I think everyone breathed a sigh of relief when Police Officers converged on a bloody, tired and overwhelmed terror suspect Friday evening.  The nation has had the weekend to celebrate.  But today, the hangovers begin.

It may not seem like it at first, but life as you know it just got dramatically different. The rules we operate under our different.  The expectations from the public are different.  Smart companies will recognize that and adjust – lazy companies are going to keep trying to do things the way they did last week.  They’ll pay the consequences.

I’ve put together a quick list now of four industries which are going to be dramatically affected by events of the past week – but there are many, many more.   I’m curious to know who else should be added to the list?

 If you run a large public gathering:

Whether it’s a marathon, an art-walk, or you’re an arena manager – things are dramatically different now.  Accept it.  People don’t need to know simply that they are safe.  Who is the best spokesperson to help explain WHY your attendees are safe? 

What changes can you clearly point to between this week and last?  Do you know how to answer highly emotional questions YOURSELF, without deferring to the local Police Department? What question is simply lying out there that you are horrified to confront – better get it figured out now.

Having a good repartee with your police liaison is important, but it’s NOT the same thing as being prepared to answer tough questions.  Your local police Chief is probably great at providing yes or no answers, but not so great at defending your good name, especially when, in his or her mind – they haven’t done anything wrong yet!

If you have ANYTHING to do with immigration:

First – let’s be frank.  We all know the input and contributions of immigrants not only made our culture great, but those contributions are what continues to make our culture great.  That being said – don’t for a second think you can rely on those sentiments.

How do you convince people you, your employees and/or your clients are great, hard-working people who wish you no harm?   In a move that’s both sad and funny, the American Ambassador from the Czech Republic felt forced to issue a news release clarifying that the Czech Republic was not, in fact, the same region as Chechnya.

Think about this – the Czechs are a NATO ally on the war on terrorism!   If even they feel obligated to differentiate on an issue of 1,700 miles difference, don’t  take the lazy way out and assume the general public will assume your immigrants are the ‘non-scary ones.’

If you handle chemicals

Reports are coming that the fertilizer plant in West, Texas may have had up to 1,500 times the allowable limit of stored chemicals on site.  If you don’t know what RTK legislation is, research it.  Called “Right to Know” legislation, it has different forms and variations across the country.

Imagine going to every neighbor in your region and explaining what you have on-site, and what the possible risks are.  Imagine the different ways notification could be made… but dream up the worst possible scenario.  After the West, Texas fiasco, chances are good a lawmaker in your own State is already ahead of you, and already has something in mind that’s far, far more restrictive and damaging.

You can either play the cards you’ve been dealt, or you can stack the deck for yourself.  Figure out what the tough questions are and come up with effective ways of disclosing that information to the community around you.

WHAT!  Blow the whistle on yourself without being asked!  Oh please – It’s a lot like getting a vaccination – don’t tell me you’re afraid of a little pinch, when that pinch can bring a world of good?

If you’re in Law Enforcement

Enjoy the moment in the sun.  (As an aside, as I was watching the crowd in Watertown, MA cheer the law enforcement community as they left the scene on Friday night, I realized “Isn’t it great where we live in a culture where we CHEER the police, rather than live in fear of them?”)

That honeymoon, unfortunately, is going to dry up quick.  As people wake up this morning, questions are going to start coming in soon.  “Are you prepared for something like this?”  “What are you doing to prevent it?”  “Do you track known terror suspects in our community?” “How many are there?”  “What other programs do you have in place?”

Spend a few days NOW, while you have the luxury of good will, and draw up every damaging or awkward question you can think of.  Now start coming up with good answers, NOW, rather than on-the-fly.  You’ll thank me later.

One last point

Yes, I know you’re busy.  Yes I know you have competing priorities.  Preparing for these questions is the most effective way of ENSURING your priorities remain on track – and don’t get completely derailed by two months of public confusion and hysteria.

I’m not talking about football fans in San Francisco.  I’m talking about major brand managers.  The major brand managers who spent tens of millions on major advertising showpieces last night – and got upstaged by a graphic designer from Oreo.  This morning, those people are talking about three things:  A great football game, an unfortunately timed power blackout – and brilliant timing by a cookie company.

Shortly into the third quarter of the biggest television (and advertising) event of the year, the New Orleans Superdome went dark.  As the blackout dragged on for over a half hour, social media lit up with comments like “Who would have thought New Orleans may not have top-shape infrastructure?” or “At least this time, it’s rich folks trapped in the Superdome.”)

The marketing team at Oreo jumped at the opportunity with a brilliant, simple ad.  They tweeted: “Power outage?  No problem.”  Along with this picture:

It worked because the folks at Oreo got permission to act, and act quickly.   Much like a sniper’s well-placed bullet, one tweet acted like a massive force multiplier… but only because they were able to act quickly.  Oreo saw an opportunity and acted on it.

There’s a reason the Chinese term for crisis is the combined pictograms for ‘danger’ and ‘opportunity.’  When ‘crap hits the fan,’ the need to act quickly is even more important.

Unfortunately, this is when many organizations go into ‘turtle’ mode.  Afraid to face realities, stung by the scene folding in front of them, for many organizations, acting this quickly is unthinkable.

Bank this – the key to surviving a crisis is ultimately rather simple, if you can execute it.  1/ Give your people the skills and training to know how to react.  2/ Give your people the freedom to act.

This second step – the freedom to act – is tough to enact.  Empowering people to act when you’re stinging may not be what you WANT to do, but for many organizations, it’s what you’re going to HAVE to do.

For Oreo, the ability to act quickly created a marketing coup.  For an organization in crisis, the ability to act quickly is nothing short of survival.

And when they fail, they all tend to fail in one critical area: they forget about ‘tomorrow.’ Here’s a sad reality often ignored: The days and weeks AFTER a crisis are far, far more likely to get you in trouble than the event itself.

No one likes to think about bad events happening to him or her. I’m a parent myself, and will freely admit to breaking down while reading about the horrific events in Newtown, Connecticut. As a movie buff, it could have been me in a movie theatre in Aurora, Colorado, or shopping for Christmas presents in Portland, Oregon. But all three of those events have something in common – even though the venues did nothing wrong, for them, the crisis continues long after the fact.

Life simply does not return to normal. No one denies that a crisis event is a ‘high-stress, high-tension moment.” But chances are good the event that caused the crisis is a ‘forgiveable’ crisis. We didn’t blame the school district in Newtown; we blame the shooter.

Crisis events are awful, but for the most part, it’s not the crisis that’s going to give you heartburn for years to come. Stop and think about this for a second: even though the theatre in Colorado did nothing wrong, it is being vilified for how it is handling the events after the crisis.

Relatives of the majority of people killed in a Colorado movie theatre rejected an invitation on Wednesday to attend its reopening later this month, calling it a “disgusting offer.”

‘D-Day Plus One (or two, etc)’ is when nervous sponsors want to know why they should continue the relationship with your festival or special event. If you’re in aviation, this is when FAA inspectors who want to know where you screwed up, or airport authorities start blaming YOUR procedures.

This is especially true for festivals and special events, for a really simple reason – they tend to occur on weekends. If your event happens to host a ‘crisis event’ on a weekend, you may be able to skate past a weekend news crew full of rookies and fresh journalism graduates. But Monday is when the veteran investigative reporter comes in to the newsroom, and wants to probe the recent incident. And the questions he asks aren’t going to be as basic or friendly.

Sure, you may have survived the first day because your training and notification procedures worked, but you’re certainly not out of the woods yet. Thinking you’re ‘in the clear’ is going to bite you.

Especially if you’re a mere venue, it’s not THAT the incident occurred, it’s how you REACT to the incident that determines your trust and credibility. And that reaction will be judged for days and weeks to come. Like it or not, this is when you have to be prepared to answer tough questions. Even though you may have done nothing wrong, the allegations are going to come in one form or another.

• When did you know?
• What did you do to prevent this from happening at the time?
• What changes are you making in the future?
• We saw this happen in another state, why haven’t you learned your lesson?
• When will you re-open? Is that being sensitive? • What do you have to say to the families/employees affected?
• So on, so on, and so on.

Don’t forget, you’re likely also managing these questions without the benefit of a full nights sleep. It’s easy to slip up here… and when you do, you can pay the price for years.

The crisis event itself is often a piece of cake by comparison. The real problems are far sneakier… they sleep overnight and show up in your office wearing a suit.

Chances are good that IF you have given any thought to ‘crisis communications,’ you’ve focused most of your thought on ‘D-Day.’ General Eisenhower didn’t win a war by landing on a beach and staying put. Make sure your communication efforts go further.

First, the story of Steve Kuhr. Mr Kuhr was, until very recently, the head of New York States Emergency Services (technically: the executive deputy commissioner of the state Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Services…. let’s just call him ‘the emergency guy.’)

The important point here is “was.” Because as of today, he ‘is’ unemployed. And why?

Kuhr diverted public works crews from cleaning up after Hurricane Sandy… not to rescue a kitten.  Not to save a little old lady… no… he wanted them to remove a tree from his driveway. And when I say they were ‘cleaning up’, I don’t mean sweeping the streets of litter.  I mean making sure electricity was turned back on and the drinking water was safe to consume.   So, apparently, that is one heck of an important tree.

The Governor, to his credit, immediately canned Mr Kuhr.

Contrast that to Blayne Barber. Blayne is an aspiring professional golfer, who was attempting to qualify to join the PGA tour. Midway through a tournament last week, he ‘thought’ he ‘may’ have brushed a leaf illegally. His caddy insists the leaf did not move, but just in case, Barber docked himself an extra stroke.

The problem is that a penalty for removing an obstruction is two strokes. So, a full six days later, “I continued to pray about it and think about it, and I just did not have any peace about it, I knew I needed to do the right thing.”

So he called the tournament director and had himself disqualified.

Bear in mind – no one actually saw the leaf move. His caddy insists the leaf did not move. And ironically – if he had simply taken a two-stroke penalty instead of one, he still would have advanced to the next round. But he felt it was incumbent upon him to do the right thing.

“I just feel peace about it,” Barber said. “Doing the right thing and doing what I know is right in my heart and in my conscience is more important than short-term success.”

Kudos to you, Blayne Barber. 

Kudos.

For international readers, Joe Fontana is a former Federal Cabinet Minister and Member of Parliament.  He resigned from Federal office and is now the Mayor of the Southwestern Ontario City of London, Ontario (population approx. 360k).

The problem began just over a week ago. The local newspaper produced evidence Fontana had paid for all or part of his own son’s wedding several years ago, using a government expense account. At best, that is unethical, at worst, it’s highly illegal.

His handling of the controversy has been… appallingly poor.  There’s no nice way to put this – it’s simply awful.  The best term you can come up with is ‘devastatingly shy of effective.”

And why is it so poor?  Primarily, it’s because Fontana is listening to his lawyer. When originally confronted with the allegations, Fontana stated that the information was erroneous.  He said he has evidence of a personal payment that was made.

Before he could produce the evidence, he hired a local lawyer, and ‘on the advice of his legal counsel, is not making any further public comments.’

Wow.

Lesson one: Surround yourself with people smarter than yourself.  Bounce ideas off them.  Make sure they tell you stuff you don’t like to hear on occasion.  These are your real allies.  I call them “perspective buddies.”  Good ones are invaluable.

An ostrich buries his head in the sand, doesn’t saying a word, and hopes the problem goes away.  You know what lions call ostriches when they do that?  Lunch.

A lawyer may be able to prevent you from getting convicted.  MAY.  But he or she doesn’t care if you lose sales, lose market share, get pilloried in the media, or in the case of an elected official – lose public confidence in the position.

The ‘shut-up strategy’ truly is mind-blowing in its stupidity.  Either there’s a paper trail clearly showing evidence of guilt, in which case, Fontana is merely poisoning the potential jury pool…. Or there’s evidence of innocence, in which case the voters of London can have their elected leadership back.  Shutting up merely perpetuates the problem.

Lesson two: Ignoring a problem never makes the problem go away.  At best, you’re only going to delay the inevitable.  More likely, it simply makes you appear stubborn, insensitive and arrogant.

The fires have gotten worse.  Previous allies on Fontana’s City Council have called on the Mayor to step aside until the allegations could be proven either way.  Fontana refused.

Lesson three: When facing allegations against you, people feel they deserve an open, honest response, which shows leadership.  Being silent means you refuse to deliver any of the three.

When forced to attend a public City Council meeting this week, Fontana had the gall to point to a poppy on his lapel and say he has the right to due process.  Pointing to his poppy – a symbol of remembrance for fallen war veterans – only managed to infuriate the local veteran’s community.  Now, other community groups are rescinding invitations for the Mayor to attend community events.

Lesson four: Righteous indignation only works when you have the moral high ground.  And for Mayor Fontana, here’s a simple geography lesson – it doesn’t matter what the circumstances are – when you’re accused of wrongdoing, you do not have the moral high ground.  Period.

When the original allegations came out, Mayor Fontana’s home was set on fire.  He had a choice to go face the flames and put them out.  He didn’t.  He ignored the problem… and fire did what it does naturally.  It burned.

His career has been irreparably burned.  He had an opportunity to recover from this if he had addressed it earlier.   He let it burn for far too long.  The London Free Press ran an online poll asking whether or not the Mayor should resign.  I would hope the Mayor had his friends vote “no.”  Even so – over 80% of the respondents want him to go.

Lesson five: You’re always communicating, whether you intend to or not.  It’s up to you whether you communicate trust and credibility, or whether you communicate “I’m guilty and avoiding you.”

There is no denying that sometimes, life hurts.  There’s no fine point here… sometimes you get the raw end of the deal. Product recalls are going to happen, allegations will be made, and accidents will hurt or even kill people.

Lesson six: When awful things happen, there are victims. That’s awful.  But sacrificing your own trust, credibility and reputation simply adds to the victim count… and that is entirely preventable.

How you prepare for, and respond to, those ‘raw deals’ says far more about you than any paid marketing ever can.  Maintaining trust, building credibility and being a trusted source helps everyone.

(If you’re an NFL fan, sing it with me: “The ref’s are back! The ref’s are back!” If you’re not an NFL fan, forgive me. But it is still good news. Trust me.)

I’m sure you may have noticed bad things happen in bunches.

Just as soon as a major beef recall winds down, another one is announced. Three airplanes crash inside a month. Corporate CEO’s face corruption charges in one week.

It doesn’t matter what the ‘bad thing’ is, they tend to happen in clusters. Why?

I used to be convinced it was merely confirmation bias by the media. It’s not that airplanes crash in clusters – but once an airplane crashes in a particular market, the media in that market are far more sensitive to aviation safety. As a result, they are hyper-vigilant on aviation safety issues when they’re preparing their newscast.

Simply put – statistically, the same number of planes crash every month across the globe. You simply tend to hear about it in sporadic bursts.

But the recent NFL referee lockout has me thinking there may be actual science to the theory. Maybe, once something has been ‘damaged,’ the odds on more bad things happening really are higher.

If you’re an NFL fan, you saw this with referee performance. The replacement refs were passable in week one. By week two they were simply bad. By week three, they were awful. Despite three weeks of on-field practice, they actually got WORSE as each week went on.

If you’re an NFL fan, that’s frustrating. If you happen to own, run, or manage a business, this should terrify you. Why?

Eric Adelson covered this particular phenomenon in Yahoo News. In the article, he quotes Barnard College Professor Steven Stroessner. Why did the refs keep screwing up?Short answer – the reason replacement referees suck is exactly the same reason an organizational spokesperson screws up during a high-risk or crisis situation.

It’s called “stereotype threat… when performance is harmed by an awareness of an expectation of poor performance.” Stroessner explains that when a group is widely expected to fare poorly at a task, the pressure of that negative perception takes up crucial brain space needed for a job well done. And then the members of that group – in this case the replacement refs – screw up.

“We know when there’s an expectation of poor performance, and that can have a few predictable consequences,” Stroessner says. “It does reduce working memory capacity. There are fewer cognitive resources. When you’re in a high-stakes situation, dealing with a lot of information, you’ve also got additional worries about the situation: ‘I hope I don’t blow this. Everyone’s expecting me to get this wrong.’ “

If people are angry, critical and hyper-vigilant, they EXPECT you to screw up. And therefore, they are watching for any little mistake to jump on and prove their theory right.
Mistakes are emphasized, and the years of trust and credibility you’ve worked so hard to build up can get flushed down the toilet by a simple, easy-to-do mistake.

The antidote to this? Stroessner has a simple answer: “Lots of practice.”

Lots of practice. Amen.

Think about it – when was the last time your organization truly put itself ‘through the wringer?’ NFL Referees watch game film and conduct conference calls every week because they know that every move they make is done under a microscope.

If your competition has just survived a major recall, don’t for one second think you’re out of the woods. In fact, you’re in even more danger.

If you’ve survived a major accident several years ago, that wound will be fresh for years.

At the end of the day, NFL Football is just a game. We’re discussing something far more serious – your livelihood. Your corporate survival may very well be at risk. Do you really want to bet your future having ‘sort-of’ practiced some interviews three years ago? ]]> http://checkmatepublicaffairs.com/blog/the-easiest-way-to-screw-up-is-to-have-had-a-screw-up/feed/ 0 http://checkmatepublicaffairs.com/blog/the-easiest-way-to-screw-up-is-to-have-had-a-screw-up/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CheckmatePublicAffairs/~3/NuqR7IHhghY/ http://checkmatepublicaffairs.com/blog/the-death-of-deadlines/#comments Thu, 02 Aug 2012 19:17:10 +0000 jchatterton http://checkmatepublicaffairs.com/blog/?p=287

The Death of Deadlines

I love the Olympics. As I write this, I’m on my couch, watching sports like track cycling, beach volleyball and badminton – sports I only watch every four years.

I’m not unique. People love the Olympics, and for years, NBC has shown it to them. But this year, NBC is taking incredible public pressure for their lack of coverage. People are incredibly frustrated that they can only watch Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte swim several hours after the fact.

NBC’s tape-delayed coverage has even spawned it’s own Twitter hashtag: #NBCfail. Go ahead: Google it.

So why are people so upset? For comparison, I’ll refer you to Kerri Strug in 1996.

Remember Strug? It was iconic. Team USA needed a clean vault to clinch female gymnastics gold in the Atlanta Olympics, but Kerri Strug had a sprained ankle. Despite the injury, she pulled it off, clinching gold, and became a national hero. It was the tense, feel-good, heroic story that NBC lives for.

And in 1996, America found out about it 90 minutes after it happened.

I was watching, live coverage, in Canada at the time. In those 90 minutes, I had time to call several American friends of mine to make sure they tuned in. And those friends were incredulous that I already knew the result.

You could get away with a 90-minute delay in 1996. You can’t anymore. Why?

The easy answer is social media, but it’s larger than that. It’s a bandwidth issue. The average consumer simply gathers information much more quickly.

The headlines with results go out on Twitter and Facebook within seconds. Email news alerts from mainstream media sources follow minutes later. Even competing ‘mainstream’ media have smartened up – ABC will lead with Olympic results, knowing that if the event hasn’t aired yet on NBC, they’ve ruined that breathless anticipation. It puts a pin into their competitors balloon.

NBC used to be able to release information on its own schedule. It can’t anymore. The average consumer simply has too many ways to know the score.

So if a media giant like NBC can’t control the speed at which information – damaging or otherwise – makes it out to the world, why would you?

If you have a product recall, a boil-water-advisory or any other piece of “aw, crap” news, you USED to be able to prepare.

Maybe the TV station would call and want to interview you about an issue at your facility. Back in the day, you’d freak out, but invite the TV crew over for 10 am. As you mull over key messages, you’d call the Mayor, your CEO, whoever you want – just so they heard the news from you first.

