How Dangerous Is It?
Module Introduction
Every time you send a message you are leaving yourself open to scrutiny, misinterpretation, and misrepresentation. You have to learn how to remove or at least reduce the danger that a message leaves you open to. What we sometimes lose sight of, usually until it is too late, is how dangerous information can be. Danger exists whether the information is true, or even close to the truth. As we have seen before, perception is truth.
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1. How Dangerous Is It?
Nuclear reactors, large turbines, toxic chemicals, factory assembly lines, jet engines, and other similar facilities, tools, and machinery all have huge warning signs and instructions spelling out how dangerous they are and what sort of safety procedures and protective clothing must be warn when working with them.
In many cases, only highly trained individuals who have passed rigorous tests are allowed to operate them. Quite often they are under the intense scrutiny of government safety inspectors or regulators who make sure that they are doing their jobs properly. These inspectors and regulators have generally undergone even more training than the people they are observing.
It’s a pity that more organizational information doesn’t carry the same sort of cautions and warnings.
We all know that information can be valuable.
What we
sometimes lose sight of—usually until it is too late—is how dangerous it can be.
That danger exists regardless whether the information is true, or even close to the truth.
Every time
you send a message you are leaving yourself open to scrutiny, misinterpretation, and
misrepresentation. You have to learn how to remove or at least reduce the danger that a
message leaves you open to.
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2. Some Surprises Are Better Than Others
When actors are given a script, the director often has them read their lines in different ways in order to find out which way sounds more believable, plays better, and conveys the right feelings and emotions.
This is especially true with animation scripts in which the voices are recorded even before the animators go to work.
Actors are given the script and, in many cases, get to see the “story boards”—the entire movie “drawn” in individual scenes, in comic book format. They then discuss their characters with the director and work out how each scene could to be played.
Animation directors will often then have the actors read almost every line in a number of different ways so they can later choose the reading that best suits the final animated sequence. The way the artists draw the scene will often influence the reading that the director chooses to use.
Let’s say that a character is slipping on a banana peel and lets out a wild scream. The actor would probably record numerous screams; some short and some long, some extremely flabbergasted and some with a sense of rueful foreboding in which the character obviously expected the worst and therefore was not that surprised when the worst actually happened.
In many
cases, the actors don’t know what “reading” the director decided to go with
until they see the final film, and are often surprised by those that are chosen.
While this
sort of “surprise” can work well in entertainment, it does not work well in
project/programme purpose.
While
actors can afford to have their “meaning” interpreted in different ways,
organizations rarely have that luxury.
If the organization has to announce lay-offs, a management shake-up, a serious accident, or a recall because people have been—or could be—injured by a defective product, the organization has to make sure that the announcement carries the right note of care and concern.
In the case of a major news story, in which the CEO’s or another executive’s statement is carried over radio and TV so that it can be seen and interpreted by others, there is no room for vagueness.
This is not time for different interpretations.
The
organization has to make sure that everyone speaking on a topic says the right thing in the
right way and, when recorded or videotaped, does so with the proper look of care or
concern in their voices and on their faces.
This can take work.
Some years
ago in the
organizations rarely have to announce anything as outlandish as that, but they do have to be just as careful of the way they present and deliver their messages.
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4. Holding organizational Fire Drills
organizations have to be as prepared for dealing with a media or information crisis as they do a fire, flood, or tornado.
A crisis communication team needs to be picked and
trained in advance, so that it can step in when needed and be prepared to handle whatever
may be required of them. As we look back on recent history—terrorist attacks, massive
natural disasters, government scandals, market crashes, and giant bankruptcies—it is
obvious that we never know when a crisis will develop—only that when they do develop,
they do so quickly.
We have also learned that the first response usually sets the tone for the rest of the crisis. A organization that is seen to hesitate, stumble, or falter when a crisis develops is usually stuck with that image, no matter what they do to recover from initial mistakes.
