Tracy Jones Cool Head in a Crisis 2012

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CULTURAL PR CONFERENCE 2012

Keeping a cool head in a crisis

How to stay calm and in control when the unexpected happensand things go wrong...

This session offers honest case studies and sound advice from

colleagues at Arts Council England and the National Gallery.

Who am I?

My varied more than 20 year career across the media and arts has seen

me programme controlling radio stations, working as a journalist for ITNRadio and as the Business Development Manager for two theatres.

I have worked at the National Gallery, London for 6 years as well asrunning my own PR and Marketing agency Brera (www.brera-london.com) which represents wide variety of clients from airports,theme parks and Cultural Olympiad projects to restaurants and estateagents.

I am also presenter on Southend Radio 105.1 and Chelmsford Radio107.7. And yes, if you are thinking you recognise me I was a contestanton Come Dine With Me.

Headlines

There are 2 types of crisis - the ones you have planned for, andthe ones you have not!

There are situations that you know are going to be high risk toyour organisation and so you brainstorm and think about all theworst case scenarios in advance and plan for them

And then there are situations where you dont know things are

going to happen and so its all about how you deal with them. Itsall about having systems in place so that everyone knows exactlywhat to do when it happens.

I am going to touch on the first, but the second is possibly morethe killer one....

PREPARED CRISIS
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At the NG we are very good at being quite anal and looking ateverything and asking the question Is there a risk here we needto be prepared for? and then making sure we have the tools inplace

Its about getting the right information

Deciding the key messages (what you want the public to know /think about your organisation)

Putting together Q&A and statements and then getting themagreed so everyone is singing off the same hymn sheet

And it is not just external Communications, it is internalCommunications too very often that gets ignored.

The best example of this I have is the current Leonardo exhibition. We

knew it was going to be huge and we knew it came with problems so 3

months before it opened we all sat down in the Communications team

with Front of House, Curator etc and had a brainstorm over what the

risks were.

Serious threats

Attack on a painting

Bomb

Reputational threats

30 November public sector unions strike

Staff security protest/strike

Anti-capitalism protest.

Overcrowding

Lack of ticket availability

Corporate access

Late opening

Treatment of people with disabilities / old

Intellectual/reputational threats

Salvator Mundi

La Bella Principessa

For all of the above we worked up draft statements and Q&A,which were agreed weeks before the show even opened and then


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the whole Press (and Information as they are public facing too)team were briefed on what they were to answer

Thank goodness no bombs or slashing, but everything else wehave had to use!

Great for staff as they feel confident and prepared when

answering questions, and shows we are organised and responsiveand most importantly we are all sticking to a consistent line

There is nothing worse than you looking woolly in front ofjournalists if you act with confidence (even if you are panickinglike hell) ....even bored with the subject ... you can often persuadethem something is a non-story. Dont let them smell the blood!

UNPREPARED CRISIS

These are the situations that suddenly happen and have to be dealt with

and there are two simple rules to coping with this....

BE PREPARED

GOOD COMMUNCIATION

Be prepared You might not know what is going to happen and when,

but that does not stop you having a system in place in your organisation

(however large or small) that people know is what they have to do when

a crisis occurs.

At the NG when something happens during opening hours, after callingthe Security office / Directors Office / Conservation (if required) then

absolutely the next step is calling the Press Office and giving them any

information they have. If it is Out of Hours, then they will have a sheet

telling them who they need to call so you are aware within a few

minutes of something happening and can start to react to it.

News is SO fast moving these days and with the rise of blogs and Twitter

etc everyone thinks they are a journalist so you have to be quick and

on it. Its not next day coverage any more, its next minute.

Good communication its about all staff knowing this and following

procedures when something happens. Sometimes it can fall down (we

had an incident during NG open hours and the first the Press Office knew

was when Newsnight called asking about it the team leader had got so

embroiled in the incident he had forgotten to call the Press Office) but if

you are clear with all your staff that in the digital edge the institutions


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reputation can stand on a knife edge then they get with the programme.

