CCM_HA8

LDR 5302, Crisis Communication Management 1

Course Learning Outcomes for Unit VIII Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to:

5. Recommend avenues for damage control when faced with communication problems. 5.1 Explain the best course of action when previous communications have been misunderstood, or

communications are interrupted.

Reading Assignment To access the following resources, click the links below: Echevarria recounts a vignette on Planned Parenthood, showing how both staying silent and responding without sufficient consideration of public reaction harmed the organization in tangible ways. Echevarria, L. (2015). Planned Parenthood's PR nightmare. Human Life Review, 41(4), 11–19.

https://libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?dire ct=true&db=aph&AN=112210583&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Frohlichstein describes the idea of a message map and how it is a compact and efficient way of organizing

desired messages into visible and retrievable themes. Frohlichstein, T. (2003). Follow me: Message maps lead the way to better media interviews. Public Relations

Tactics, 10(5), 20–21. https://libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?dire ct=true&db=buh&AN=10395795&site=ehost-live&scope=site

The air traffic controllers’ strike that took place in Spain from the 3rd to the 6th of December 2010 is a paradigmatic case of crisis communications. This research article analyzes the public communications strategies implemented during this crisis. González, M. M., Castillo, I. M., & González, M. J. (2013). Proactive crisis communications in public

institutions. Revista Latina de Comunicación Social, 16(68), 457–484. https://libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?dire ct=true&db=a9h&AN=93246888&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Janoske, Liu, and Madden share the results of their study on crisis communication, which shows the benefits of thorough communication development and sharing. Janoske, M., Liu, B., & Madden, S. (2013). Congress report: Experts' recommendations on enacting best

practices in risk and crisis communication. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 21(4), 231–235. https://libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?dire ct=true&db=aph&AN=91808853&site=ehost-live&scope=site

UNIT VIII STUDY GUIDE

Special Situations; Minimizing Mistakes

LDR 5302, Crisis Communication Management 2

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Unit Lesson Imagine a crisis communications spokesperson/planner who has developed the organization’s crisis communications plan, gotten it approved and distributed, and has met various journalists and other stakeholders and established some rapport. Naturally, experience will build both skills and confidence in the area of public communications in a professionalism-building journey. Remembering that not all crises are the same, we will briefly explore some hypothetical crisis situations and think about how to minimize or avoid the mistakes that all crisis communications spokespeople can easily make. Stonewalling A brief delay is not stonewalling; organizational staffs and executive leaders need a certain amount of time to process options, make decisions, and prepare products, such as appropriate messages, based on their decisions; therefore, it is prudent to have message templates drafted with what the staff knows would be communicated, and these templates should be attached to the crisis communications plan before a crisis occurs. Besides saving time, processing such approved drafts indicates that the organizational leaders and staff have already practiced the mindset of crisis communications. Such expertise gained through practice likely means that an organization has an effective and poised crisis response and sincere communications ready when needed. Stonewalling, though, means using more than a reasonable amount of time to release communications, often because the consequences of addressing the public are perceived to be unpleasant. Executive leaders with large staffs, including a personal staff that takes care of many of the top leaders’ needs, can conceivably stay in their offices and continue to operate with some insulation between what they see, hear, or read and what news is breaking outside of the office or inside in other parts of the organization. Executive leaders can try this tactic because they have the power to direct what organizational members do, which can prevent the leaders from having to communicate unpleasant news and updates themselves, but this tactic will lead to even more trouble than if the crisis had been addressed head-on.

As Marszalek (2016) notes, current issues, such as those involving race and law enforcement, have added complexity to relationships that seemed simpler in earlier years. An organization can decline to answer journalists’ or other stakeholders’ questions about a crisis. A law enforcement agency can stonewall a media outlet by requesting them to “FOIA it,” which implies that the media outlet should file a Freedom of Information Act request for information; this process takes time, and journalists must await a reply. Once the journalists get any material, though, they will start building the story, aware that the organization would not help them because likely it had ulterior motives for not wanting to do so. An adversarial relationship with members of the media is not a good start to an unfolding crisis.

After hurricane Irene swept the Eastern seaboard of the United States, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers dispersed teams to various locations in the New Jersey/New York areas in an effort to provide emergency equipment and ensure the safety of CBP personnel. (Burton, 2011)

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What Should be Done Instead?

