Basil Jarrett | Rethinking crisis communications

Crises. They come in all different colours, shapes and sizes: The 1962 stand-off between the US and the then Soviet Union right here in our backyard; the 1982 Tylenol misadventure which left seven people dead from cyanide poisoning; the 2016 Russian doping scandal and that country’s subsequent ban from Olympic competition; the $400m fraud case at the Manchester Municipal Corporation in 2016; the 2019 arrest and charge of an NCB employee for defrauding the bank of over $35m; and just last weekend when supplies of oxygen ran in out in all of our hospitals, at a time when record numbers were in hospital beds and hallways fighting to breathe as a result of the mother of all crises, the COVID pandemic. Yes, crises are some of the most diverse, yet most common naturally occurring phenomena on earth. It’s almost as if someone took the old Chinese proverb, “May you live in interesting times”, and hit the repeat button. But not all crises are of the “luck of the draw” and “wrong place wrong time” variety. Some are totally avoidable and clearly self-inflicted. And in the case of the latter, there is an air of familiarity in the immediate response.

We all know the familiar drill by now: An executive has been caught siphoning off funds to his personal bank account, due to some flaw in the company’s financial or operational procedures. The company immediately moves to distance itself from the individual and their actions and trots out a shiny, eloquent spokesperson with the gift of gab to issue a statement about “investigating the allegation” and “not condoning the actions”. When done expertly and in conjunction with other activities demonstrating genuine remorse and empathy, the damage can be significantly contained. But as I learnt when I became an adult and suddenly had responsibility for doing my own laundry, no matter how you separate and soak and bleach that stain before that first wash, your white shirts are never as bright and crispy as the day you first took them off the rack. It is always better not to spill coffee on them in the first place.

AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION

The best way to manage a crisis is to prevent it from happening in the first place. Organisations must begin to look beyond the boundaries of communications and PR, and start to explore the operational antecedents of accidents, errors and emergencies, as a necessary Phase One of their crisis communications plan. Accidents are never accidental. They are the result of a series of actions and events arising from operational failures and poor decision-making at one level or another. Standard operating procedures, procurement guidelines, oversight bodies, safety protocols, system designs and equipment all work together as barriers or safeguards against accidents and mishaps. But when weaknesses or flaws in these barriers coincide with each other, they can give rise to truly devastating events. For example, a small fire in an office building that would normally be nothing more than a public nuisance becomes a major catastrophe when routine inspections of fire extinguishers have not been done in years, fire drills have not been practised in months, and fire exits have been padlocked for days. By themselves, neither of these things would have escalated the situation beyond that of an interesting day at the office, but occurring simultaneously, the confluence of events can be disastrous.

GOING FURTHER UP THE RIVER

If what happens in the first few hours of a crisis is important to minimise the damage done to the organisation’s reputation, then what happens in the weeks and months before the event is even more critical. Effective crisis communications planning must therefore go further up the river to ensure that standard operating procedures, especially those relating to health, safety and security as well as operational and administrative protocols and company policies are being followed. The best crisis communications plans are therefore the ones that never have to be taken off the shelf because they prevent situations from becoming events, accidents or emergencies in the first place.

By no means am I diminishing the importance of having a solid media and communications response mechanism as the centrepiece of a robust crisis communications plan. Crafting compelling narratives and telling the organisation’s story from very early in the crisis is still the foundation of any successful crisis response plan. Messages must still be relevant and believable and supported with compelling facts and substance, rather than semantics, sophistry, fluff and gab. They must still be empathetic and acknowledge the gravity and impact on those affected, and must still demonstrate that some preventative or corrective action has been taken to address the problem. In today’s rapidly evolving media and information environment, people no longer seek out information, but rather information finds them. It is crucial, therefore, that organisations realise the importance of acting swiftly to get ahead of the narrative and to quickly and effectively tell their story to those persons who matter. Mitigating the fallout and instilling confidence that the organisation is capable of managing the situation are important goals, as is putting the problem in context and demonstrating what has been done to prevent or reduce the likelihood of a reoccurrence.

COLLABORATIVE APPROACH

But just like my once crispy white shirts, even the most well-executed crisis communications plan can still leave a stain on the organisation. Not everyone will be convinced, and especially in this age of misinformation, disinformation and social media chatter, there may still be doubting Thomases and conspiracy theorists who remain unsold. Not to mention that depending on the nature of the crisis, the organisation may suffer real financial losses in addition to reputational harm.

The solution must be, therefore, to widen the scope of the crisis communications team beyond the marketing, PR or communications staff, and include persons from external areas such as finance, legal, operations, health and safety, security, customer service and crucially, business continuity. These persons are not only critical to conducting a thorough risk assessment but are vital in crafting strategic, operational and tactical plans that seek to reduce or remove these risks in the first place. For instance, a strong crisis communications plan may very well include ensuring that the organisation conducts regular and routine fire drills, rather than simply leaving this responsibility to the security managers. In the same way that a strong crisis communications plan will include on-site crisis event simulation and communications training to ensure a swift and confident crisis communications response, it must also include monitoring the organisation’s operational practices, ensuring that standard operating procedures are being adhered to, and that operational and safety manuals and drills are updated and exercised routinely.

For sure, this complicates your shiny new spokesperson’s job significantly. But so does separating your colours from your whites, soaking them overnight, and rubbing them out by hand before tossing them in the wash. In both cases, however, you do come out smelling, maybe not quite like roses, but certainly a bit closer to fresh linen.

Major Basil Jarrett is a communications strategist and CEO of Artemis Consulting. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com; basiljarrett.artemis@gmail.com.