Gulf coast native Gerard Braud at Grand Isle, LA
Gulf coast native Gerard Braud leads the discussion.
By Gerard Braud
It’s hard to believe that in 2010, people can still screw up public relations, crisis communications, crisis management and media relations, as much as Tiger Woods and his handlers.
Friday’s statement by Woods was old school. It was bad. It was too little. It was too late.
The Gerard Braud school of crisis communications says you should issue a public comment within one hour or less of the onset of a crisis going public. That means a statement should have been issued the day of the accident.
It’s 2010 and we have YouTube.com. I would have had Woods post a short YouTube video the morning after the accident. Nothing fancy; a simple point and shoot video camera with Tiger on camera saying, “Hi, this is Tiger Woods. Last night I did something really stupid and embarrassing. While backing out my driveway I hit a fire hydrant. I over reacted, pulled forward and hit a tree. You can imagine how embarrassing this must be for me. I’m okay. I’m not injured. I appreciate the concern of my fans. At this time I simply need to repair my car and my ego.”
When you say nothing, you open the door to speculation. When Tiger said nothing, he opened the door to all of his affairs. Had he issued a statement, there is a good chance none of this would have ever gone public and he could have dealt with his infidelity in private.
Waiting three months to make an appearance is unacceptable in 2010. Also unacceptable is the idea that Woods had to do the statement live, reading from a script, and taking no questions from reporters.
Here are my observations:
• His statement could have just as easily been video taped.
• The live statement left him open to poor delivery.
• The live statement left no control over audience reaction.
• The front live camera failed 9 minutes into the statement, forcing the director to resort to a horrible shot over the golfer’s left shoulder, showing an uncomfortable audience of females.
• The body language of the audience was horrible, especially his mother’s crossed arms as she looked down in complete disgrace.
• He could have used a teleprompter.
• There was no need for an audience.
• Woods looked like a deer in the headlights.
• Apologies should be from the heart and not from paper.
• When you give a speech to a live audience, you can look left and right, but when you have a video camera in front of you, looking left and right make you look shifty eyed. Your eye contact needs to be with the camera, because that is where your audience is.
While there are times when I support the crisis communications strategy of not taking questions from reporters, to do this successfully you must tell all that you know in your prepared statement. In the planning stages, you must script out all of the questions that reporters will have and then script out all of the answers.
As for chastising the media, you should only admonish the media not to speculate on unknowns, when they are still unknown. If there are facts that you are intentionally withholding, then you invite speculation. There are many facts in this story that Woods has not addressed, hence the story and the speculation will continue.
Furthermore, Woods may be within his bounds to ask for privacy for his wife and children while he lives his life as an athlete, but once he has entered a world of scandal that is of his own making, he is grossly naive to expect his wife and children will be off limits to the paparazzi.
Too many people in public relations fail to do proper crisis communications. They try to fix issues with media relations after the crisis has exploded. I often rail against Virginia Tech, because their PR team applauded themselves for how they dealt with the global media after their crisis. But the fact is, crisis communications in the first hour of the Virginia Tech shooting, when only 2 people had been killed, might have prevented 30 additional deaths; it might have prevented the larger crisis. There would have been no need for media relations had the crisis been averted through proper crisis communications.
Likewise, a short video by Tiger Woods might have kept the media from pulling on the threads that caused his life to unravel.
Check the calendar my friends. It is 2010. A new age of communications is upon us. It is time to throw out the old school ways of the past and adopt progressive strategies using the new tools at our disposal.
As we look back at the sins of 2009 and ways to redeem yourself in 2010, today’s lesson is about how to be opportunistic.
Opportunistic means you take advantage of a situation to get what you want. Maybe it is because I grew up in a large family and had to fight my 3 older brothers and a younger sister for everything I got, but being opportunistic has served me well in life.
Being opportunistic means that when you observe a situation, you use the power of persuasion, supported by a business case, to convince your boss to let you do what needs to be done, even if you’ve previously been told “no,” as we discussed yesterday.
