The Role of Communications & Public Relations

in Crisis Management

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFt7NXDhcmE (5:51”)

In this presentation:

• principles & stages of effective crisis communication• risks and consequences• credibility• tactics

Survey of crisis leadership qualities

http://trevorcook.typepad.com/weblog/files/crisis_leadership_allan_schoenberg.pdfVery good article

Rowitz, L. (2006). Public health for the 21st century: The prepared leader. Sudbury, MA: Jones-Bartlett

Crisis Communication Lifecycle

Precrisis Initial Maintenance Resolution Evaluation

• Crisis audit

• Be prepared

• Foster alliances

• Develop consensus

• Test messages

• Acknowledge event with empathy

• Explain & inform public about risk simply

• Establish agency & spokesperson credibility

• Provide emergency courses of action & where/hot to get information

• Commitment to stakeholders & public to continued communication

• Help public accurately understand its own risks

• Provide background & content information to those who need it

• Gain understanding and support for response & recovery plan

• Listen to stakeholder & audience feedback & correct misinformation

• Explain emergency recommendations

• Empower risk/benefit decision making

• Improve appropriate public response in future similar emergencies through education

• Honestly examine problems & mishaps & reinforce what worked in response & recovery efforts

• Persuade public to support public policy & resource allocation to the problem

• Promote activities & capabilities of the agency (organizational identity reinforced internally too)

• Evaluate communication plan performance

• Document lessons learned

• Determine specific actions to improve crisis systems & plan

Key goals of PR during crisis (Covello, 1996)

• Prevention: Keep the incident or event from rising to the level of a crisis• Containment: Keep the impact of the crisis on the company to a

minimum• Control: Establish company control over the situation – including the

media• Communication: Transmit crisis-related messages accurately and

quickly so they are received, understood, and believed• Positioning: Position the company in a positive light – caring,

concerned, and taking appropriate action to correct the situation• Monitoring: Ensure that crisis-related messages result in meaningful

and appropriate actions.

Covello, V. T. (February 26,1996). Environmental risk communication and public dialogue. Risk Communication Conference, Hampton, VA.

• Raised levels of public anxiety, concern, and fear

• Fueled rumors• Inaccurate perceptions of risk• Exaggerated allegations and claims• Injury and harm• Negative images of the company• Loss of shareholder and public confidence • Increased risk of liability

Inadequate PR during crises can result in:

Unpreparedness: The “It Can’t Happen to Me”

Absence: Not being on site immediately

Ignorance: Not understanding the audience’s needs

Silence: Not communicating

Distance: Boardroom bunker mentality

Fabrication: Anything but the truth

Naivete: Not knowing the standards you will be held to

Seven deadly sins of crisis communication (Clarke & Company, 1999)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToWg03DkIQ0 (3:16”)

A credible spokesperson is required to deliver a credible risk communication message. In low-trust, high-concern situations, credibility is assessed using four measures:

• Empathy, caring & concern (50% rated highest importance, usually assessed in the first 30 seconds; highest value for industry)

• Competence, knowledge and expertise (15-20%; highest value for citizen groups)

• Perceived honesty and openness (15-20%) • Commitment, dedication (15-20%; highest value for government) • An additional 77 non-verbal cues have been documented to

influence perceptions of trust and credibility (Covello, 1992a)

Some links on nonverbal communication:• 3 C’s of credibility in crisis communication• Characteristics for improving credibility

• jargon (creates a verbal barrier; if you use jargon, define it immediately in 6 common words or less)

• humor (no place in high concern, including laughter, jokes, irony, sarcasm)

• attacks• worst-case scenarios• risk/benefit comparisons• risk/cost comparisons• risk comparisons• negative allegations• negative words or phrases• promises/guarantees• speculation• money• organizational identity (never use the name of organization as a person

or subject of a sentence)• numbers• technical details and debates

Audience sensitivity may be increased and lead to lower credibility with the following:

• be balanced and honest;• focus on a specific issue;• pay attention to what the audience already knows;• be tailored to the specific needs of the audience;• place the risk in appropriate context;• contain (at least) the specific information needed to resolve the decisions

that members of the audience face;• be hierarchically organized so that people who only want answers can find

them quickly & people who want details can also find them;• be respectful in tone and recognize that people have legitimate feelings as

well as thoughts;• be honest about the limits to scientific knowledge;• consider and address the broader social dynamics in which risks are

embedded;• be subjected to careful empirical evaluation and iterative refinement.

Guidelines for talking about risk (Covello et al., 1993)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhBYWDy4m9M (1:34”)

• Forgiveness: win forgiveness from stakeholders and create acceptance for the crisis

• Sympathy: portray organization as unfair victim of attack by outside persons; willing to accept losses

• Remediation: offer compensation for victims and families (counseling & financial assistance)

• Rectification: take action to reduce recurrence (triple sealed & increased random inspection)

• Effective leadership: clear, visible, consistent role-modeled message from beginning by CEO

Strategies

Most public recovery strategies incorporate the following five components:

Some Examples

NTSB Press Conference on San Francisco Plane Crash

CEO responding to the BP petroleum spill

What do these people have in common?

What would you say in a media release regarding this video posted on YouTube? What would your reasoning be in structuring key elements in that release?

Unexpected “toppings” at Dominos

(2009)

Sample Case: Domino’s Pizza

Search terms for identifying the extent of negative

publicity

The Dominos Crisis: Unexpected toppings

• A detailed account of the situation

• Acknowledgement of the hurt or damage done

• Taking responsibility for the situation

• Recognition of your role in the event

• Statement of regret

• Asking for forgiveness

• Promise that it won’t happen again

• A form of restitution whenever possible

What elements should a proper apology contain?

“…and so it’s agreed, in order to sharpen our crisis management skills, we’re enrolling in an apology workshop.”

• Jargon (creates a verbal barrier; if you use jargon, define it immediately in 6 common words or less)

• Humor or sarcasm (no place in high concern cases)• Counter-attacks• Worst-case scenarios• Risk/cost/benefit comparisons• Negative allegations• Negative words or phrases• Promises/guarantees• Speculation• Money or numbers• Organizational identity (never use the name of

organization as a person or subject of a sentence)• Technical details and debates

Audience sensitivity may be increased and lead to lower credibility with the following:

Write a point by point script for Domino’s CEO to release in response to this crisis.

Domino’s President Responds

What would you say in a media release regarding the Domino’s video posted on

YouTube? What would your reasoning be in structuring key elements in that release?

END

Posted video of Domino’s employees

Domino’s Pizza Crisis

CEO Patrick Doyle’s response

Domino’s Turnaround

News on the posted video

Domino’s vids (recovery)

Situational Crisis Communication Theory

Top 10 Social Media Disasters of 2011

Trendspotting: Domino’s case review