Saturday, July 7, 2007

Crisis Comunication

“Crisis” communication is not just limited to big corporations facing a major incident, such as the recent Dell product recall or the Enron bankruptcy. These basic communication principles can be applied to any situation of any scale. Here, they are applied to project management in the IT sector.
Crisis communications are generally considered a sub-specialty of the public relations profession that is designed to protect and defend an individual, company, or organization facing a public challenge to its reputation. These challenges may come in the form of an investigation from a government agency, a criminal allegation, a media inquiry, a shareholders lawsuit, a violation of environmental regulations, or any of a number of other scenarios involving the legal, ethical, or financial standing of the entity.

Crisis communications professionals preach that an organization’s reputation is often its most valuable asset. When that reputation comes under attack, protecting and defending it becomes the highest priority. This is particularly true in today’s 24 hour news cycle, fuelled by government investigations, Congressional hearings (in countries that have Congress, lawsuits, and “gotcha” journalism. When events like these happen, the media firestorm can quickly overwhelm the ability of the entity to effectively respond to the demands of the crisis. To emerge with its reputation intact, an organization must anticipate every move and respond immediately and with confidence. Companies facing such a threat will often bring in experienced crisis communications specialists to help prepare and guide them through the process.
Communicating the right message at the right time is critical to managing a business crisis. In emergency situations, there are multiple audiences – employees, customers, investors, the media, and the community and government agencies – with multiple needs. Responding quickly and with confidence is the only way to demonstrate your organizations ability to face, and overcome, a business crisis.

The most challenging part of crisis communication management is reacting - with the right response - quickly. This is because behavior always precedes communication. Non-behavior or inappropriate behavior leads to spin, not communication. In emergencies, it's the non-action and the resulting spins that cause embarrassment, humiliation, prolonged visibility, and unnecessary litigation.

The Dimensions of a Crisis

True crises have several critical dimensions in common, any one of which, if handled poorly, can disrupt or perhaps destroy best efforts at managing any remaining opportunities to resolve the situation and recover, rehabilitate, or retain reputation. Failure to respond and communicate in ways that meet community standards and expectations will result in a series of negative outcomes.

Seven critical dimensions of crisis communication management: Operations, Victims, Trust/credibility, Behavior, Professional expectations, Ethics, and Lessons learned.

The Internet can create a crisis in a variety of ways - through rumors, hacking and other forms of cyber-terrorism - whether intentional or not, such as through the relatively benign actions of bored computer geeks. There are now crises that start and exist only on the Internet, or, in the worst case, quickly become the stuff of mainstream news. Many of these are the actions of an angry employee or a customer that vents frustration by creating a parody or “shadow” web site.
http://www.ou.edu/deptcomm/dodjcc/groups/02C2/Johnson%20&%20Johnson.htm This link will discuss the Johnson & Johnson Tylenol Crisis.
The Four P’s of Crisis Preparation are Policy, People, Plan and Platform.

"Good crisis communications is based on a system already in place," says former White House press secretary Marlin Fitzwater. "When there is a crisis, you just tighten it up and make it better. If you routinely had a daily press briefing, you would tighten it up and make it three times a day. A crisis is no time to design a new system."

http://www.caponigro.com/pdf/nations_restaurant_review.pdf this link describes how to prepare before and after the crisis.

Crisis preparation and simulation is a time-consuming process that demands senior management's full attention. Whether you are a communicator for a large multinational financial institution, a major sports team or a government agency, you owe it to every one of your constituents to undertake a thorough assessment of your crisis preparedness. Not doing so puts your company at risk and makes your management team and the board extremely vulnerable during an actual crisis event. In today's world of stricter corporate governance, relentless media, intolerant investors, and the new group of emerging citizen journalists and bloggers, it's a risk few companies should take.

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