Owning Up When The Going Gets Rough - The Power of "I Was Wrong"

They say that the 3 most important words in a marriage are "I love you" and that the five most important words are "I'm sorry, I was wrong"

When foam fell off the Shuttle Discovery during it's last launch, NASA faced a whole set of decisions. Most important was what to do about the astronauts. Thankfully, they made the right set of decisions and brought them home safely.

One other key decision they faced was whether to be honest or to follow the traditional path of bureaucratic obfuscation. In a move that is increasingly becoming best practice, NASA chose to come clean.

Michael D. Griffin, NASA's administrator bluntly stated several times that the decision to not deal with the risk of foam breaking off from the Discovery's liquid fuel tank at the spot where it did "was clearly wrong."

And William W. Parsons, the shuttle program manager stated: "You have to admit when you're wrong. (The) foam should not have come off. It came off. We've got to do something about that."

How refreshing! "We were wrong" rather than "it's under investigation".

Michelon (the tire company) learned this lesson too late last June when faults in their tires caused 14 of the 20 cars in the US Grand Prix to drop out of the race. Michelon chose to do nothing and their brand got hammered in the racing press and the consumer's mind. A week later they finally came clean, admitted their fault, and agreed to rebate admission prices for all attendees and to buy all of the tickets for next year's race - a 12 million dollar out-of-pocket error, plus the results from all of the bad will this problem has caused.

The decision to come clean when you're wrong fits with the times. While the kinder, gentler media environment of the past would tacitly accept announcements and answers that revealed nothing, today's reporters (and today's public) want to know the facts. What really did happen and why?

This next statement will make lawyers cringe all over the world, but I believe that admitting you were wrong, when you actually were, is generally better for the long-term health of your brand than the alternative.

Think of it this way - which will hurt your brand more? A devastatingly quick "we were wrong and now we're going to fix it" or months of denials, investigations, negative news stories and huge lawsuits?

In the end, doing the right thing, doing it quickly, and doing it completely will almost always win over trying to hide the truth.

Plus, it may well cost you far less in the long run and keep you out of jail (think Martha Stewart...)

It goes back to what your Mother has always said "just do the right thing." What is it that makes business people forget that?

Unfortunately, these decisions are often faced during moments of crisis, when the pressure's on and millions of factors are influencing your thought process. There are ways to prevent this, to plan ahead, to make preparations and decisions in advance, so that your mind is clear to make those that are situationally-dependent. For more information on how to do so, check out Crisis Communication Planning

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Tags: Crisis Communications Admitting Fault