You can apply this technique to many of your communications needs, but since I write crisis communications plans and teach media training, I’ll share with you a real life example of a HUGE opportunity that passed many people by in 2009.
Every year I get a wave of inquiries from people who want me to help them write their crisis communications plan, and most want a package, complete with a crisis communications drill and train their spokespeople. Many of the inquiries come this time of year because so many people these items on a list of goals and tasks to complete for the coming years. But many of those plans didn’t get written in 2009 because people were told “no, there’s no money in the budget.”
Then in April 2009, the Swine Flu epidemic began. This crisis presented a huge opportunity for you to go back to your boss, paint a grim picture, explain the potential negative impact the Swine Flu could have on your businesses, and get the funding you need.
Another way to be opportunistic is to get help from other departments. Pandemics are a huge concern for risk managers and human resource managers. In every risk management and human resources seminar, there are classes that focus on dealing with pandemics. This is a big issue for them. That means that if you are opportunistic, you can partner with those other managers to convince leadership that a crisis communications plan is an important element of risk management and employee communications.
Most of you who subscribe to the BraudCast are in internal communications, external communications, media relations, PR and marketing. And many folks in these fields are, by their very nature timid, and often take “no” as a final answer. I’d suggest that for 2010 you set as one of your goals to become opportunistic.
Look at it this way… In the case of the Swine Flu, workers would get sick, workers might die, productivity, production and sales could suffer… and you’d be called upon, likely at the last minute, to start crafting both a strategy and messages to deal with the impending crisis. That’s not really fair to you, is it? Especially if there is a solution, namely a pre-written crisis communications plan with pre-written templates. And if you already have a plan, you know it needs to update and tested. I have one client who is so opportunistic that I help him conduct 4 crisis communications drills every year.
So if you know in your heart that being prepared is the right thing to do professionally… then the answer is, being opportunistic is also the right thing to do professionally. If you achieve your goal and still do it legally and ethically, there is nothing wrong with being opportunistic.
Timing is critical when you are trying to be opportunistic. You have to be ready build a business case immediately after a crisis begins and present it to leadership while the crisis is still fresh in their minds. It doesn’t matter if the crisis is where you work or if it is a high profile crisis in the news. I can tell you from experience that each day that you get further from the crisis, the more likely leadership is to forget the trauma and devalue your proposal.
If your 2009 sin was a missed opportunity, your redemption in 2010 is setting a goal to be more opportunistic.
Tomorrow, we’ll talk about Shinny New Objects.
And…
1) If you’d like to sign up FREE for the audio version of this, known as the BraudCast, click here.
2) For a FREE sample listen, this is your link.
3) Sign up for the upcoming teleseminar “Social Media When It Hits the Fan.”
Big warning on the BraudCast today.
Big warning as we commemorate September 11th.
Big warning as we remember August 29th, the recent anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.
Big warning as your kids go back to school.
Big warning for all executives.
Big warning for everyone in public relations.
Why all the warnings?
After September 11th and Hurricane Katrina the Federal government launched a massive emergency communications effort. However, these efforts have little, or anything, to do with PR people communicating with the media, employees and other key stakeholders.
The reason I issue the warning is that many schools, government agencies, hospitals and companies are not doing what they are supposed to be doing… and many executives, government leaders, hospital administrators and school leaders think they now have all the communications tools they need.
They are so wrong.
All of these emergency communications efforts deal with the radio systems that allow first responders to talk with one another during a crisis. RADIO SYSTEMS.
They have nothing to do with communicating the written and spoken word with your core audiences.
Many school systems and many law enforcement agencies around the country spent the summer rolling out what are known as NIMS Emergency Plans. In the program, government buildings and school buildings have all been given special numbers to identify them during an emergency.
One PR person recently told me her boss said he no longer needed Media Training because if there was a disaster, the FBI would be their spokesperson. Another executive stopped a PR department from working on their Crisis Communications Plan because they were part of the new Federal Emergency Communications System.
Wrong, wrong, wrong.
It frightens me what executives know, what they think they know, what they don’t know, and what they don’t know they don’t know.