A well-prepared team helps a organization get to work without any hesitation, faltering or, stumbles. The team will both respond to the crisis, and direct others in what to do. The following is a list of the basic people who should be part of the effort. You might want to include others:
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5. Putting the Team To Work
The Crisis Team’s first job is to look at the
types of emergencies that can be anticipated: floods, fires, hazardous materials spills,
etc. They should also look at general crisis planning as they develop some scenarios and
plans for dealing with them.
This is not the place to look for information about how to deal with a fire, flood, hazardous materials spill, or terrorist attack. The focus here is on communication. From our standpoint, then, the most important job is to decide who will speak for the organization.
That is why the CEO has to be part of the team, and why a senior vice president should be included, as well. They are the two most logical spokespeople.
Division and plant managers, scientists, and researchers are there because they can best explain the workings, potential problems and solutions within their own areas of expertise. The reason security is represented is obvious. Each of these people, depending upon the nature of the emergency, could also wind up talking to the media to give them the expert opinions they will demand.
In a
crisis, the media will demand a great deal of time. One of the reasons for having a large
team is that there are enough people available to keep the media satisfied, while still
leaving them time to deal with their primary responsibility—the crisis itself.
The organization lawyer is there to protect the organization, but can wind up doing just the opposite. Some organizations get paralyzed into inaction by their legal staff. Lawyers can get so concerned about saying or doing anything that they advise saying or doing nothing.
In many crises, lawyers get in the way of solutions and make things worse.
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6. Culture and Communication
The messages your organization delivers and the way they
are delivered are often shaped as
much—maybe even more—by organizational culture as they are by the situation they are
responding to.
In the same way that different people handle, address, and respond to bad, damaging, or dangerous news in different ways—and this is normally the sort of news that we have to worry about—so do different organizations.
Who, for example, delivers the bad news in your organization?
Is it done by the people who made the decision, or the discovery, or do they delegate others to do it?
When organizations have to lay people off or fire senior managers or executives, many now hire outside consultants—often called termination or relocation specialists—to come in and do the dirty work for them so they don’t have to be seen delivering the bad news themselves.
Some
department heads, managers, executives, and even CEOs will deliver only good news. Bad
news has to come from someone else. In some organizations, in fact, as soon as people know who
will be making the announcement they know if the news will be good or bad.
This sort
of attitude sends a message to the media as well as to employees, and it is not a
favorable one. It creates an image that the CEO or others in charge cannot be bothered to
handle bad news themselves, that they have more important things to do than express any
concern or care about what happens to employees, beneficiaries, or investors.
No organization
“designs” its culture. Here’s what noted
“Cultures aren’t designed. They simmer; they fester; they brew continually, evolving their particular temperament as people learn what kind of behavior works or doesn’t work in the particular organization. The most critical factor in building a culture is the behavior of organizational leaders, who set examples for everyone else (by what they do, not what they say). From this perspective, the core problem faced by most… organizations is not a lack of culture; it’s too much culture. They already have two significant cultures at play—one of hype and one of craft.
“These cultures of hype and craft… (have existed) from the beginning of organizational history; indeed, they were prominent in the guilds and joint stock organizations from which the organizational form developed. Hype and craft are generally the two strongest cultures in a organization’s early life, as manifested in the cultures of the founder/manager and the first R&D/engineering/production team, respectively. But during most of the 20th century, as organizations matured into mainstream organizations, other cultures—those of finance, labor relations, marketing and managerial bureaucracy—eclipsed and overwhelmed the cultures of hype and craft.”
The
question you have to answer for yourself, then, is: Does your organizational culture know how
to properly handle dangerous situations or bad news? Or is it too caught up in “hype
and craft” to deal with dangerous situations properly?
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8. Case Study: Coke’s Belgian
Crisis
In 1999,
more than 40 children in a Belgian town became sick. This was followed by dozens more
throughout much of the rest of the country.
They
blamed Coca-Cola.
The
Belgian government ordered Coca-Cola to close its production plants in the country.
