“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.

A number of professional business communicators gathered in London, Ontario,  to hear me speak about risk and crisis communications.  The introducer, knowing my interest in the Canadian political scene, threatened them that I may speak about politics, too…

Click here to watch a video of my presentation

It was an informal meeting.  I had a lot of fun with it.  Thanks to the folks at IABC London!

I wanted to follow up on my earlier post, and my offer to help you communicate in the wake of the awful situation going on in Japan.

Building trust in tough times is never easy. If (for example) you’re in the nuclear industry right now, it’s easy to get too defensive.  Doing that is just going to hurt you and your message right now.  So with that in mind, here are a few quick thoughts to remember when dealing with difficult questions:

1) Acknowledge that fear is genuine.  Fear is a basic instinct.  It affects everyone: men, women, children, parents, CEO’s and government regulators.  Fear is nothing to be trivialized, laughed off or disregarded.  Fear is what prevents you from walking down a dark alley at night, leaping off of high cliffs, and car-surfing down the freeway.  Fear can be a good thing.

Unfortunately, fear can also be a paralyzer.  Fear can prevent rational analysis from taking root, much less from blossoming.  Its important, as a communicator, to recognize that fear is a very real, and very important emotion in the minds of your audience.  It’s nothing to be sneezed at.

So you understand the role of fear?  That’s good, because the single most important thing you can do to defend your industry right now is simple, but powerful:

2) Show empathy.  Empathy!  Care.  Concern.

This is incredibly important.  In fact, if you’re going to do nothing else, simply displaying empathy is going to do far more to lift your message than anything else right now.

A properly positioned display of empathy doesn’t apologize for your product or practice – it acknowledges people’s concern about those products and practices.  It validates their right to have emotions.  It meets people at their level, rather than lecturing at them.

3) Don’t deny the negative. It’s probably the single easiest message trap you can fall into – denying a negative allegation.  ”Our reactors can’t melt down like that” is an awful message.  ”Our reactors are safe, let me tell you why” is a far more powerful line.  I explain why here.

4) Avoid risk comparisons. This one is really simple to explain.  You can’t get away with “The odds of anything going wrong with our product are one in a million.”  Guess what – the odds of a magnitude 8.9 earthquake are pretty slim, too.

As a parent, I will voluntarily get behind the wheel of a car that needs a brake job (in fact, I need to see my mechanic soon.)  But there’s no way I’m allowing my child to get on a school bus if I know the bus owners routinely let routine maintenance slide.  It’s the difference between voluntary and involuntary risks.

There are very few situations where a ‘risk comparison’ message can work.  Chances are good, the one you’re in isn’t one of them.

5) Have I mentioned empathy yet? See where I’m going here?

You may find this useful – I have a special report entitled “Seven Rules to Save your Butt when **IT hits the Fan.”  It’s got some good info and it’s easy to digest, and you can get it for free by signing up for my newsletter.

(I hesitated for a day about sending this note, because I don’t want to appear as if I’m ‘marketing a tragedy.’ But the fact is – stopping fear and misinformation is what I’m passionate about. And right now, people can use my help.)

The tragic events in Japan will be chaotic for the next several weeks.

We will all be assessing the impacts of the past week for the next several months. But this is not the time.

The images we see on TV and on the Internet will cause fear and unrest amongst everyone. If your business is affected by the recent tragedies, I’d like to offer some help.

The last things we all need are knee jerk reactions or defensive half-measures towards trust and credibility.

Let’s chat, either on the phone or via Skype. I am happy to help walk you through some fundamental steps you can take to reassure your employees, customers, or regulating authorities.

For example, if you work in nuclear medicine and are concerned about how to address concerns about nuclear safety, please give me a call.

If your supply line depends on overseas inventory, and you need to inform your customers about possible shortages, please call me.

If the images are causing you or your employees to reconsider natural disaster emergency plans, call me.

I would rather work with you, for free, than see fear and misinformation grab a foothold in your industry right now. You are no doubt going to have enough challenges over the next few months. Building trust and credibility shouldn’t be one of them.

Free. No obligation, gratis. If you feel obligated, please make a donation to a disaster relief organization in lieu of compensation. This is simply my way of trying to help out during a very stressful and tragic time.

If you’re concerned about how to defend your industry or organization right now – especially in the light of some horrible events – please don’t hesitate. Call me.

(And if you know someone who can use my help, please feel free to pass along this note.)

98% of the events I get called in on are entirely predictable.

Take, for example, product recalls.  Anyone who manufactures anything should, if they are prudent, be prepared for a  recall.  That announcement doesn’t have to be a crisis.  Any reasonable manufacturer will have had a spokesperson, key messages and contingency plans already in place.

Why? It’s a fundamental fact – if you make something, it stands to common sense and logic that eventually, something will go wrong.  That doesn’t make you a corporate villain.  It makes you entirely normal.

But what does an organization do in the event of a ‘true’ crisis?  A ‘true’ crisis is an event that no one could reasonably foresee, and has tremendously damaging consequences.  The term “Black Swan Theory” comes to mind.

Volcanic ash clouds shutting down European airports? That’s a black swan.  Terrorists bombing the World Trade Centre?  Black swan.  On a smaller level, discovering your business partner and supplier had a factory explosion, or that your accountant was secretly Russian mafia could qualify.  It doesn’t matter WHAT it is, it matters THAT it is both unexpected and catastrophic.

What’s the key to communicating through a black swan? I call it the shampoo model:  Lather, Rinse, and Repeat.

Lather:
Figure out who you need to talk to. Cast a wide net, and figure out how to reach them.

There are obvious target audiences.  Customers are a given.  Mainstream media.  Shareholders.  But don’t forget regulatory authorities, next door neighbours, or even your competitors.  Leave no stone unturned, and no stakeholder uninformed, especially if that stakeholder has access to a microphone.  Three days after Toyota announced massive, unprecedented recalls, there wasn’t a single word from Toyota with key messages available for the 81,000 fans on their Facebook page.  That’s 81,000 potential spokespeople who were ignored.

Different audiences require different tools. A mass email may work for one group, a dedicated website for another, one-on-one phone calls for a third.  The important point is to figure out who, and how.

Rinse
Often times in the midst of a true crisis, reliable information is hard to ascertain.  Use this fact as a help, not a hindrance.

In the days immediately following 9-11, New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani had a simple but brutally effective communications model.  “Here is what we know, here is what we don’t know, and here is where you can go for more information.”

By acknowledging both the facts and the unknowns, Giuliani established himself as the ‘go to’ source for information and reassurance in the event of a crisis.  Acknowledging you don’t know something establishes yourself as even more credible in the eyes of an audience which reasonably doesn’t expect you to have information in the first place.

Repeat
There is no such thing as a news cycle anymore. You’re reading this online.  Chances are good that most of you will have read at least one piece of online news in the 6 hours before or after reading this note.

Online news doesn’t have deadlines. Cable news doesn’t have deadlines.  News radio doesn’t have deadlines.  And if your black swan is news worthy to the public at large, even normal media outlets will cut into an episode of “The Brady Bunch” to bring news about a major news story.

News is constantly changing. So should your key message.  Don’t make the perfect the enemy of the good – get out there and start communicating.

Remember – if they’re talking about you, you can leave the corporate spokesperson job to one of two people – someone whom you’ve picked, or someone whom the media picks.  Do you really need to guess which one is better?

Ultimately, this is all about living to communicate another day.  Delivering information on your own terms leaves you alive and in a position to build trust and credibility later.  Get the information out poorly, and you may discover that the swan is only black because of the tar in its feathers.

Why do I call them “hidden” ways? It’s simple – chances are good you’ve never thought about them.

I’m working with a client today that had their office broken into.  Despite being under lock and key, three laptops were stolen, and along with them, confidential information onover 8,000 customers.  It’s truly a case of “bad things happen to good companies.”

My client is a victim, yet they are now spending a lot of money to inform eight thousand people their identity is at risk.  Not only is this a huge financial hit short term, the long term consequences have yet to play out.  Will they lose customers?  Not if I can help it.  But needless to say, my client is not having a great day.

My role is to step in and stop the bleeding, and turn things around. We’re going to do it – at the end of the day, this will be a fantastic opportunity to reinforce customer trust and confidence.  But it’s a lot like a forest fire.  Sometimes, a forest fire is a good way to kickstart new growth.  Sometimes, despite the best intentions, you end up burning down entire communities by accident.  No one wants to see that happen.

