To ensure that your crisis will flourish and
grow, you should
1. Play ostrich. Hope that no one learns
about it. Cater to whoever is advising you to say nothing,
do nothing. Assume you'll have time to react when and if necessary,
with little or no preparation time. And while you're playing
ostrich, with your head buried firmly in the sand, don't think
about the part that's still hanging out.
2. Only start work on a potential crisis situation
after it's public. This is closely related to Item
1, of course. Even if you have decided you won't play ostrich,
you can still foster your developing crisis by deciding not
to do any advance preparation. Before the situation becomes
public, you still have some proactive options available. 
You could, for example, thrash out and even test some planned
key messages, but that would probably mean that you will communicate
promptly and credibly when the crisis breaks publicly, and
you don't want to do that, do you? So, to allow your crisis
to gain a strong foothold in the public's mind, make sure
you address all issues from a defensive posture—something
much easier to do when you don't plan ahead. Shoot from the
hip, and give off-the-cuff, unrehearsed remarks.
3. Let your reputation speak for you. "Doesn't
anybody know how important we think we are?" you complain.
You: big business Goliath. Me: member of public who doesn't
trust big business. You lose.
4. Treat the media like the enemy. By all
means, tell a reporter that you think he or she has done such
a bad job of reporting on you, and that you'll never talk
to him or her again. Or badmouth him or her in a public forum.
Send nasty faxes. Then sit back and have a good time while
- The reporter gets angry and directs that energy into
really going after your organization.
- The reporter laughs at what he or she sees as validation
that you're really up to no good in some way.
5. Get stuck in reaction mode versus being proactive.
A negative story quoting various sources suddenly breaks about
your organization, quoting various sources. You respond with
a statement.
There's a follow-up story. You make another statement. Suddenly
you have a public debate, a lose/lose situation. Good work!
Instead of looking at methods that could turn the situation
into one where you initiate activity that precipitates news
coverage, putting you in the driver's seat and letting others
react to what you say, you continue to look as if you're the
guilty party defending yourself.
6. Use language your audience doesn't understand.
Jargon and arcane acronyms are but two of the ways you can
be sure to confuse your audiences and a surefire way to make
most crises worse. Let's check out a few of these taken-from-real-situations
gems:
- The rate went up 10 basis points.
- We're considering development of a SNFF or a CCRC.
- We ask that you submit exculpatory evidence to the grand
jury.
- The material has less than 0.65 ppm benzene as measured
by the TCLP.
To the average member of the public, and to most of the media
who serve them, the general reaction to such statements is
"Huh?"
7. Assume that truth will triumph over all.
You have the facts on your side and you know the American
public will eventually come around and realize that. Disregard
the proven concept that perception is as damaging as reality—sometimes
more so.
8. Address only issues and ignore feelings.
- The green goo which spilled on our property is absolutely
harmless to humans.
- Our development plans are all in accordance with appropriate
regulations.
- The lawsuit is totally without merit.
So what if people are scared? Angry? You're a businessman,
not a psychologist—right?
9. Make only written statements. Face it,
it's a lot easier to communicate via written statements only.
No fear of looking or sounding foolish. Less chance of being
misquoted. Sure, it's impersonal and some people think it
means you're hiding and afraid, but you know they're wrong
and that's what's important.
10. Use "best guess" methods of assessing
damage. "Oh my goodness, we're the front page
(negative) story, we're ruined!"
Congratulations, you may have just made a mountain out of
a molehill.... OK, maybe you only made a small building out
of a molehill. Helpful hint: You can make the situation worse
by refusing to spend a little time or money quietly surveying
your most important audiences to see what they think and if
it matches the perception created by the media.
11. Do the Same Thing Over and Over Again Expecting
Different Results. The last time you had negative
news coverage you just ignored media calls, perhaps at the
advice of legal counsel or simply because you felt that no
matter what you said, the media would get it wrong. The result
was a lot of concern amongst all of your audiences, internal
and external, and the aftermath took quite a while to fade
away.
So, the next time you have a crisis, you're going to do the
same thing, right? Because "stuff happens" and you
can't improve the situation by attempting to improve communication—can
you?
Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein
Crisis Management LLC , and author of "Keeping
the Wolves at Bay: A Media Training Manual." He has
more than 20 years of experience in all aspects of crisis
management: prevention, planning, testing and response. To
contact him, write to jonathan@bernsteincrisismanagement.com.
Reprinted with permission of Bernstein Crisis
Management LLC.
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