what you tell others to do.  Sounds like simple advice.  You probably learned it in kindergarten.

It gets trickier for public services.  A police officer has to ticket a speeder one minute, yet speed to a crime scene the next.  At least that example is very visible and acute.  What do you do when it’s not so obvious?

Municipal utility leaders in Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada are discovering the perils of mixed communication firsthand.  The Waterloo Region Record has a story about local residents who are upset about a pumping station that has been ‘wasting water’ for the last month.  (The water is being pumped out and then dumped right back into a nearby creek.)  The Region has responded by saying the purge is necessary for testing and evaluation purposes; the local residents are skeptical.

It’s a classic case of the need for transparency. If you nail the ‘hot button’ issues before you GET nailed on them, it’s easier for everyone.

Now, I’m not suggesting taking out TV ads explaining your testing criteria.  But for the sake of $1 worth of paper and two hours of a coop student’s time, create a simple paper handout.  It’s not difficult to explain WHY the local pumping station is going to be dumping water for the next month. Explain why water conservation is still important, and offer a phone number to call if there are questions.

Leave it on area porches for a 2 block radius.  Take extra copies and leave them nailed to the front door of the pump house shed.  Problem solved.

Or, you can have your credibility and competency assaulted in the media.  Your call.

Is social media heralding the invention of a brave new world?  Some would have you think so.  There are a lot of people who make good money ‘making social media work for you.’  Remember – be scared, be careful, be in awe of new technology… etc.

Newest example: three staffers in US Congressman Rick Larsen’s office were fired after their tweets revealed “A December to Remember” (hashtag #D2R). Two male and one female staffers were canned after tweets revealed plans to arrive at the office drunk, continue drinking, and essentially party away December.

Now, the knee jerk reaction from some is to point the finger at Twitter.  “See – social media is the harbinger of doom!  It’s a brave new world!”  But I want to quickly point out:  Social media did not get them fired.  Being IDIOTS got them fired.

I get the distinct impression that if you’re stupid enough to drink your month away while working for a politician, you’re going to find ways to get yourself fired.  The fact it was via Twitter is entirely incidental.

I’m a little disappointed that the three of them didn’t invent an entirely new way of highlighting their idiocy to the world.

“We got through this once before, we’ll do it again”

When it’s scared of being eaten, there’s a story that an ostrich will stick its head in the sand, convincing itself that it is invisible. We laugh at such frail logic, but many of us are guilty of doing exactly the same thing.

My most recent case study: I’m writing this post on a flight from Las Vegas, Nevada. I was speaking to the International Council of Air Shows on the importance of risk and crisis communication training, (especially since an accident in Reno, Nevada several months ago.)

While I was in Nevada, I visited the Hoover Dam, and saw several search and rescue helicopters. When I returned to the hotel later that evening, I got a series of frantic phone calls: “A sightseeing helicopter has gone down near Lake Mead. Five people are presumed dead, are you available to help?”

I assured my caller that I was, in fact, not only available, but conveniently, already in the area. I hung up the phone to await further instructions. The phone rang an hour later with “They think they’re going to be OK. They’ve been through this before.”

This particular helicopter company (and no, I won’t name names, that would be impolite) suffered a fatal accident in 2003. The accident was blamed on pilot error and unsafe procedures. The company managed to “skate by” then and feels they can do so again.

(I concede this may appear like sour grapes, but please understand – while I was happy to help, I was also more than happy to return home. I’m relieved not to miss my son’s fourth birthday.)

The microscope any company survives under has grown stronger in the last four years, much less the last nine. Thinking you can survive an accident by running away, like you did nine years ago, shows incredible naiveté.

Online communities like Yelp and Trip Advisor resurrect the bad with the good. In any hyper-competitive environment, if you’re not controlling bad news on your agenda, your enemies will be doing it for you.

Major business errors (like critical accidents) are like scabs. Over time they lose their sensitivity, but if the scab is ripped off, the wound becomes sensitive again. It is BECAUSE this particular company has a history that the newest accident will become a much larger crisis – if they choose to ignore it. Their old scabs will be ripped off and the wounds and errors will be on display.

This is a golden opportunity to seize control of the narrative. Visibly express profound grief and sadness at the loss of customers and the loss of an employee. (That’s not being manipulative, that’s simply being human.)

Over several days, as details come out, be open and honest with what went wrong, and address the hot buttons on your terms. Explain a) how sad you now, and were nine years ago, b) what policies you changed in response to that incident, c) how these two accidents are different, and d) what new changes you will be making in response.

In short, be a caring, responsive company that cares deeply about the safety of your passengers and employees. This incident is profoundly upsetting and you will stop at nothing to prevent it from happening again.