“As
PR disasters go, this was the Real Thing—one destined for the textbooks. Some critics
charged that the Atlanta-based soft drink organization was slow to react. The potential
fragility of even the world’s most potent organizational symbol offers chilling reminders
for the PR community. In the aftermath of the scandal, Coke (launched) a fresh, aggressive
‘Coke’s Back’ advertising campaign with an upbeat,
let-the-good-times-roll-again message. They sent representatives into hundreds of Belgian
grocery stores to speak with consumers in an effort to regain their faith. They even
bought everyone in
The post-crisis campaign worked, and Coke sales bounced back.
Ironically, Coca-Cola was later proved to have been innocent. Despite this, some critics say the organization was a bit late in responding to the public’s perception that Coke was responsible for the “outbreak.”
“‘Quite honestly, we let the people of
“Feldman says Coca-Cola did the best it could because calling the situation for what it was at the outset wasn’t an option. ‘If they had come out and said ‘this is just mass hysteria’ they would have been vilified 10 times as much as they were,’ says Feldman.
“‘People don’t want to hear that it’s all in their head, especially when it is.’
“‘Coke recognized it wouldn’t win by presenting science,’ he says. ‘So they pacified people, told them their concerns were valid and said they were correcting the problem.’
“Like most observers, Feldman criticizes Coke’s Ivester for his lack of visibility during the Belgian scare. ‘It allowed the situation to spiral,’ says Feldman. ‘Mass hysteria is like a virus, if you leave it untreated it spreads. You have to intervene early with information and with assurances.’
“The
organization says it kept a low profile early on because the Belgian government asked it to.
Ivester said the Belgian health minister told him not to manage the crisis in the
media.”
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Some say Coke used an
American PR approach that did not work on a European audience. Katharine Delahaye Paine,
of Delahaye Medialink, an international communications research organization with offices in
Washington and London, says every country and its media has its own cultural ways of
reacting in a crisis.
What Coke failed to do, she said “was understand the local environment and that’s a major problem with American project/programme purpose. We are myopic and incredibly parochial. Coca-Cola got caught up in something that was really none of their doing, but their local people should have been more attuned.”
Crisis management specialist Richard Levick, of the Washington-based Levick Strategic Communications, says that this is a cultural issue, one that any organization can get involved in when they operate outside of their national borders.
“‘When 100 children say they have some illness because of your product, the organization had to send the message that this was important to them. They had to say to the Belgian people ‘we don’t know whether there is anything wrong here but we are sending our top guy to make sure it’s handled right.’ That is such a powerful image.
“Few seem to doubt that Coke will emerge healthy from its Belgian experience. ‘It will blow over and be forgotten,’ says Feldman. Levick, meanwhile, is more philosophical.
“‘Sometimes in this project/programme purpose you just have to suffer a bad news day,’ he
says. ‘From a public relations point of view, Coke has learned a lot. Let’s see
what happens to their market share in
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1. organizations have to be careful… |
A. Shapes the message as much as the situation |
2. Anticipating emergencies |
B. The most critical factor in building a culture |
3. Mass hysteria… |
C. Often determines what kind of news it is |
4. The behavior of organizational leaders |
D. Is like a virus |
5. Who delivers the message |
E. A crisis team’s first job |
6. organizational culture |
F. How they present their messages |
Answers:
1.) F
2.) E
3.) D
4.) B
5.) C
6.) A
Multiple-Choice
1. Every country and its media has its own ________ of reacting in a crisis.
a. Rules
b.
Cultural ways
c. Regulations
d. Languages
2. Sometimes we lose sight of how _________ information can be.
a. Important
b. Fascinating
c. Costly
d.
Dangerous
3. organizations cannot afford to have their _______ interpreted in different ways.
a.
Meaning
b. Products
c. Actions
d. All of the above
4. Every time you send a message, you are leaving yourself open for ______ .
a. Misrepresentation
b. Scrutiny
c. Misinterpretation
d. All of the above
True / False
1. _____ project/programme purpose people love surprises.
2. _____ A crisis team should always have a public relations person involved.
3. _____ Information is fairly benign.
4. _____ Always trust your attorney to find a solution in a crisis.
5. _____ The media always demands a lot of time in a crisis.