You could privately keep all your important stakeholders informed of the ‘real’ story before the news broke that evening at 6pm. Not anymore.

No… Today, the news hits Twitter and Facebook long before 10am. Media respond by asking questions that your agitated stakeholders want answered. And the bad news is known to the world long before the TV truck rolls up to your door… regardless of whether you’ve had a chance to call your CEO or not.

I suspect this will be the last year NBC gets away with tape-delayed coverage of the Olympics. They have learned their lesson. Have you?

Are your primary spokespeople trained on how to answer difficult questions? Heck – are your primary spokespeople even aware that they’ve been designated the primary spokesperson? Do you have a way to reach them 24/7 with a backup plan in place?

I’m a firm believer that the average “crisis communications plan” is a complete waste of time and money. But for most organizations, being prepared to answer difficult questions quickly isn’t ‘crisis communications.’ It’s called “doing business in 2012.” ]]> http://checkmatepublicaffairs.com/blog/the-death-of-deadlines/feed/ 0 http://checkmatepublicaffairs.com/blog/the-death-of-deadlines/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CheckmatePublicAffairs/~3/j3spPR3XwaI/ http://checkmatepublicaffairs.com/blog/handling-uh-oh-moments/#comments Thu, 10 May 2012 23:27:36 +0000 jchatterton http://checkmatepublicaffairs.com/blog/?p=275 At first blush, you’d think that a professional air show would have some of the best crisis communications on earth.  After all, at an air show, things are very visual, very public, and when things go wrong, they go very, VERY wrong…

HANDLING “UH OH” MOMENTS

It is a sad reality, but it is still a reality: something will inevitably happen during your show that upsets people. We all lie awake at night fearing an incident, but sometimes the incident is commonplace: a sprained ankle, a problem with parking lots, food poisoning or a lost child.

When bad things happen, your ability to handle those incidents makes you a trusted community partner, and does so more effectively than any amount of marketing or promotion. Have you and your spokesperson been trained in emergency communications? If not, you are ignoring a critical link in your ability to operate a respected, profitable show.

Many shows mistakenly believe their police or fire chief can handle communications in an emergency. Most emergency responders are great at relaying crucial information in an emergency, but they aren’t there to build trust or credibility. In short, they don’t work for you, and can’t help you calm down an upset city councilor or agitated sponsor.

Another common pitfall is asking your marketing/promotions team to handle an incident. An “uh-oh moment” is very different than an upbeat and exciting media environment. Being able to calm an upset reporter is different than designing a poster or arranging media rides. Promoting an “all is well” message (especially if all is not well) has the possibility to make things worse.

An investment in emergency communications training (versus simple media training) is a wise move for any air show organization. Even the most seasoned team can use a refresher. After all, there is a lot on the line.

It is a YouTube world. When your “uh-oh moment” happens, it will be online within minutes and will impact you for years. You need a designated spokesperson that has been trained on how to build trust and credibility with a skeptical audience. Not just for your sake, but for the sake of your sponsors, your performers, and the entire air show industry.

* 11 deaths and at least 69 injuries. And yes – those in the air show industry will very quickly claim that Reno was an “Air Race” not an “Air Show.”  I know the difference – but I guarantee you the majority of the public does not.

(Um… What?)

Work with me here. For background, I had laser eye surgery a few years ago.  It was only after being able to read in the shower that I realized shampoo comes with directions.

Seriously? Who bothers to print directions on shampoo?  Is it possible to shampoo wrong?  Am I shampooing the wrong party of my body?  Nagging questions filled my head… But – printed right on the bottle.  “Lather.  Rinse.  Repeat.”

Tom Peters once wrote that the key to excellence is simple – stop doing less than excellent things.  You want to be a superstar communicator?  Stop doing less than superstar work.

So here, in three simple points, is the key to being an excellent risk communicator:

Step One: Lather

Find friends.

It doesn’t matter what the situation is… you want to find friends.