If you do this while being authentic, public sentiment turns from anger to empathetic grief. It’s a tough pill to swallow, but manageable.

What is NOT manageable are scores of scared future customers reading online reviews from every angry customer in your past. When you allow public sentiment to stay on ‘angry,’ you open the door for people to seek revenge on a cold-hearted company that clearly doesn’t care about safety.

I use a really simple metric about releasing bad news. Will people find out about this? And if they will, do I want them finding out about it from me, or from someone else?

It’s hard to communicate effectively if your head is covered with sand.

(Note to readers: Regular readers will know that while I’m intensely political in my own time, I bend over backwards to avoid mixing my ‘political’ life with my ‘Checkmate ‘life. But there are times when the case study is just too obvious to be ignored – this is one of those times.)

Republicans will gather in California this evening to watch the candidates vying to replace US President Barak Obama. But they can gather knowing they’ve squandered a beautiful opportunity.

Obama had asked for an opportunity to address the nation, in order to discuss job creation initiatives. The economy is clearly the most important issue on the ballot, and it’s easy to understand why Obama wants to discuss it.

Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner has refused Obama’s request, and offered him tomorrow evening instead. It may have been genuine, it may have been sneaky partisanship, it doesn’t matter – it was a wasted opportunity.

I understand Boehner doesn’t want to interrupt the debate, but the move is brutally short-sighted. Not only can rescheduling the Commander in Chief appear petty and partisan, it handcuffed a golden opportunity to respond.

Imagine if Obama addressed the nation, while the half-dozen gathered debaters watch in real time. Immediately upon conclusion, the Republicans could have turned to the cameras and said to the nation “You’ve heard the opinion of a man who’s responsible for this mess. But here are some real alternatives.”

It would have been timely, unscripted, genuine debate. It would attract significant media interest. And it would have allowed Republicans to rip Obama’s speech to shreds to a national audience.

Before the 11pm news even aired, newscasters across the country would have clips of Obama’s speech, along with various clips of Republican contenders attacking it.

Now, however, the Republicans will debate prior to hearing the details in Obama’s speech. The television interest will be significantly lower. National media interest will be passing at best. And in a jaw-droppingly stupid move, the Republicans have punted President Obama to the 15 minutes immediately prior to the start of the NFL season. They’ve offered him prime time on a silver platter.

To further add injury to insult, the Republicans have announced they will not bother to offer a rebuttal to Obama’s speech. Although at this point, it’s probably for the best.

What opportunities are you missing, just because you’ve never taken the time to have someone outside your situation say “Um, you know you’re giving your competitor an advantage here?”

Dominos pizza has blown open the doors of food service accountability.

Dominos has created a “Pizza Tracker.” It’s a tool on their website which allows you to track, in real time, the status of your particular pizza. It also allows you to rate your final product, and include a comment for the employee who made your particular pizza.

Sure, that’s pretty cool (and unique enough that CNN profiled it at length). But what’s more impressive is the way Dominos chose to unveil the Pizza Tracker – by publicly posting pizza reviews, good AND bad.

The reviews, both positive and negative, are not just posted on a corner of their corporate website. No – in a move which takes the standards of public accountability, injects it with steroids and kicks it out the door – Dominos is posting reviews in New York’s Times Square, for all the world to see.

Even their TV ads show some of the negative reviews they’ve received.

For some, it’s a nifty website gadget. For others, it will be totally unnoticed. But for some, it’s a dramatic turnaround for a troubled pizza giant.

So why are they doing this? What’s the upside? Remember – this is Dominos. This is the same company that lost millions in sales after employees did disgusting things while working at the store and posting them to YouTube.

Obviously Dominos hopes that by being publicly accountable, you’re going to trust them with your order. Dominos isn’t being shy about it either – they’ve named it the “Raising the Bar” campaign.

But before you run off to implement such a bold move within your own organization, remember why it works. Two reasons:

a) They’re displaying both the good with the bad, thus proving that they have nothing to hide.
b) The bad isn’t life threatening or overly damaging – it’s a pizza. Worst case scenario, your pizza is free and Dominos is out $6.

This isn’t going to work if you’re not prepared to publicly open up and reveal your worst-case scenarios. If you’re a hospital that wants to discuss premature mortality statistics, this method may not be the most appropriate for you.

But for Dominos, it’s a fascinating move towards openness, accountability and honesty. And it works.

I’ve talked about this before, with a blog post entitled “Are Communications Plans a Complete Waste of Time?”

For most businesses, there are simply more cost effective, efficient ways of preparing for those “Oh Crap” moments: