I thought that it would be useful to review the consulting assignments I've had this year and highlight 25 of the lessons inherent in the various situations on the assumption that at least some of us realize that it's wiser to learn from the experiences of others.
Not surprisingly, many of the lessons relate to Internet-centered activity. If you don't have an Internet crisis management strategy and capabilities now, get to work!
I have not prioritized these in any way because the most important lesson for you may not be the most important lesson for others.
1. One hostile and/or ego-driven person with a computer and some Internet savvy can do a huge amount of damage to any organization.
2. Damaging information present on the Internet spreads virally, being reprinted by other Web sites or even news organizations regardless of accuracy. Ignoring it will only make matters worse.
3. All legal threats - e.g., threatened lawsuits, regulatory investigations - are potential threats to reputation and should be brought to the attention of whoever is responsible for reputation management/PR as soon as they're identified. Typically, however, legal counsel and even senior company management delay notifying their PR advisor, internal or external, until the stuff hits the fan or is about to imminently. Rushed consideration of PR strategy and messaging is seldom as good as that which can be produced given more lead time.
4. There are PR agencies and consultants who do not think about or, out of greed or ego, fail to consider how much damage they do to their clients by claiming to have more crisis management capabilities than, in fact, they do.
5. Mid- to large-size organizations, in particular, need an automated system of notifying their Crisis Management-related teams and impacted stakeholders instantly and concurrently. Relying on human "call chains" by people who have other responsibilities and/or who are also trying to put out the fire is unrealistic and results in delays and more damage.
6. Sometimes it's wiser to make peace than to be right.
7. Even organizations who think that they are very transparent in their internal communications are usually surprised to learn about some of the flaws uncovered by a vulnerability audit.
8. The ability to make a flawless personal presentation to 1,000 people at a conference does not automatically translate, without training, to an ability to conduct an on-camera media interview related to a crisis.
9. Don't get into a public spat with government agencies or the media, they carry bigger sticks than you do and have long memories.
10. With rare exception, media interview skills were not part of a CEO's scholastic experience and - even if they were - they have eroded to the point of uselessness if not practiced.
11. Any significant operational decision has a public relations impact, internally or externally, and should be considered in that light before being finalized. Some decisions which seem to make perfect sense financially, for example, may end up seriously damaging relationships with stakeholders and, ultimately, cost money versus saving it.
12. Everyone in your organization, from highest-paid to the lowest, should understand what your organization considers to be a crisis and their individual responsibilities for reporting potential crises.
13. Everyone in your organization, from highest-paid to the lowest, should understand what their individual responsibilities are for crisis response.
14. The actions of every employee and contractors considered, de facto, to be part of your organization have the impact to promote or damage your reputation.
15. Be VERY VERY CAREFUL about what you say or don't say in email! Anything put into email can be (a) leaked; (b) inadvertently distributed to the wrong people; (c) be legally damaging; and,(d) be revealed through the disclosure process in any formal legal proceeding.
16. With regard to media interviews, if you don't say it, they can't use it. It is rare (although not completely unheard of) for a reporter to actually make up a quote. When spokespersons claim that this has happened, usually it's because they have been sucked in to a leading question, e.g., Reporter: "Mr. Smith, do you think that this is the worst thing that has ever happened to your company." Smith: "Yeah, maybe." Sentence that appears in the paper: "This may be the worst thing that has ever happened to our company," said Smith.
17. It's much wiser to encourage and even reward internal whistle-blowing than to find yourself at the wrong end of news coverage, a lawsuit and/or a governmental investigation prompted by a whistle-blower.
18. The court of public opinion can destroy your organization much more quickly than a court of law.
19. Criticism is only damaging if your stakeholders believe it - but never assume you know, without asking, what your stakeholders believe!
20. Crisis communications and emergency response plans are not created to provide a flawless method of response to every crisis situation. They are created to establish a system for effective response to any crisis and to serve as a basis for training crisis responders.
21. If you think a crisis-related response mechanism will work, but you've never tested and trained with it, you're inviting much higher levels of damage when the crisis occurs.
22. More and more attorneys-general initiate their investigations based on stories written and/or produced by consumer reporters. The corollary: if you directly serve consumers, consumer reporters are a special risk for which you must plan, because they will respond to inaccurate allegations as if they were the truth and do not like to produce headlines that read, "Consumer Allegation Proven False by Responsible Company."
23. Companies that respond well to crises can actually gain market share and enhance their reputation.
24. If crisis preparedness does not receive the full support of an organization's leadership - particularly the CEO - the organization will not be prepared, even if they have some plans on the shelf and a bit of training to go with it.