Ask yourself, “Who do we need to talk to about this?”   Start up a list.

If you have a ‘Boil Water Advisory,’ you need to talk to the people who use the water.  But what about ratepayer groups in the area?  What about the City Councilor?  Should you be talking to the local field office of the Environmental Protection Agency?  Is there a form of regional Government?  Don’t forget the school board trustee, and any church or civic organizations…

Cast the net wide. Ask your colleagues.  Brainstorm!

Do you want the local scout troop complaining in the media about something you did?  Of course not!  If you have any reason to suspect they MAY care, try doing something completely crazy and talk to them!

Hold on here – does this mean I want you to tell EVERYONE that your product is flawed, or that you’ve had to fire your CEO?  Do you want to tell everyone, even your enemies?  That depends on far too many variables for a response to come from a book.  But I use a simple barometer: “Are they going to find out about this, and if so, do I want them finding out about it from me?”  The answer is usually a form of yes.

And yes, that means that sometimes it does mean telling your competition.  That’s a strategic decision you’ll have to make, but ask two questions:

-       Will they learn anything from me that will hurt me, or my organization?

-       Can they help us with a new approach or new insight?

Believe it or not, I’ve seen countless examples of competitors helping.  Maybe they can point to a new process, or recommend a solution.  Why would they assist their enemy?  Two reasons.

Primarily, much like eBay, ‘most people are inherently good.’  If you’re being honest and forthright about your issues, intentions and challenges, they may have a genuinely humanitarian desire to help you out.

Secondly, never underestimate the power of a good ego boost.  It could be as simple as one CEO wanting to boast about helping the other CEO when they meet at the country club.  It happens.

If you don’t have relationships with the groups that you’re trying to reach, it’s time to make new friends.  Pick up the darn phone.  Introduce yourself.

Who should you talk to? Again – anyone who will find out about this?  Do you want them to consider you a valuable source for information?  If so… PICK UP THE PHONE!

You have more connections than you realize.  You may have an employee who attends a particular church, or volunteers as a Scout leader.  Ask around.  Again – cast that net wide.

Step Two: Rinse

This is where a well-trained communicator can save a company millions of dollars.  This is an opportunity to make problems go away.  Rinse them out.

Every situation and approach is different. People WILL be upset when you tell them.  That’s expected.  Sometimes they need to vent, sometimes they have legitimate questions, sometimes they need to scream at you and have a temper tantrum.  Every response you make is understandably different.  You can’t learn this in a binder!

This allows you to handle each audience with the care and attention they deserve.  Maybe the Scout Leader has a background in engineering and has technical questions.  This is a fantastic opportunity to introduce him to a technical resource.

Perhaps the City Councilor has a sick husband or wife.  Monitor their recovery.   The questions they ask about long-term health effects of your chemical spill are bound to be personal.

Every viewpoint is different, and perspective is everything.

Step Three: Repeat

After you’ve made the initial round of notifications, don’t assume your work is done.  That’s a dangerous trap to fall into.  If you screw this up, it’s entirely your fault.

Maintain relationships. This is not a ‘one and done’ scenario.  Find out how folks are reacting to what’s going on out there.  This does two things – it shows you have an uncommon level of empathy, and it establishes you as the ‘go to’ source for ongoing information – which is exactly what you want.

Ask how people prefer to be communicated with.  Don’t just send out a weekly email newsletter if folks don’t want to get emails from you.  Use the media that works for you – and for heavens sake, never rely on mainstream media to do your communicating for you.  Chances are good your news release didn’t answer all the questions, and even if it did, that’s absolutely not what the reporters are going to pick up anyway.

Don’t assume people read your website or corporate blog.  Don’t assume they caught the news report from last week.  Don’t assume that what you said actually answered their questions.  Pick up the phone and ask the question “how are you feeling about this?”   Repeat, repeat, repeat.

In Summary:

Find your friends. Talk to them.  Do it again.  Clean up their concern, make it go away, do it again.  Lather, rinse, repeat.

It’s amazing what the directions on a bottle of shampoo can teach us.

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.)