I just got back from a great vacation / business trip - putting 4216 miles on the vehicle in the process.
Part of that trip involved a family reunion in good old Antimony, Utah, population 94 (when I asked why the sign outside the town said 168, I was told "they was wrong"), at the Rockin R Dude ranch. I recommend it, it was a great place for a reunion.
Rockin R came complete with cows, horses, goats and all that good stuff. I got to play cowboy, chase a calf, race to put clothing on a sheep (which was fine until we got to putting the pants on the back legs...) learn some country line dancing, and even did an exhilarating bungey launch.
But one of the highlights of the trip was a tubing run down the Sevier River.
Now the Sevier River is normally a meandering streamlet,
But last week, after several days of rain, it was running high and moving fast.
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That's perfect for tubing - 30 minutes of mild rapids to get the old heart pumping followed by 45 of lazy drifting down the calm part of the stream.
Except for my two brothers and me on this particular trip.
Everybody jumped in and floated off down the river. The three of us were bringing up the rear, right behind my Aunt.
For some reason, my Aunt just didn't get along with her tube. On a regular basis, usually right in the middle of some rapid, her tube would suddenly pop out from underneath her, and she'd start struggling to stay afloat.
Each time this happened an interesting situation would result for my brothers and me (who stayed with her to help her down the river.) We would suddenly have to jump of our own tube, retrieve it, grab hers, grab her, find footing and help her do the same, and get each of us retubed and floating again. And of course, all of this invariably happened in the middle of a highly challenging spot in the river. On top of it all, this river was shallow enough that you couldn't just float down tubeless unless you wanted to bounce off rocks all the way down.
I had forgotten how powerful rushing water can be... especially the way that it inexorably keeps coming, so you constantly have to work to stay stationary and standing as you do what has to be done.
This was made particularly clear when we rounded a bend and found my cousin holding onto a tree limb beside a rock the size of a car.
"I'm stuck!" she cried, then pointed just beyond her feet and said something about a whirlpool that was pulling people under water.
"No problem," the Y chromosome inside me cried, and visions of saving the day popped into my head.
So I jumped off my tube, took one step to get into rescuing position...
and was immediately pulled hard into an underwater rock that gave me a nasty bone bruise on that part below your knee where the girls always kicked us in grade school (still limping...)
Half a second later, I crashed into the big rock and tried to grab ahold, to no avail,
Because half a second after that, I was sucked underwater and started whirling around.
Life jackets are amazing things. I recommend them.
And fortunately, I was actually wearing one at the time.
Obviously I survived to tell you about this, and we all made it down the river safely, but not without a whole collection of ugly bruises and scrapes within our little party of would-be rescuers.
As I floated down the lazy part of the trip at the end of the trip, I spent some time thinking about what I had just experienced and realized that there's a major PR tie-in here.
One moment I'm preparing to deal with what seems to be a small problem. Two seconds later, I'm clawing for the surface, clearly remembering that air's better for breathing than water.
That's what bad press can do to you. And, like the water, once the media starts pounding on you, your life instantly changes into a situation where you're no longer in control and maybe you're even fighting for your business or personal life.
Just ask Martha Stewart.
That's why we so strongly recommend that every company should prepare crisis management plan and learn to deal with the media before the situation arises.
Because, trust me, once the crisis begins, there isn't the luxury of time and focus to think through the situation and get things under control.
That's why we have put together two powerful products to help you in this process.
First, and most important, is Crisis Communication Planning: Organizing and Completing A Plan That Works that takes you step by step through the process of developing and implementing a plan prior to the crisis situation.
Second, we have an audio CD called How To Keep The Media Wolves At Bay (The Do’s and Don'ts of Crisis Communications) that focuses on the nitty gritty of handling the media during the period of crisis.
One helps you put the structure in place before the emergency, the other gives you the knowledge you need to handle the tough situation when it arises. Check them out.
Now if I can only figure out how to cross my legs without getting hit with that now familiar jolt of pain...
Posted July 09, 2004
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