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Organizations and governments are severely judged at the time of a crisis. Disasters like the multipronged earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan; Toyota’s recalls; the Maple Leaf Foods listeriosis crisis; or the loss of life and prolonged environmental situation in the BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill were intensely scrutinized over many months.

A crisis plan is an organizational footprint for the first day of a crisis, but a company needs more if it wants to survive and recover from a major setback. A crisis plan, a team and prepared materials certainly help. However, to recover from a crisis, an organization needs to thrive under intense scrutiny—and that starts with values.

Values provide the foundation that dictates many of the immediate decisions that have to be made in the days, weeks and potentially months following a crisis. If your organization’s values are about important principles like caring, accountability, responsibility and transparency, they should be front and center in decision making and messaging during a crisis.

The media and the public judge government and organizations very quickly in a crisis, and there is very little room for any middle ground in the opinions they form. Companies are viewed as either “good” or “bad” depending on their handling of a crisis. People don’t want to buy products or services from a “bad” company that has injured people, caused deaths, disrupted livelihoods or devastated natural environments.

In my experience, there are three distinct phases in every crisis—initial response, intense scrutiny and opportunity for advocacy.

The first phase is the most important, as people will judge and remember an organization’s initial response. This phase is when opinions are formed about whether an organization is good or bad. The media does the same thing, and their coverage will reinforce their bias. In the first phase, it is about creating an initial impression and doing it quickly.

Speed of response has never been more important than now, in the age of the Internet and social media. But it is also very important not to forget traditional channels like television and radio.

When Maple Leaf Foods’ deli food service products were found to contain high levels of listeria, the CEO, Michael McCain, was front-and-center, communicating his remorse and the company’s responsibility and accountability. McCain’s response to the crisis was not guided by carefully crafted words with heavy legal review. In fact, he said publically that he was not going to listen to the lawyers or the accountants. He spoke from the heart.

Maple Leaf’s values are simple statements. They include phrases like:

• Do the right thing.
• Dare to be transparent, passionate and humble.
• Get things done in a fact-based, disciplined way.

Maple Leaf Foods placed a video of McCain on YouTube, and turned it into a national television commercial within 24 hours of the crisis. From consumers to politicians, the response to the video was “he took responsibility,” and in those moments people started to trust McCain and his organization. Research indicated that for many, those early sentiments translated into a trust of the company and its products, which eventually led to the organization’s recovery.

The second phase of a crisis is intense scrutiny. This is a time when many organizations lose public support; however, McCain continued to earn trust in the six months of media scrutiny that followed the crisis.

As a company, Maple Leaf exhibited great transparency in providing information and responding to questions. Repeatedly, reporters were guided through the facility, and company spokespeople spoke openly about the situation. The CEO was humble and accessible in his press conferences—a tone that allowed people to believe him.

It was likely because of fatigue that Tony Hayward of BP did not fare as well during the stage of intense scrutiny with the BP oil crisis. In a crisis, you can never diminish the size of a problem; assign blame to others; or act arrogant when you carry a company, its actions and its people on your shoulders. If you do, people will stop liking you and stop trusting you. And if they don’t trust you, they don’t want to buy your products.

CEOs and government leaders who establish a human face for a company need to be accessible. Simple phrases connect. Honesty and timely, substantive communications can establish trust.

Currently, Japan’s prime minister is facing the country’s worst disaster since World War II and given the extent of the crisis, he has been more visible than the head of Tokyo Electric Power Co. With a long rebuilding process ahead of Japan and six to nine months before stability can be brought to the reactors, people have called for the prime minister’s resignation. His latest fault is not recalling the details of a pre-crisis simulation drill. In normal times, this would be a non-event, but during the intense scrutiny of a crisis, it is a further detail that speaks to the lack of leadership the public feels he has displayed. People need timely information and a strong voice to deliver it. The Japanese prime minister has not succeeded in winning the trust of the people.

The third phase of a large-scale crisis can include regulatory and political scrutiny including testimony in public hearings. Politicians do not weigh in lightly on people and companies they perceive to have delayed responsible actions, hidden information or hurt people during a crisis.

Recovery from any crisis is based on trust, and trust is earned. Ethical behavior and strong communication and leadership speed an organization’s recovery from a crisis.