What Were They Thinking?: Crisis Communication: The Good, the Bad, and the Totally Clueless

Introduction

Introduction My personal introduction to crisis communication is burned in my memory of events I would like to forget. In 1984, I was a twenty-six-year-old New Jersey state legislator who had quickly learned how to use the media to my advantage. But I was naive and unprepared for my first public relations crisis. During my second year in office, I found my photo on the front page of the Herald News with a caption and a few lines that made it clear that Steve Adubato not only made laws in the statehouse, but apparently broke them when it suited him. That’s what you get when you’re stupid enough to park your car—with official government plates bearing your initials and the gold seal of the state—in a parking space reserved for handicapped drivers. (I told you it was stupid.) What was I thinking? I wasn’t. I was running late to deliver a brief speech to a local community group, and there was no parking spot available . I knew I would be in and out in just a few minutes.That’s my lame rationalization. The fallout from the news article was embarrassing and humiliating. Angry calls flooded into my legislative office. I deserved all the criticism I got and more, but I didn’t know what to do.When would it stop? Was my political career over so soon after it had just begun? I started to feel sorry for myself, which is of no use when facing a crisis or an embarrassing event.This was about public perception, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out that a state legislator with official government plates parking in a handicapped spot clearly identified by a very large blue sign would be perceived as dumb and insensitive. I needed a crisis communication strategy. Should I ignore the bad press? Respond to it? Defend my actions? Take the blame? Blame somebody else? No matter what I did, I was sure 1 Adubato_final_book 5/20/08 4:31 PM Page 1 that some voters in the next election would, no doubt, remember that picture of my car in that parking space. But whether or not I got their vote would depend entirely on how I communicated to the public in this crisis. Every Crisis Offers a Lesson That’s what crisis communication is all about. It’s a strategy or plan that helps you respond to an out-of-the-norm problem, event, or situation that cannot be handled through standard operating procedures, smart management, and commonsense leadership. It is a strategic method of response that allows you to reach out to key stakeholders—customers, clients, sponsors, stockholders, and the general public—and inform, reassure, and ultimately cement their loyalty and support, or at least get the benefit of the doubt. Some corporations spend millions of dollars on crisis communication plans. Others ignore the subject entirely because when they think “crisis” they think stop-the-world catastrophic incidents that are not a part of their business and beyond communication response—the 1996 TWA Airline crash, the Exxon Valdez oil tanker fiasco in Alaska, and the events surrounding 9/11. But as too many business, organizational, and political leaders find out the hard way, a crisis can happen any time, anywhere , and to anyone. It can happen to the guilty or the innocent, a “victim” or a “villain.” It can happen to people (Don Imus, Alberto Gonzales, Christie Whitman), or to organizations (CBS, Jet Blue,Virginia Tech), or to both. When it does happen, crisis communication is largely about public perception, which many in this media-driven world confuse with objective, factual reality. That’s why we’re all open to potential communication and PR crises or scandals. We’re talking organizational mergers or 2 WHAT WERE THEY THINKING? Adubato_final_book 5/20/08 4:31 PM Page 2 downsizing of a workforce; a CEO involved in some salacious sexual or financial scandal that jeopardizes stock price, organizational reputation, and internal morale; union strikes; violent employees or students; bankruptcy or other financial problems; an inflammatory e-mail that inadvertently finds its way to the broader cybersphere and the media. Any of these circumstances and so many others can produce a crisis that is then made worse by the lack of preparation and by the poor execution of a...