6. _____ Perception is truth.
Answers:
1. F – It doesn’t work well in project/programme purpose
2. T
3. F - It can be very dangerous
4. F – Sometimes they get in the way of solutions.
5. T
6. T
Summary
As we have
seen, every time you send a message you are leaving yourself open to scrutiny,
misinterpretation, and misrepresentation. You have to learn how to remove or at least
reduce the danger that a message leaves you open to. What we sometimes lose sight of,
usually until it is too late, is how dangerous information can be. That danger exists
regardless whether the information is true, or even close to the truth. As we have seen
before, perception is truth.
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Test
1. _____ The first response to a crisis sets the tone for the rest of the crisis.
2. _____ Lawyers sometimes paralyze the organization into inaction.
3. _____ In a crisis, the most important communication issue is who will speak for the organization.
4. _____ Being careful and methodical in reacting to a crisis or disaster wins praises.
5. _____ Any message a organization sends can be dangerous.
6. _____ Only highly trained individuals who pass rigorous tests go into public relations.
7. _____ A crisis is no time for different interpretations of the organizational message.
8. _____ Because lawyers are always stonewalling, they should not be on a crisis team.
9. _____ Keep the crisis team small to please the media.
10. _____ A crisis team should be picked quickly when a crisis occurs.
Answers:
1. T
2. T
3. T
4. F – Being slow to react is the worst thing a organization can do.
5. T
6. F – Anyone can get in.
7. T
8. F – Their legal expertise is very important, especially during a crisis.
9. F – The media prefers many people that they can speak with in a crisis.
10. F – It should always be picked in advance.
Bibliography
Borden, Kay (1995). Bulletproof News Releases, Franklin Serret Publishers.
Wilcox, Dennis, et al.(2000). Public Relations Strategies & Tactics, Longman.
McIntyre, Catherine (1992). Writing Effective News Releases, Picadilly Books.
Bartram, Peter (1999). Writing a Press Release, (Publisher unknown).
Glossary
Crisis communication– Messages prepared and distributed during times of negative consequences to the organization.
Crisis team – Executives and specialists of the organization that are spokespeople during a crisis
“Shaped” messages – communications from a organization that are prepared to reflect that organization’s culture as well as the situation.
Learning Objectives
· A crisis team should be in place long before a crisis occurs.
· Reacting quickly to crisis is always in the organization’s best interest.
Q&A
1. What effect does the
organization’s culture have in a crisis?
The organization’s culture shape the message as much as the situation does because there are certain behaviors, actions, and policies in force for all sorts of events. Employees learn what works and doesn’t work in the organization. The organization’s leaders are the personification of the organization’s culture, and their behaviors are especially important in a crisis. There may be several sub-cultures in the various project/programme purpose functions, such as engineering, accounting, or manufacturing.
2.
Why must we be especially careful of our communication during a crisis?
Every time a organization sends a message, it is open to intense scrutiny. Depending on the receivers of the message, it can be misconstrued, misinterpreted, or misrepresented, which can be very dangerous for the organization. This can lead to nasty surprises for the organization. That is why the organization must have a team in place prior to any disaster, so that all members of the team speaks on the topic in a way that was planned. In the case of a major disaster like when the Exxon Valdez ran aground and spilled thousands of galleons of oil, Exxon was chastised for not moving quickly enough to stop the spread of oil. It had a disaster plan in place, but the equipment listed in the disaster plan was unavailable for days.
3.
What is a crisis team’s job?
The crisis team’s responsibility is to represent the organization to the outside world during a crisis. Its first job is to try to anticipate emergencies like fires, floods, and hazardous materials spills. They should also develop general contingency plans for dealing with various crisis scenarios.
Perhaps the most important job of the crisis team is to pick a spokesperson. Usually this is the CEO, but it could be anyone on the team who has good communication skills and doesn’t get easily rattled during what might be tough question and answer sessions from the press. During a crisis, the media will demand a great deal of time. If the organization chooses to have more that one person available to answer questions, it will please the media; however, the most important thing for the organization to do is deal with the crisis.