And its all about communication during the incident everyone staying

in contact with each other so the information can be regularly updated.

Eg, one member of security or staff member is useful at the scene of the

crisis to feed back to the Press Office and keep us updated.

Getting a statement together

That is the first priority so you have something to give to the press

asap.

Golden Rule NEVER say no comment (they love it give examples from

my time as a journalist) there is actually lots of ways you can say loads

without actually saying very much!

Statement should be purely factual stick to the Golden 6 questions,and it is all you need

WHO

WHAT

WHY

WHEN

WHERE

HOW

Always end by saying you will have more later leaves the impression

you are trying to help and then keep updating the statement as you go

along. Give them time for a next update as part of the statement.

You must give the facts that have been gathered from reliable sourcesand confirmed. Don't over reach and don't speculate

Show concern for the public and for your employees always and you areon the right track. If your employees and customers don't feel likeinsiders, they are going to act like outsiders.

Be reactive rather than proactive

Be as helpful as possible get them onside offer to call back with more

facts (charm really does help!) Often radio would like you to read a

statement so they have an audio clip....


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Always speak to them straight away if you leave a gap and they are on

deadline they will end up running something unsubstantiated just to get

it in ... even if it is only to say you are working on it and to ask them to

bear with you and ask for a little more time. Be humble, be charming...

and there is nothing wrong with flirting!

Keep a note of all the media you speak to so you are able to check out

their coverage

Correct if necessary or it will spread like wildfire and you end up in a

worse mess as people rip stories constantly (we had a story about the

Leonardo entrance numbers in the Daily Mail Leonardo and within an

hour it was global as it was copied again and again and it took us ages

to damp it down).

Does an interviewee need to be nominated? They are after a story andso if you will not speak to them then someone else will even if it is you

reading a statement or answering questions from it might do the trick

Always ask the question what do I want people to think / feel about the

Gallery as a result of this and reflect it through all you do...?

Stay calm and do not get panicked.

The Poussin Incident

Statement we used....

At 5.08pm on Saturday 16 July 2011, a panic alarm was set off in Room

19 of the National Gallery.

A Gallery Assistant acted promptly and triggered the alarm after

observing a person appearing to spray two of the paintings in the room

with an aerosol can.

The police were called at 5.10pm and arrived at the National Gallery at5.19pm.

A man has been arrested.

The two paintings involved are both by Nicholas Poussin, The Adoration

of the Golden Calf(1633-4) and The Adoration of the Shepherds (1633-

4).


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Both works are part of the National Gallery permanent collection.

Prompt action by Conservation staff has ensured very little damage was

sustained by the two works.

The paintings have now been re-hung in Room 19.

I was called right away by Head of Security, and then was asked tocall Director and together we worked on a statement that we hadwithin 20 minutes

There was a camera phone picture of this done and went to theObserver.

We kept updating the statement so within a few hours we wereable to say that the pictures were fine and would be back ondisplay which downplayed the story

Sadly there has been a lot of publicity since over warding / strikes

Student Sit In

Statement we used....

At approximately 4.45pm on Thursday 9 December a group of around 75

students began a sit-in in Room 43 of the National Gallery.

They were protesting about the increase in student fees.

The group remained in the National Gallery until around 7.20pm, whenthey agreed to leave peacefully.

None of the paintings were damaged.

Room 43 contains twenty-five paintings by Impressionist artists,

including works by Manet, Monet, Renoir and Sisley.

This was the Newsnight example

Had lots of press turn up, so I went out to them but no extrapeople allowed in

Social media played a part as they were tweeting from inside theNG

AFTERWARDS

Always think how the story will play the next day, people willfollow this up in the days and weeks afterwards and it will keep


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coming back to haunt you. Have a statement ready.

Think internal communications too youve been speaking to themedia but what about your staff?

Always do a debrief with the people involved asap afterwards tofind out how it could have gone better articulate this knowledge

in a document that is circulated so you can learn from theexperience

Documents

Tracy Jones Cool Head in a Crisis 2012