Communicating during a crisis

Are there business communications lessons that you as a CEO or upper management can learn from the Florida election fiasco? There are, but you must be willing to accept some hard facts concerning the media, the role of lawyers and survival of the fittest, communicators that is.

It's the infotainment, stupid!

First, understand that, as a whole, the news business is now primarily the entertainment business, and misery sells. The more lurid or loathsome the better, especially on television, ironically the public's favorite venue for news.

An explosion of 24-hour news and financial networks, along with their spinoff Internet sites that update by the minute, gives news junkies and information-hungry investors their "fix" as often as is needed. And as Florida demonstrated, they are still hunting for news "in a pack," and when hunters hunt that way, something is going to be killed. If you're not ready to play in this environment, your competition probably is.

If you don't accept this first premise, I wish you luck. But sooner or later, you're going to be eaten. Probably by a competitor or a member of the entrepreneurial plaintiff's bar, a group of folks who know much about media manipulation. But if you are not in denial about your vulnerabilities, there are steps you can take to play with the big kids.

Don't let the genie

out of the bottle

Listen to your lawyer, especially if your attorney has an appreciation for verdicts in the court of public opinion as well. It's not true that the Constitution of the United States now begins with "We the lawyers" as a cartoon portrayed recently, but the best communications strategies these days should work hand-in-glove with the legal strategy. Most corporate or retained counsel understand well the areas in which their clients' companies are vulnerable. If you don't take steps to lessen your vulnerability, and a lawsuit, or an accident or an enterprising reporter makes those vulnerabilities a matter of public record, don't blame anyone but yourself. Take the opportunity to correct the problem before some consumer reporter or class action attorney comes calling.

Even the best "spin doctors" in the world can only hope to do damage control if you're wrong and you knew it. A frank, honest and thorough audit of your vulnerabilities, followed by actions to correct them, is the best way to avoid the pack. Problem is, very few take these simple steps.

Resist your genes

In most cases, corporate officials move much less quickly than the press or plaintiff's lawyers. It's in their genes to be cautious. In most cases, corporations under attack must fight their impulses to hunker down and hope the storm passes. It doesn't.

That deadly impulse is often bolstered by those surrounding top management -- seldom do underlings speak frankly to CEOs who are screwing up at Mach 3. This is true in every crisis situation in which we have worked.

If you're right, and it follows a sound legal strategy that takes into account the court of public opinion, then be big boys and girls and come out fighting. There is absolutely no reason to let somebody harm your company or reputation due to your sluggishness. Some would even say come out fighting if you are wrong.

Who can forget James Carville standing alone in the early hours of the Lewinsky scandal? Carville's Lone Ranger act resulted later in an avalanche of sympathy for the president, and quite probably saved his hide. That leads us to companies that don't return phone calls or issue no-comment replies. The entrepreneurial plaintiff's bar uses pretrial publicity like Popeye uses spinach. It's one of their best weapons, and they are more than willing to fill news stories and sound bites with their facts, figures and tested messages. As if that is not enough, an often-cited public opinion poll cites the fact that 40 percent of the public believe a company is guilty the moment a lawsuit is filed against it. That number zooms to over 60 percent when defense counsel refuses to comment. The lesson -- no comment at your own considerable risk.

Life is cruel,

and then you die

Here's proof: doing everything right, and being good and honest does not mean that bad publicity will not come your way. One only needs to remember the trashing of Audi sales that resulted from a false 60 Minutes report or the breast implants junk science that forced Dow Corning into bankruptcy. Breast implant litigation against Dow has resulted in a more than $7 billion payout, despite the fact that last June a two-year study by the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine into the possible link between implants and connective-tissue diseases concurred with 17 other probes by concluding that there was no link.

In these cases, the negative publicity the public heard in the court of public opinion hurt these companies far worse than court actions. That is why a sustained, aggressive campaign in the relevant media must be undertaken.

Bon appetite

The new communications rules are mean and nasty, and sometimes "virtuous and above-the-fray." CEOs and company management refuse to engage in such warfare. So be it: Your competition and plaintiff's lawyers, just like in nature, need something to eat. Here's hoping you take the steps to stay off the menu.

Scott Mitchell is president of Scott Mitchell & Associates Strategic Communications Consulting of Oklahoma City. You may reach him by phone at 947-2462 or by e-mail at smitchell

2001Copyright
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.