Crisis Communication

Governor Carcieri blew it. In his press conference, he often referred to the individuals who had been killed as "bodies," rather than "victims." Rather than starting the news conference by assuring the public that his prayers and thoughts were with the victims and their families, he rambled for more than eight minutes about how he wanted to hear from dentists because having access to the dental records of victims might accelerate the identification process.

In an excerpt from his book, "Crisis Leadership Now," featured in the latest Crisis Manager, Dr. Larry Barton relays a tragic story, made worse by some incredibly bad communication. With the way an organization communicates being such an integral part of crisis management strategy, there's no excuse for poor preparation.

JB

Jonathan Bernstein
www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com

New Crisis Manager

Hot on the heels of the last issue, there's yet another new Crisis Manager up at the Bernstein Crisis Management website. We've got some excellent material in this edition. The first piece is an article that could help prevent 95% of all crises. The second is an analysis of a major crisis management bungle by the Governor of Rhode Island, excerpted from Dr. Larry Barton's book, "Crisis Leadership Now."

Those of you who are already subscribers received a free offer in the email edition of the newsletter, let me know how you liked it!

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JB

Jonathan Bernstein
www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com

Coup Crisis

Cruise giant Carnival is getting plenty of opportunities to put their crisis management strategies to the test. Having recently announced that their ships would not be visiting Mexican ports due to H1N1 risk, I'm sure the announcement of a military coup in the Honduras, another of their most popular ports, caused quite a scare.

Eager to control the story and reduce fears, Carnival granted interviews to news outlets worldwide. Here's a quote from one featured in the USAToday travel section:

"Our local contacts on the island are advising us that there are currently no issues in Roatan," de la Cruz tells USA TODAY. "We are monitoring the situation and keeping in touch with authorities there, however, at this time we are anticipating that we will be able to call in Roatan later this week as scheduled."

Being that they have a monopoly on cruises to the Honduras for the next few months, there's no doubt Carnival will do whatever they can to both keep their passengers safe and aid in reputation management for the area. If even one passenger is harmed, however, they'll have a much more difficult situation to manage.

JB

Jonathan Bernstein
www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com

Crisis Management Guidance

Every crisis management expert has their own guiding tenets - principles and ideas they use to shape their strategies and responses. Leadership coach Dan Greer today shared some advice gleaned from legendary GE PR man Jack Welch's book "Winning," on his top five guiding assumptions. One of my favorites:

There are no secrets in the world, and everyone will eventually find out everything—Information that you try to shut down will eventually get out, and as it travels, it will certainly morph, twist and darken. The only way to prevent that is to expose the problem yourself and tell the truth.

Transparency is the name of the game these days. Between traditional journalists and the new breed of I-Reporters brought about by the Internet era, nothing stays secret for long.

The next is Welch’s most positive assumption:

The organization will survive, ultimately stronger for what happened—There is not a crisis you cannot learn from, even though you hate every one of them. After a crisis is over the tendency is to put it away in a drawer. Don’t, teach its lessons every chance you get.

Strong organizations find ways to use crises to better themselves; even in the worst situations there are opportunities to be seized.

JB

Jonathan Bernstein
www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com

Crisis Simulation

One of the best ways to learn how to handle a crisis is to simulate it. This way, you can identify gaps in crisis preparedness and work to close them before a real event occurs. To this end, the Kansas Emergency Management Agency has built "Crisis City," a serious staging ground for some hands-on crisis management training. A Chicago Tribune article describes the facility:

Crisis City covers 40 acres and was built by the Kansas Emergency Management Agency near the Smoky Hill Air National Guard Weapons Range, with $9 million in state funds and $30 million in federal...In the coming years, there will be venues at Crisis City for responding to agriculture accidents, a permanent rubble pile, vertical tower, urban village and tanker truck.

Although it certainly helps, you don't need a facility worth $40 million to walk through crisis management simulations. One your organization has crisis communications and business continuity plans, putting your plans to the test should be a no-brainer.

JB

Jonathan Bernstein
www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com

Solving Online Crises

In allowing people to easily make their opinions extremely public, the Internet has created an entirely new type of crisis management. The problem with this is that many execs, secure in their ways, have a hard time taking this to heart. The latest Crisis Manager features an article by guest author Will Critchlow, online reputation management expert, who shares the critical elements he uses to choose response strategies and hammer home their importance.

The board wanted to know what was being said. The corporate communications guys wanted to know what was being said. But they couldn't read it all - there was a large volume of discussion and they had important decisions to make.

Often, the people in charge don't have time to sift through the discussion. They need to know which information is important, and what your crisis response plan is, as fast as possible.

JB

Jonathan Bernstein
www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com

Surviving Attacks

Penny Sansaveieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., is a best-selling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert. In the latest Crisis Manager newsletter, she shares with us how to survive an online attack on your reputation.

With all the ways to get media these days, you want to know what people are saying about you. Keeping track of the conversation will not only help you ward off an attack if one should ensue, but it will help you get to know the people who are important to your message.

Her article is full of crisis management strategy for the online arena, including tips on relationship building, word choice and making your voice heard. With more and more people using the web to voice their opinions, Internet reputation management should be a daily task.

JB

Jonathan Bernstein
www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com