How to stay cool in a crisis
Someone must have thought it was a brilliant wheeze. Connect a tap in your factory in
Sadly for Coke it didn’t work out quite like that. The details of the ‘secret purification process,’ er, ‘leaked out,’ and Coke had no choice except to withdraw all supplies of Dasani from the shelves. Especially when it turned out that the drink also contained twice the legal limit of a nasty cancer-causing substance called bromate.
And who can forget jewelery magnate Gerald Ratner’s immortal line that his company sells ‘total crap.’ He may not go down in history as the most media-savvy company chief. But he has the consolation of knowing that the expression ‘doing a Ratner’ has now entered popular speech as a way of saying someone screwed up royally.
Someone else who did a Ratner is the Chief Executive of Barclays, who admitted that he wouldn’t use his own company’s credit card because it was too expensive. Don’t we know it…
At The Media Training Company we know from long experience that however smart you think you are, the unexpected can happen. Something you say is repeated out of context, to use the weasel words. Or things just go wrong. Then, when the media start to ask nasty and awkward questions, they can get worse. There is no one way of dealing with a crisis and negative media interest. There are, however, general principles that will help you to judge what to do when the media have got hold of a bad story.
Do not presume the media have got it in for you. They almost always have no personal axe to grind. But they are very skilled at analysing events to see if they contain anything that is a matter of legitimate public concern. And then to produce stories that stoke that concern.
Bad press is never pleasant, but the key is to figure out how this negative publicity will affect your reputation with key audiences. To do this, you need to know who your key audiences are and think through how they would react to the story. Do not judge the impact on the size of the headline.
Try to judge issues and your own organisation as an objective outsider would, not as a committed insider. You will need to gauge the value of the story. First and foremost, find out if it is true. Act as the journalists would. Find out the facts before you decide what to do.
And once you’ve established the facts, don’t be tempted to ignore or manipulate them to make you look better, or even less guilty. Once journalists start on a story, they’ll dig and dig until they reach bedrock. To avoid them covering you in even more dirt, always tell the truth.
Always acknowledge public concern, even if you think it is misplaced. In retail, the customer is always right. In PR and crisis management, the public is always right. You may need long term strategies to change public perceptions. You cannot confront or change them during a crisis.
Always respond decisively. Try to remember that actions speak louder than words. The public does not want statements and press releases. It wants you to take action. In this sense, what you do is more important than what you say.
Establish clear communication lines and areas of responsibility within your organisation. Never be rushed into talking to the media. But equally never be paralysed because no one has the authority to speak to the press and make crucial decisions.
Always – and this is something the Media Training Company believes can’t be emphasised enough - have a crisis management plan ready that deals with the practical side of coping with high levels of media interest. The plan must consider the minute details of dealing with a crisis. Who, for instance, would initially deal with telephone calls from the media? If you already have a press or publicity officer could they cope? What extra resources will you need? Who will make the decisions?
Crucially, have something positive prepared to cover as many possibly disasters as you can think of. You won’t be able to cover every eventuality, but you will look decisive, and quick-thinking if you ever have to deal with the ones you have anticipated.
Should your organisation ever be in the glare of negative publicity, you will be stressed and extremely busy just trying to react to what’s going on. A ready made plan will help to keep your head clear, outline what to do and who needs to do it.
Try to get as much warning as possible. A crisis management plan should also evaluate and investigate your own organisation. It should ask where the organisation is vulnerable to negative press coverage and what can be done about it in advance.
Seek advice and help from people who have survived a crisis. Dealing with the media is not a science. Decisions are largely based on experience, common sense and intuition.
Don’t try to be too clever. Even the most expert spin-doctors get things wrong. Don’t try to use clever news management techniques to get you out of trouble. Unless you know what you are doing, you will only make things worse.
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