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Catherine Worboys (Managing Director at Curtin&Co) discusses the importance of effective communication during a crisis, as well as how issues can be prevented from becoming crises through stakeholder and communications management before an issue arises.
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Communicating in a Crisis
CATHERINE WORBOYS,CURTIN&CO
For discussion today
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• What makes a crisis?
• Why effective communication is crucial in a crisis
• Key stakeholders and pre-crisis communication
• Assembling a crisis team
• Effectively preparing for a crisis– Both internally and externally
What makes a crisis?
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• Rather like earthquake prediction– Many indicators, but unreliable– So you need to be prepared for a range of situations
• In crises: • Those with good reputations
– will be less scarred; recover more quickly
• Therefore you must handle issues well; tone of voice, honesty, generosity, etc. to avoid a crisis
A crisis is an issue badly managed
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Perceptions are Powerful• In today’s media landscape:
• If you think you have a problem then you probably have one
• If someone else thinks you have a problem then you definitely have one
• EG: TGV France “crash” – simulation which was reported as real
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Why managing a crisis matters• Reputation management
• Impacts on sales, credibility, credit rating, etc.• Could make recruitment more difficult - hits internal
morale• Uncomfortable for management
• Expensively built brand image is tarnished• In the best case you can gain
• Tylenol – blackmailer threatened to poison products
• In the worst case you lose the company• Perrier – accidental minute contamination
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Perrier – the iconic brand of the ‘80s in crisis
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Lessons to be learnt • Things always get worse before/if they get
better - a snowball effect• BP – oil spill
• Murphy’s Law rules– No one is ever in the right place at the right time
– If it can happen on Christmas Day, it will
• Everyone has a different agenda– Which you need to know before a crisis hits
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The dangers of the ‘cover-up’ • Cover-up – a media definition: Deliberately (a)
hiding information (b) not releasing it promptly • Hiding information always leads to either
– economies with the truth– misinformation or – plain lying
The Hydra Syndrome• The more lies you tell, the more you must tell
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Cadbury and salmonella
20th January: Cadbury Discovers Salmonella
19th June: Cadbury admits contamination to the Food Standards Agency when outbreak of Salmonella linked to product
22nd June: FSA says Cadbury posed ‘unacceptable’ risk to public
23rd June: Chocolate recalled
30th June: Cadbury documents show same factory infected with salmonella in 2002
Outcome: Cadbury looks as though it knew the problem existed and wilfully put its customers at risk
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Key rules of communicating in a crisis• Speed is of the essence
– If you have information, release it– If not, have “no comment” prepared– Five minutes is a long time in Cyberspace
• Know your stakeholders before you are in a crisis– Who will help you when you need them?
• Prepare your key messages– And all the scenarios you can think of – they may seem extreme but crises
are
• Most of all – prepare your people– Who is your crisis team?– How regularly do they train?– Everyone else should be trained to give “no comment”
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Crisis Management
Some of the key players you must know
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The Media – old and new• Speed is of the essence• The media watches the media
• TFL suffered from Twitter campaign against employee in 2010
• Website comment - posted fast• Can deflect hundreds of queries quickly• Can be easily prepared in advance as a “hidden” page to trigger
• Agenda-setting rather than opinion influencers
– Media tells people what to think about
• They are under fierce competitive pressure
• Journalism is ‘the first rough cut of history’
• Truth is an early casualty
– But having friends can help
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The Politicians • Politicians have strong drivers
• Ego and altruism
• Make sure they have a special ‘hot line’ number for crises
• Get to them before they get to you– Have telephone numbers (office, home, mobile, addresses, e-mails, etc.)
• One/two Directors to contact top politicians
• Senior Managers handle local councillors, MPs etc.
• A crisis is an easy campaign “band wagon” for politicians– If they know you and support you in the media it can reduce impact
This is third party advocacy - they can say what you can’t
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The pressure groups• Remember they are competitive businesses
– Their own corporate battles - Membership drives
• They can take risks - edge of the law
• Speculate with strong and inaccurate views
• The are symbiotic friends of the media– The environment is fashionable - a good ‘horror story’– They are underdogs - like the journalist– They are ‘independent’ - no immediate financial gain
• Get middle managers or handle them– Same consistent messages– Do not be side-tracked onto other issues– Discussion can take the heat out of relationship
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Handling a Crisis
The Boy Scout Rule:
Be prepared,
internally and externally
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Planning for a crisis – Internally • One Co-Ordinator/Director leading a team
– All senior roles must be duplicated– Easy to assemble – get on the ground early (30 mins)
• Crisis Management handbook– Easy to read and use, checklists, templates, etc.– Reviewed regularly – as a priority
• Train well and often - exercises, briefings, etc. • Get the messages right
• Only the truth - don’t be afraid of ‘don’t know’• Have a ‘life-belt’ statement ready
• Empower the team to handle the crisis• NO outside interference – not the role of the CEO
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The crisis management team (CMT)
Crisis ManagementTeam Leader
OFFICERS: Operations Media Political
Secretary
Customers/Suppliers
CEO
InternalComms
Press Roomteam
Political liaisonteam
Call Centre/Salesteam
Human Resource
team
Legal
SAILORS:Field
information
Field information
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Planning for a crisis – Externally• Set up a stakeholder management programme
• So you know the key players before you need them• Invest in a CRM programme to monitor progress• Make it a key KPI for all senior executives
• EG: To meet one journalist a week; one politician a month
• Regularly brainstorm potential scenarios• And create key messages for them
• Review hidden website pages regularly• And consider social media options
• Ask your advocates to input into your key messages• And make them the first target for supportive quotes
• Above all…train everyone regularly• Even if it is just to say “no comment”
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Conclusions • Crisis Management is a sequential stage of Issues
Management
• A company which manages issues well will either avoid
crises or lower their impact
• To manage a crisis well, you must be prepared
• Crisis management and comms is an on-going process– It cannot start when the crisis occurs
• And this is all hard work…
• ...but then, a crisis is always much more fun than work