Since a new year brings new challenges, I thought I’d compile a list of ways you can have a really bad public relations day that you probably haven’t thought of – yet.  Since it’s 2010, I’ll come up with ten (and only ten, as opposed to 2,010!)  Each are conceivable, real life situations that happen every day… and yes, each are easily solved if you’ve prepped for them in advance.  But have you?

10/ Watch your competitors burn with glee (aka ‘afflicted competitor syndrome)
When “Balloon-Boy” Falcon Heene was dominating the CNN feed one afternoon last fall, I received a phone call from one of the largest manufacturers of ballooning equipment in North America.  Obviously, this manufacturer had NOTHING to do with the Heene family… that contraption was entirely home-built.  Nevertheless, by the time I received a phone call, the company had received over fifty (!) media requests for interviews.

If your competitor does something dumb, don’t assume it reflects ONLY on them… especially if you share a territory, a technology or a customer base.  No matter how awful your competitor is, their bad day can quickly become yours as well.

9/ Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
The Challenger blew up because of a bad o-ring.  Maple Leaf staged a multi-million dollar food recall because a knife wasn’t properly cleaned.  If you discover ‘little things’ going wrong, the easiest way for that little thing to become a full blown forest fire is to ignore it.

8/ Short-Sell Stupid
Look – if it’s dumb, chances are good you’ve done it.  I know I have.  And if you’re so clumsy in real life, why do you expect your employees to be better?

Who’s job was it to clean that knife at Maple Leaf – and does it really matter?  Did Domino’s plan for one of their employees to pick their nose, sell it with a pizza and capture it on Youtube?  Of course not.  Can you guarantee one of your customer service reps will never swear at a customer?  Of course you can’t.

People can be inherently stupid.  Planning for that isn’t insulting – it’s just good corporate practice.

7/ A rising tide can lift all boats.  An ebbing tide… well, don’t ask.
Imagine being in charge of a high-tech start up three months before the tech bubble burst in the early 2000’s.  Or how could you manage Investor Relations for ANY publicly traded company between October and March of last year?

Did you do anything wrong?  No, not really.  Does that matter to the investors who want to turn your annual report into toilet paper?  Not one little bit.

6/ Guilty by Association
Do you know where your raw materials come from?  Have you visited their warehouse?  Have you ever wondered WHY their quote was cheaper?  In an era of ’sustainability,’ accusations of sweatshop labour or environmental sins can have damning consequences.  The list of accused organizations reads like a Fortune 500 list – Apple Computer, Nike, Wal-Mart, even Kathie Lee Gifford.  It’s simply not enough to make sure only your own house is in order.

5/ The Golden Competition (aka the OPPOSITE of afflicted competitor syndrome)
I try to avoid partisan examples, but look at  the Republican National Committee.  In one year, their competition a) swept Congress b) won the Presidency, and c) won the Nobel Peace Prize.  If you’re in charge of communications at the RNC, that’s a solidly bad year.  What did the RNC do to deserve all of that?  It doesn’t matter if they deserve it or not – it’s happened.  And as a result, it’s a tarnished brand.

Obviously, time heals all wounds, especially in politics… but it’s not a huge leap to ask, “Has this happened to me or my brand in the past year as well?”

4/ Assume you’re Secure
Look at the example at the top of this page.  My client is spending a small mint to potentially infuriate 8,000 of their best customers – because it’s the right thing to do.  Those three laptops were behind two locked doors and chained to their desks.  It didn’t stop the criminals.  Whether it’s a hacker, a careless employee or downright negligence – how can you prepare for having your dirty laundry aired in public?

3/ Assume your People are Happy
I’m always cynical about claims, “our people wouldn’t do such a thing” or “we have the best employees in the world.”  Keep in mind – I’m self employed for a reason.  I have a simple prism… I am a good, honest and loyal person.  And if I don’t want to work for you, why would anyone else?

Why on earth do you think your employees are happy?  Have you asked them?  Have you asked them… lately?  Have you honestly asked them what you can be doing better?  Try a simple question:  “Would you leave this company tomorrow if you had a similar opportunity?”  You may be shocked at the results.

Companies that ignore their own people deserve what comes from ‘that.’  And typically, ‘that’ is never a good thing.  Damaging headlines… strike action… regulatory reviews… government inspections… Chances are good they were instigated by a disgruntled employee.

