Crisis Management

What she gets is a husband who heads off on his assigned duties, then comes back, not with items for the cart, but with a package of something we'll never buy just to show her the really cool way they integrated the logo into the food shot, or who drags her out to the aisle to have a debate about whether he should fix the 16-year-old-who-set-up-the-display’s work so that it will sell more stuff.

Maybe you know someone with this disease. Maybe you're infected yourself...Maybe you've got the similar strain -"The PR Curse"

The occurrences of the past few weeks have created several noteworthy attacks of the curse that might provide useful learning for us all.

Here's one which happened in the Washington-area sniper case. I had the TV on in the background when one of the many news conferences by the very able and competent police task force team came on. Except this time, they made a serious blunder. In this early afternoon news conference, they reported that they had received word at 8:30 the night before, that confirmed that the latest shooting had been from the same gun the sniper had been using.

The curse immediately kicked, and I found myself riveted to the screen. I knew exactly what was going to happen, and sure enough, it did. The first question was asked "Why, if you knew at 8:30 last night, did you wait until this afternoon to tell us?" Of the next 10 questions, 8 of them were theme and variations on the exact same question. The answers, ranging from "We didn't see a need to call a separate conference just to tell you this," to "It doesn't change anything," were wrong, and unacceptable to the those in the press corps.

Now, we all know what was happening here. Here we had a very competent Police Chief (who's team thankfully caught the guys!), and a room full of other excellent law enforcement personnel who had received some PR training. In that training they received the wise counsel to "be complete and precise in dealing with the press." So they naturally said "as of 8:30 last night..."

Unfortunately for them, the trainer had forgotten to teach the overriding principle of dealing with the press in crisis situations...

Think about the ramifications of what you're going to say before you say it!

It sounds easy, but it never is. Think about how many statements have gone down in history because of not doing this...

"But I never inhaled."

"Potato, P-O-T-A-T-O-E, Potato."

Now consider the opposite, well-planned lines that had a lasting impact...

"If the glove doesn't fit, you must acquit"

"I have a dream..."

"...within 10 years of placing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth."

"We have decided to recall all Tylenol from all shelves nationwide."

Not all of these were crisis management situations, but some were.

Now, here's the rub - the stress of a crisis situation is exactly what causes statements like this to happen and it's clearly not the time to create powerful sound byte statements that will make the difference for years.

But why do these have to be developed in the heat of the crisis?

I hold that one of the keys to crisis management planning is to develop a bank of one-line sound byte quotes covering a wide range of contingencies, that can be used as required.

Do you have such a list?

Would it be wise to create one?

Would you like to know more about handling crises? Check out our Audio-CD:
How To Keep The Media Wolves At Bay (The Do’s and Don't’s of Crisis Communications).

Another resource, which applies both for crisis situations and day-to-day communications is our Audio CD:
How To Become An Expert Spokesperson That The Media Love.

Tags: Crisis Management