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ON MANAGING A CRISIS IN A HOSTILE CLIMATE
And if it wasn't a Hostile Climate, It wouldn't be a crisis!
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- Don't
Cause The Crisis!
- Crisis
Are Not Always On The Front Page!
- Crisis
Management Is NOT A Public Relations Problem!
- Lawyers
Rule!
- Crisis
Management Begins Before The Crisis - With a Plan!
- Who
Can Manage YOUR Crisis?
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Don't
Cause The Crisis!
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There is a difference between the situation and the crisis.
A very large percentage of crises are created or exacerbated by bad
management.
There are several things to avoid at the onset.
- Don't
hit the crisis button before there is a reasonable and rational
situation analysis. By triggering an official crisis management response, or taking up
a crisis mode, the client automatically signals "crisis" to the
outside world, and actually creates the crisis atmosphere.
This does not mean to suggest that quick response is not a critical
factor. There
is a difference between an ineffective
initial response and an inappropriate initial response, however.
- Don't
succumb to "Chicken Little" reaction.
In any potential difficult situation, there is a tendency to assume
the worst, and take a very pessimistic view of the possible outcomes.
Crisis management is the art and skill of guiding a situation to the
most positive outcomes.
- Don't
be defensive.
Crisis usually means a sense of being attacked or under
siege.
This does not mean that management should be, or even appear to be,
on the defensive.
In case s of fatal disaster, for example, it is important for the
client to be sensitive to the human suffering, and to take positive steps
to aide the injured and bereaved.
- Don't
assume anything . . . and don't answer unless you are certain.
Crisis management 101 does a good job of explaining why lies
tend to be counterproductive,
so we won't dwell on the "tell the truth" admonition.
Less appreciated is the problem of the honest
misstatement.
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Crisis
Are Not Always On The Front Page! |
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One
of the most often overlooked aspects of crisis management is that
a crisis may not be of great interest to the
public-at-large. Fires, explosions and food
poisonings grab media attention. They are disasters in public terms
because they are visible, spectacular and often involve human injury or
death. They are disasters for the company because they usually
involve substantial economic or market share losses. The interest of
corporate management -- and the underlying goal of crisis management -- is
to protect the stockholders from undue losses.
There
are, however, events that can greatly impact on the corporate bottom line
that are not cause for a crisis management approach -- and they should be.
Often legislative regulatory actions, taxes, court decisions or other
government decisions have an extraordinary impact on the performance of
the company. Yet, these actions are often handled in the normal
course of business. Crisis management evaluation and consideration
should come into play in such cases. Time after time, industries --
especially petrochemical and pharmaceutical -- fail to meet the challenge
of regulatory disaster in the same deliberate approach they may apply to a
physical disaster. Crisis management should not be determined solely
by the visibility of the disaster, but by the impact on the performance of
the corporation. |
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Crisis
Management Is Not A Public Relations Problem! |
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There
is a widely held misconception that crisis management is a means of
managing the flow and formulation of public opinion -- that is a
"perception" issue. In fact, traditional public relations
firms are almost exclusive in their offering of crisis management to the
PR department without recognizing the fact that product/service publicity
or communication tools and skills may be employed in the latter.
Crisis
management is a multidiscipline issue, and one that takes a very
specialized advisory expertise. When, how and what to
publicity communicate is a matter of carefully developed strategies that
must evolve out of the situation and in conjunction with all components of
the crisis. It is one of the reasons crisis management is best
handled by public affairs, or communication firms with specialized public
affairs divisions -- firms with a history of involvement in legal issues
and an understanding of legal considerations. Firms involved with
political candidates are potentially good crisis management advisors
because campaigns ARE exercises in crisis management on a day-to-day
basis. Public affairs also brings experience in government
relations, and virtually every crisis has a government liaison component
-- at the height of the crisis and in the aftermath: coordination of
government services, regulatory response, and legal action. |
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Lawyers
Rule! |
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While
there is often a corporate tug-o-war between the legal and public
relations departments, with lawyers tending to remain too secretive and
public relations executives tending to talk too much, in the crisis
management mode, lawyers must have final authority on public
output. Apart from the humane and operational aspects
of the crisis, there is the inevitable question of liability. Liability
is not an issue that can be held in abeyance until after the crisis.
This becomes critical if the crisis moves from the "event" stage
to the courtroom. If the crisis or public controversy is a matter of
litigation, then it is incumbent on the lawyers to supplement their team
with competent public affairs counsel. |
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Crisis
Management Begins Before The Crisis
- With A Plan! |
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Creating
and maintaining a crisis management plan is like telling people to
"save" the computer work frequently. Too often the advice
is ignored until the "disaster" hits. We all tend to learn
lessons the hard way. |
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Who
Can Manage YOUR Crisis? |
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- Crisis
Management is best handled by those with experience.
- Bigger
is not better.
- THOMAS
& JOYCE, INC.
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