Which means, as the employer, you really have no excuse not to have seen that one coming.

2/ You Don’t Know what You Don’t Know
The stories are legendary… Chrysler had to rebadge the “Lacrosse” in Quebec because in French, it’s a synonym for masturbation.  In Spanish, the Chevy Nova translated to “Chevy doesn’t go.”   Tropicana pulled their packaging after forgetting to ask it’s customers if they liked the new design.

Whether it’s cultural sensitivities, regional disparities, religious differences or accidentally using the logo of the wrong local sports team, screw ups happen.  Sometimes you can’t prevent it – no one knows everything.  But how do you repair the damage after it occurs?

1/ Acts of God or Terrorism

Some mistakes you ought to have seen coming.  Not having a response is simply bad judgement.  But then – some mistakes are more than mistakes.  They’re called crises.  Fire, accidents, explosions, shootings… unfortunately, none of them are unrealistic.

Here is an inescapable truth:  The fact you were targeted by tragedy does very little to influence public opinion.  How you respond to that tragedy means just about everything.

How are you prepared?

Here’s your opportunity to get rich and famous.  Well, at least famous.

This week is “stay at home and recover” week (long story, but it involves a deviated septum, a skilled surgeon, some Tylenol and a Lazyboy).  So what better time to get some long awaited work done on my book?

As part of the process, I’m compiling a list of credibility crisis moments for any company.  I’ve compiled a list of events that can happen to you or your business/organization.  Every single one of these is realistic, easy to slip into, and causes sleepless nights for corporate communicators all over the globe.

What would you add?  What events have YOU run into that you can share with your fellow communicators?  (Remember – commenting on a blog post automatically makes you sexier.) 

I’ll deal with strategy and tactics later.  For now, I’m just concentrating on what you need to develop a strategy FOR.

TWENTY WAYS TO GET YOURSELF IN TROUBLE

Wonky test results
e.g. You get an email or a voicemail from the production line “I’m not sure what to make of these numbers.  We haven’t gotten any phone calls yet, but it looks like we’re getting some cross contamination on the floor… do we need to be worried?

Continue reading…

An Ontario turkey grower, Hybrid Turkeys, has reported the first case of turkey-born H1N1 influenza in North America.

Releasing bad news always comes with a hearty case of the “Oh, Crud!’s” for the communicators.  As someone who’s had to face a hostile or alarmed media audience more than once, my heart goes out to the person responsible for breaking the news.

This is a classic case of a company which hasn’t done anything wrong, but is now instantly thrown into the spotlight.  Not only are their products being questioned, so are their practices, procedures and policies.  It gets even worse if you are one of the ‘afflicted competitors’ – your products get questioned despite the fact you clearly haven’t done anything.

There’s just no getting around it – people are having a few bad days in the turkey industry.  But what can the different players do differently, in order to keep their pain to a minimum?

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Ontario Turkey Farmers – Don’t ignore the problem
Given the timing of the announcement (just as we head into the seasonal ‘turkey rush), this is a great time for OTF to welcome the spotlight, and reassure customers that “turkeys are absolutely safe to eat.”  But unfortunately, 18 hours after the initial news release hit the media, their website is silent.  Ignoring aproblem isn’t going to make it go away.   If nothing else, even a link to the news releases prepared by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture or the grower, Hybrid Turkeys, would help, and is a quick, easy fix.

(UPDATE – as of 11am, TFO has updated their website.  And in a fantastic piece of messaging (see below for the alternative,) the key message is a great one: Turkey meat is safe.) Kudos to the Turkey Farmers of Canada.)

Ontario Government – Don’t deny a negative with a negative
The Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) has a link on their main page to a news release.  And they come close to solving a critical consumer question – but they fail in delivery.  The easiest, deadliest trap for any communicator is denying a negative allegation with a negative answer.  (Remember “I am not a crook,” or “I did not have sex with that woman, Miss Lewinsky?” )

What they said: “Food safety is not at risk. No birds or eggs from this facility have entered the food chain.”

What they should have said: “Eating turkeys continues to be safe.  The turkeys from this facility will remain on this farm, and out of the food chain, in order to guarantee consumer safety.”

Why are negatives so deadly?  Negatives confirm the original allegation in the mind of the questioner.  A negative statement is far more memorable than apositive – and that’s exactly what you don’t want when you’re dealing with a crisis of confidence.