Rapport established before a crisis that is based on positive collaboration and expressions of mutual respect will make sudden hard times associated with crises easier to bear. The more that public communications work and preparation are performed ahead of time, the less likely an organization will be to communicate with strangers, though there are always a few communicators who will be new to spokespeople or their leaders. The crisis communications planner and/or spokesperson should remember that more preparation beforehand will lead to better communications results later, when they are needed. Trust and respect are so important to build ahead of time. After having practiced communications and established as much rapport as time allowed beforehand, the organization must respond to a breaking crisis with messages as soon as possible, ideally within minutes. The messages will not solve the crisis, but they will show what

the organization is doing about it and that its leaders are engaged in the issues. These promised first responses may, depending on the nature of the crisis, be to immediately seek details and provide quick- reaction assistance, restore connectivity rapidly, or share resources to mitigate the crisis. Follow-up messages may clarify and give a more complete picture from the organization’s point of view, but something has to be communicated fast. Beaubien (2016) points out that messages have to be balanced as well as rapid, especially when the situation is urgent. People may panic or react to sudden messages without caution. Well-crafted messages will offer information expected or needed in a crisis, but messages should not be overdone in tone or urgency so as to create new problems. An effective message will have information people need immediately but without embellishment that may lead to public overreactions. Gaffes Mistakes happen. That is true, but there are steps to take and to avoid in order to make mistakes improbable in view of the organizational structure established, as well as to have plans set and achieve readiness before a crisis. Moreover, any gaffe that occurs will likely be minor and relatively easy to correct and, as is typical of human dynamics, largely forgotten. How do gaffes occur? Organizations that fail to plan for crisis communications or do not establish communications operations and rapport with journalist stakeholders end up communicating during a crisis amid strangers. Spokespeople can still give effective crisis communications in this setting, but it will be harder. The spokesperson who has had practice and experience, especially with his or her current organization and stakeholders, will operate in a more amenable environment; depending on the crisis, the organization may urgently need this implicit support. On the other hand, organizational executive leaders who lack practice in communications and do not make their accessibility a part of their leadership effort will be at a disadvantage, increasing the chances that they will communicate the wrong thing in the wake of a crisis. Finally, organizational leaders and spokespeople may forget when they are in the public eye. Prominent organizational members are sometimes recorded doing something that leaves an unfortunate public impression, such as eating while conversing about a tragic occurrence (see the Echevarria [2015] article about Planned Parenthood staff recordings). Remember, there is no such thing as being “off the record.”

Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson travels to Columbia and Charleston, South Carolina, to meet with federal, state, and local officials and view ongoing response and recovery efforts in areas affected by severe flooding on October 9, 2015. (Bahler, 2015)

LDR 5302, Crisis Communication Management 4

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An organizational culture that does not practice an ethic or hold a value to empathize with others will be at risk for one of its public communicators saying or writing something that triggers a negative perception. The organization’s leaders may appear to be uncaring, ill-informed, out of touch, lacking in certain values, or incapable of managing their part of the crisis response. If the crisis has victims, an example of a pubic gaffe might be an attempt to joke about or dismiss the occurrence. Another example would be for a public servant to take sides in a political campaign or dispute. Some public officials can show partisanship by tradition, but, for example, law enforcement officers or military leaders should definitely not do so. Another approach that may turn into a gaffe is attacking another entity, which can be a person, group of people, level of government, or another organization. This is a risky choice. Attacks tend to look defensive or dissembling; neither perception leaves the impression that the speaker or leader is living up to commonly held adult responsibilities. Using the public “podium” to attack someone or something else, perhaps to cast blame for the crisis, appears petty and immature, and the unfriendly words are hard to take back in subsequent public communications. In the end, an attempted attack tends to need as much work on follow-up communications to repair the situation as does a speaking or posting error. What Should Be Done Instead As noted, more readiness and practice will reduce the likelihood of consequence-bearing mistakes, though execution is as important as preparation because on-the-spot will be where many are looking. Though communications should be swift, this does not mean that they should be hastily performed. A public speaker may want to pause before commenting or answering a question; writers may want to proofread and consider their postings’ tone on social media or the organizational website. Facts must be gathered, but a communicator should not let so much time pass that it appears that the organization is stonewalling. Indeed, like decision making, communicating must begin with some, if not all, of the pertinent facts. When starting to communicate, showing heart is another key; rarely does a gaffe occur from trying to show empathy for others in a crisis. As noted by González et al. (2013), telling the story is a good framework to build on, as audiences generally understand a story format. This technique is good if not overdone. Damage Control in the Face of Communication Problems How does a spokesperson repair an unfortunate situation? Consider the suggestions below. Gain the best possible control of the facts. It is difficult to proceed with crisis communications without reliable facts; however, leaders cannot wait too long for confirmation of every single detail, so at some early point— perhaps measured in minutes—an organizational leader has to decide on what to communicate while some details are still pending. If poor or deficient communications have already occurred, the only way to begin making them better is to know the situation. Research and efforts to confirm details are required. Such work moves against the tide of natural human tendencies for sensation, rumor, and misworded descriptions.