For clarification, yes, executives and administrators still need Media Training because in a crisis, they still need to talk to the media, employees and other key audiences. In schools, that means the training needs to include talking with students, parents, faculty and staff. In a hospital it means talking with patients and their families. In a company it means talking with customers as well as the media and employees.
If your event involves first responders, they DO NOT become your spokesperson. Their interest is different than your interest. If a Joint Information Command is set up for news conferences, your spokespeople talk about what you know, while the responders and law enforcement talk about what they know.
Additionally, every organization needs its own Crisis Communications Plan in addition to any NIMS plan, Incident Command plan or Emergency Operations Plan. Those plans ONLY coordinate responders arriving in a timely manner and talking to one another through secure radio systems. They DO NOT include instructions for your written and spoken communications to your audiences. They DO NOT include all of the dozens of pre-written news releases that your crisis communications plan should contain.
I’ve posted new resources in the definitions section of 2 websites, including:
www.crisiscommunicationsplans.com and www.schoolcrisisplan.com
Please forward these to your leadership to educate them.
Please forward the link to the podcast to educate them.
As you can tell, I’m passionate about this and I’m concerned about the misinformation and misconceptions that is out there. Your own Media Training and your own Crisis Communications Plan can save lives through communications prior to a natural disaster, such as communicating evacuations for a hurricane… and during a crisis, such as a school shooting or workplace violence event. You would be using your written and spoken communications skills long before first responders even get involved, while responders are on the scene, and long after they have left the scene.
Here’s today’s call to action. Meet with your leaders and discuss this with them. If your leadership won’t listen to you, I’ll be happy to talk with and explain it. I’m also happy to speak to any association conventions where your leaders may be in the audience. As PR professionals we need to stick together on this and educate our leaders and executives. I’ve updated my website at www.braudcommunications.com with a new keynote called Leadership When “It” Hits the Fan, specifically designed to address some of these issues.
Let’s work on this together. After all, it is our job as strategic communications professionals.
Here are three incredible resources, ranging from Free to very affordable,
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• Swine flu is escalating
• Budgets are tight
• Staffs are reduced
• Resources are limited
Here they are:
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• Listen to a 2 minute explanation
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2) Prepare for your Swine Flu communications with a new teleseminar on demand.
It is available for listening when you are ready for it. Simply place your order now.
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I’m here to help. You just need to click before “It” hits the fan.
Gerard
I’ve been wanting to share these thoughts with you since the story first broke about the death of Michael Jackson, but I thought some may consider it insensitive or overtly opportunistic too close to his death. But now that some time has passed, let’s examine what we, as communicators, can learn from the death of Michael Jackson.
The first thing I would ask is whether a Michael Jackson mentality exists in your company and among your executives?
If you consider Michael Jackson, he provided great service to his customers… in other words, his fans loved his music and shows.
At the same time, Michael Jackson did many good works, traveling the world and giving away millions of dollars to charities, especially for children.
But then, there is the negative. The suspicions about whether he had inappropriate relations with children haunts him to this day.
These 2 sides of Michael Jackson polarized audiences.
Furthermore, the death of Michael Jackson, the investigation and the massive quantity of drugs found in his home, indicates that he had a big problem. I would even go so far to say that his advisors probably knew about his dangerous drug addictions and they failed to speak up, take action and do something about it.
I see this very same behavior everyday in corporations, government agencies and non-profit organizations.
Many of you work in organizations that have a loyal customer base and give back to the community, but there are those in your organization that simultaneously do things that raise suspicion… sometimes to internal parties; sometimes to the suspicion of the public.
It is a classic case in which you know that someone needs to tell the emperor that he has no clothes, but no one will.
I’ve seen those in the C-suite lose their temper so outrageously, in meetings, to the point that everyone is afraid to speak up, because no one want to be reamed out next. I’ve known of non-profit executives who own businesses or property on the side and have suspicious dealings with their own non-profit, and they have fired those who have questioned those dealings. In the world of government, there are constantly questionable relationships with vendors.