Hybrid Turkeys – Playing too close to the chest
I understand why Hybrid doesn’t want the media poking around their barns.  But not disclosing the location of the barn in question does two things, and neither of them are particularly good… a) it gives the media something to ‘whack’ the company with, and b) it casts every facility in their operation under the same cloud.

Here’s a harsh reality:  Nothing upsets a reporter quicker than discovering a news source is withholding information.  Understandably, Hybrid doesn’t want ‘unclean’ tv crews poking around their facilities.

Rather than just not disclosing, Hybrid can create their own “B-Roll” footage – broadcast quality background material showing the facility in question.  Show rows of neat, orderly, happy turkeys.  Show some of the biosecurity measures in place.  A two minute video clip can be made available to reporters, along with the following caveat: “We understand you would like to show the facility in question.  Strict biosecurity measures are in place to protect both the health of the animals, as well as the health of ordinary people.  We respectfully request that non-authorized visitors refrain from visiting the operation in question.  In lieu of your visit, we are pleased to offer background footage of the facility, and are more than happy to answer any of your questions.

Being proactive like that gives the appearance of openness, without the hassle of unauthorized visitors.  It also lets Hybrid release information under THEIR control.

—–

All in all – not a bad job at all.  But implementing a few simple ideas improves a volatile situation, and makes the tough pill just a bit easier to swallow.

I am one of the only crisis communication experts I know who does not like ‘emergency plans.’

I’ve seen countless blog posts and industry articles lamenting the lack of good emergency plans. Here in Canada, one of the Provincial Governments is considering forcing non-government businesses to prepare emergency plans. I have helped organizations large and small prepare emergency plans… but I always say the same thing: “Chances are good that when you need it, this won’t do you any good.”

I have actually heard people gasp, out loud, when I say that. For a crisis communications consultant, crapping on an emergency plan is considered sacrilegious, equivalent to a Catholic Priest skipping his tour of the Vatican and going to the amusement park instead.

Remember, I make my money teaching businesses how to communicate more effectively in the event of a crisis.  So why on earth would I NOT like emergency plans?  The answer, to be blunt?  They are, with few exceptions, a complete waste of time.

What is far more useful is creating a crisis communications mindset. And a crisis communications mindset is nowhere near the same thing as an emergency plan.

If an ‘emergency plan’ causes an organization to sit up, adopt a wholesale rethink of the way they do things and determine how they can do better, that’s fantastic.  I’ll happily eat my words.  Unfortunately, far too often, an emergency plan does exactly the opposite… they fool the company into thinking their bases are covered.

One is a constant, perpetual state of mind. The other is a piece of paper.  One is a way of doing things.  The other is a way that things could, in theory, be done.

Let me help break it down:

- Discovering your building is on fire, you call your managers at 3am since you have their home numbers programmed into your personal cell phone:  crisis mindset.

- Discovering your building is on fire, you drive to the scene, only to recognize that your emergency plan is now ashes:  emergency plan.

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- Gathering your top people around to simulate emergencies on a regular basis, in order to best determine next steps: crisis mindset.

- Hiring a PR consultant to help you write a book, which gets put in a filing cabinet: emergency plan.

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- Routinely having team meetings so other members of the team know what all the arms of an organization are up to, or simply letting your tool and die workers learn how to operate a different type of machine so they can fill in “just in case:” crisis mindset.

- Not having any real idea what the person in the next cubicle does, or how he or she does it: emergency plan.

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A crisis mindset means your employees have a fire drill on a regular basis. An emergency plan means you discussed what a fire drill would look like.

An emergency plan poorly thought out is more dangerous than simply not having one. It’s rather akin to hanging empty fire extinguishers on the wall.  All they do is act as wall decorations, while providing a false sense of security.

When Johnson and Johnson decided to institute a nationwide recall of tylenol, that wasn’t drawn up in an emergency plan.  Same with Maple Leaf deciding to recall packaged meats. These are decisions resulting from a crisis mindset – and a steadfast determination to do ‘what is right.’

Formal plans are a great tool. They can spark an intellectual discussion.  They can act as a crutch when you need something to lean on.  Unfortunately, in the event of a true crisis, it’s very hard to run with crutches.