In the aftermath of the historic rainfalls of early October 2015 in South Carolina, Jeh Johnson, United States Secretary of Homeland Security, visited North Charleston to survey a flooded neighborhood of the city. By Johnson is licensed under CC BY 2.0 (Johnson, 2015)

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Assume tones of empathy and regret but also optimism that an unfortunate event can be remediated. You will come across as sincere as long as organizational action matches the words. If an issue has worsened because communications were delayed or seemed uncaring, a quick “resetting” of communications to warmer tones will begin to reverse the earlier exchange. Because such a reset begins to treat message receivers as they want to be treated, this change of communications generally is accepted as an improvement rather than being seen as pandering to whatever people want to hear. Such a change communicates what the organization considers to be its true identity and helps align words, and later deeds, with stated organizational values.

Keep a steady pace of crisis communications The organization’s reputation may have been damaged because a leader stonewalled, resulting in silence when communication from the organization was needed. In that case, perhaps executive leaders should change which leader is communicating, if there is a choice. If a spokesperson has been “muzzled,” this decision should be reversed immediately. There will be some public skepticism as to why the organization went from silence to a sudden stream of communications. These perceptions tend to weaken, however, as crisis communicators maintain a steady flow of informative or helpful substantive messages. In time, this perceived change of treatment of stakeholders is taken to be the “new normal” expected from the organization. Get, or keep, a pulse on the feelings of stakeholders and the public A spokesperson/crisis communications planner becomes adept at research and public interaction. Planning assumptions are useful but are never as good as measuring what is actually happening with the social dynamics. Executive leaders can rarely do this accurately and, instead, may leave it to the organization’s staff to measure public and stakeholder moods. Preliminary assumptions can be made about a crisis, but the reception of crisis communications messages should not remain an assumption; it should be verified through research. Reading media columnists’ published works on the crisis and listening to key communicators, consultations, and surveys are ways to gain an operational picture of the crisis. Conclusion This course has looked at crisis communications as a skill best suited for leaders who are willing to research, grasp details, comfortably interact with others as equals, communicate with large audiences, work in adverse conditions to improve them, and help shape public sentiments and perceptions toward more positive feelings. Crisis communications management is a profession where strength is needed and built.

South Carolina Governor, Nikki Haley, was joined by Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) officials and other emergency management officials in 2015 to give updates concerning South Carolina’s flood response. (Pippen, 2015)

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References Bahler, B. (2015). South Carolina [Photograph]. Flickr.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/dhsgov/21870930768/in/photolist-zjEeKf-xLdNvz-GDo76X-xKMDWm- zyWYP3-rQ7QL3-zKtpHM-wKj1W3-wKiJZd-x2arw1-w5Ucwd-zHsLao-x2Vbap-r6xj28-rSi2LU-rzXzye- rnZsmn-G81htG-GdSCqQ-FkX1B8-tvshpW-tvsjYd-FNJtF5-uaSYpJ-us3X2G-GecQWN-yCoXxR- zwY4

Beaubien, G. (2016). Crisis communications planes {sic] for the Zika virus. The Public Relations Strategist,

22(2). https://libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direc t=true&db=bth&AN=117136316&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Burton, D. (2011). Hurricane Irene aftermath [Photograph]. Flickr.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/cbpphotos/6096242805/in/photolist-ahGQYv-ahKLqd-ahKJWs-ahGVxc- ahGNX8-ahGQAz-ahGXVz-ahKEPs-ahGWsD-ahKAwJ-ahKDiy-ahGS7D-ahKMaE-ahGPGk- ahGQaK-ahGUV8-ahGU7H-ahKFso

Echevarria, L. (2015). Planned Parenthood's PR nightmare. Human Life Review, 41(4), 11–19.

https://libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direc t=true&db=aph&AN=112210583&site=ehost-live&scope=site

González, M., Castillo, I., & González, M. (2013). Proactive crisis communications in public institutions. Latina

de Communicacion Social, 16(68), 457–484. https://libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direc t=true&db=a9h&AN=93246888&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Johnson, R. (2015). Homeland Security Secretary visits North Charleston [Photograph]. Flickr.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/northcharleston/21948703719/in/photolist-BLqWz9-C46wBN-C3YTRA- tqzCpA-zJ41iZ-zrwUU2-Doefgs-zrwQWc-zFJwgA-8734La-vMXSHq-DfXk1N-Ct2qw7-sR3715- tN4evp-tvAQa8-Ct8XiK-c6iurf-DfYHrh-Dqxnnx-CYoMWb-DigV4t-CS3XBZ-Doeo8E-DRqCWC- EgdXQA-Le

Marszalek, D. (2016). Obstruction of journalism. Broadcasting & Cable, 146(32), 8–11.

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Pippen, Z. (2015). South Carolina Governor … [Photograph]. Flickr.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/governornikkihaley/21837693500/in/photolist-zzdUXP-zgHTsU