In the world of public relations, media relations and crisis communications, these are classic smoldering crises.
They also put you in the awkward situation of even compromising your own ethics if you fail to speak up. Yet, you also know that if you do speak up, you could jeopardize your own career and possibly get fired.
So what do you do? My first suggestion is that if you can’t fix the problem, you should start looking for a new job. I’ve challenged my bosses before and faced repercussions. When I couldn’t fix it internally, I decided to change jobs. I knew that eventually the company would pay the price for their bad ethics and misguided deeds. My goal was to be long gone so I wouldn’t be tainted by those bad deeds. After leaving I was happier and I always got a significant raise in salary.
If you do find yourself trapped between bad executive behavior and no prospects for a new job, realize that you, as the communicator, may eventually have your good name and reputation smeared when the scandal breaks, affecting your own future.
Does a Michael Jackson mentality exist where you work? If it does, your crisis communications plan may be need of a serious rewrite. Before you begin the rewrite, consider conducting a full blown vulnerability assessment so you can include all of the smoldering crisis that exists. Chances are there are other people in your organization who know of other misdeeds that you may not know of. Many crisis communications plans are flawed because they are only made to deal with a sudden crisis.
Don’t delay. Act now. Move it to the top of your priority list. It’s only a matter of time before your smoldering crisis ignites and everything goes up in flames.
My wife, 2 daughters and I went on our annual scuba diving trip to Cozumel, Mexico, to find the island is virtually deserted because tourists are afraid they’ll get the Swine Flu, also known as H1N1.
Crisis Communications is needed and here is why…
One tourism official tells me it is worse than the last 5 hurricanes combined.
So what are our crisis communications lessons?
Some may say Mexico is the victim of the old adage that, “no good deed goes unpunished.” I would say that is only partially true.
To Mexico’s credit, it did alert the world early of a possible Pandemic, to which the World Health Organization responded with a bevy of travel advisories. Those advisories indicated it would be a risk for people to travel by cruise ship to islands such as Cozumel. The cruise companies responded by canceling most of their trips to the island.
Experts applaud Mexico, indicating this is the first time Mexico actively engaged in such crisis response and crisis communications. And for this, some would say the drop in tourism is their punishment for the good deed of being proactive.
In the world of public relations and crisis communications, this lack of tourism amounts to a lack of crisis communications plans and skills by the tourism industry and the individual tourism destinations.
For example, when we arrived in Cozumel on a flight only three-quarters filled, we were greeted by a sign in the airport that says, “there have been zero cases of Swine Flu on the island of Cozumel.”
Well this was news to me. My airline never told me this. Travelocity, with whom I booked my trip, never told me this. My resort never told me this. The airline, the travel agency and the resort all should have a formal, well written crisis communications plan with instructions on how to communicate this critical information. Each failed to communicate with me.
Crisis communications is about keeping people safe and protecting the revenue of your organization. Swine Flu has taken a huge financial toll on Mexican tourism destinations. Tourism officials have invited tourists to return, but I’ve seen no extraordinary campaign to undue the Swine Flu stigma.
And if you’d like to look at the facts, to date, Mexico has reported 10-thousand cases and 117 deaths while the U.S. has reported 33-thousand cases and 170 deaths.
What lesson is there in this for you? Don’t depend upon others to do your crisis communications for you. If you want true crisis communications, it needs to come from your crisis communications plan. And the midst of a crisis is the worse time to plan for or write communications for a crisis. The best time to do it is on a clear sunny day when emotions are low, pressure is low, and you have clarity of logic.
Swine flu could still become an issue for your organization later this year. The best time to prepare is now.
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University of South Florida in Tampa — A story is unfolding about a possible gunman on campus. It appears text messaging and loud speakers are being used on campus. The school has a notice on their home page. Good use of the website.
I have not yet found a news release in their online newsroom:
http://usfweb2.usf.edu/university-communications-and-marketing/news/usfnews/index.asp
I’m finding evidence of a NIMs type emergency operations plan, but I’m not finding a true crisis communications plan.
Stand by for further evaluation.
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