Business leaders and public relations professionals should continue to monitor signs of Ebola hysteria. The damage to the reputation and revenue of your organization is real. It can come from a direct Ebola contamination to one of your employees or customers. In the case of public institutions like schools, the institution could face a costly shut down or closure.
Since outlining how real or imagined Ebola threats could trigger your crisis communications and crisis management plans, in last Friday’s Ebola webinar, the weekend revealed more examples. (Click here to listen to the webinar) A customer/passenger aboard a Carnival cruise ship out of Galveston was identified as having been in contact with lab samples from the deceased Dallas Ebola patient.
Listen to the re-broadcast
The crisis cascade of events included the ship being turned away from Belize and Mexico, plus the closure of a school in Moore, Oklahoma, because a student was on the same cruise ship as the hospital worker from Dallas. Not only did each of those institutions or governments need to communicate, but so did various ports of entry and various emergency response or decontamination companies. And while this ship sailed from Galveston, every port city in America could have just as easily found themselves in the same position as the Port of Galveston. Likewise, any school in America could be forced to make the same decisions as Moore, Oklahoma.
Are we seeing too much hysteria? Is the threat real or imagined? In my expert opinion, it doesn’t matter because either a real threat or an imagined threat can trigger both your crisis management plan and your crisis communications plan. Either a real threat or an imagined threat can damage the reputation and revenue of your organization.
Should you take steps today to prepare or should you wait and see? My mantra is be prepared. Use this potential crisis as an opportunity to set aside time on a clear sunny day to prepare your plan and your crisis communications should you need it on your darkest day.
Here are the crisis communications, crisis management, and public relations resources promised in the Friday, October 17, 2014 CommPro.biz webinar and on the October 27, 2014 IABC webinar:
First Critical Statement:
In crisis communications, you should have two types of pre-written communication
documents. The first is for fast release, called a “First Critical Statement.” Some companies call these holding statements. To get a free download use the coupon code CRISISCOMPLAN when you select the item from my website store. It will deliver a PDF to you through a secured server system.
Call me at 985-624-9976 to discuss pricing and details. The deliverable is a completed 50-page crisis communications plan and a minimum of 65 pre-written news releases. You’ll walk out with 500-700 pages of completed work.
If you cannot make these dates I can hold a program on another date just for you. Call me to discuss the options.
If you missed the CommPro webinar or would like to share the content, follow this link. IABC members should visit the IABC registration link provided exclusively to members.
The Ebola crisis has spawn a rash of spokespeople saying things to the media that should have never been said. If you are the public relations person responsible for writing statements and news releases for your hospital, company or spokesperson, this blog is for you. If you are the media trainer preparing the spokespeople, this blog is for you. If you are the spokesperson… yep, this blog is for you.
Behold exhibit # 1: A news release statement from October 15, 2015, as a second nurse at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital becomes ill from Ebola.
The hospital released a statement saying, “Patient and employee safety is our greatest priority and we take compliance very serious.”
YOU CAN’T SAY THAT! Really, you cannot defend that statement PR team from Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.
Here’s why: If it were true, two nurses would not have Ebola. Do you follow my thinking? Two nurses have Ebola because safety was obviously not the greatest priority and obviously compliance was not taken seriously.
Every time I teach media training or do a conference presentation, my advice to PR people and CEOs is to run every statement through the cynic filter. I just demonstrated my cynicism… and trust me, I’m a huge cynic. If you filter your statement past me, will you get a positive reaction or a negative reaction? That my friends, is the cynic filter.
My apologies to the PR team if this was not your words, but the words of your lawyers or PR firm or agency. But as a public relations professional, your job is to shout “No” when a B.S. statement like that is written or proposed.
Back in August, when the Ebola story broke regarding Emory University Hospital, CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden made bold statements about Ebola not spreading in the U.S. He was wrong.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, with the National Institute of Health, in an interview on the Today Show this week, on October 11, 2014, said, “We’re not going to see an outbreak” of Ebola in the U.S. He even references Dallas as an example of proper containment of the virus, which as we all now know, is wrong.
Once again, if you are a spokesman, you can’t say that. You can’t defend that statement. You cannot guarantee it so you should not say it in an interview.
If you are the person providing media training for the spokesperson, you cannot allow the spokesperson to say something like that. You have to be so intense in the media training class that you push the student to the point of failure in the training class, pick them up, fix them, and don’t release them from role playing until they are perfect. Media training should be designed to let a spokesperson fail in private so they don’t fail on national TV, or any interview.
Close isn’t good enough. A crisis this serious demands the best communications possible. There is no margin for error in interviews just like there is no margin for error in containing a serious disease.
Would you like to know the magic words that will set you free? Insert the word, “goal” and throw away the words, “committed” and “top priority.” My top priority is to get people to stop saying top priority and committed.”
Instead of saying, “Patient and employee safety is our greatest priority and we take compliance very serious,” a better option is to say, “Our goal is to protect the safety and health of every patient and every employee.” (Yes, I intentionally used “every” twice.)
My statement is one that can be defended because it is stated as “a goal.” It is forward looking and aspirational, while not definitive, such as, ““Patient and employee safety is our greatest priority and we take compliance very serious.”
If you are responsible for writing statements that get re-written with tired clichés by your lawyers or CEO, your job, as a public relations professional, is to push back. If you write these type of clichés because you were taught to do this or have heard these clichés so many times that you think this is the way it should be done, please stop.
If you are responsible for media training your spokesman, you must not be afraid to push back when the student doesn’t perform well. As the trainer, you must not be intimidated, especially if you are training your boss, or in the case of a hospital, a powerful doctor.
We have an Ebola crisis on our hands. Are you making it better or worse with your statements?
If you need help with your Ebola key messages, contact me for assistance writing bullet proof key messages. And if you need help media training your spokespeople, I’m happy to help. Call me at 985-624-9976.
Of all the Power Point presentations by his leadership team members, the CEO only stood and applauded the vice president who showed he was having difficulties in his division, when the other vice presidents showed rainbows and green lights. The company was millions in debt with falling sales and the CEO knew that everyone who painted a rosy picture was either a liar or delusional. The one who asked for help was the star.
A colleague shared this story supporting my premise in yesterday’s Ebola communication considerations blog. In the blog I suggested that public relations, marketing, media relations and crisis communication professionals will not be fired if they ask for help. Instead, your CEO and leadership team will respect you for telling the truth and knowing that your truth may save the reputation and revenue of your organization.
The field of communications is misunderstood, even by the C-Suite. Many CEOs and executives hire one person to manage their image. They expect publicity. Often the CEO will hire a marketing specialist, never realizing that marketing is not public relations, media relations, or crisis communications. Sadly, many with MBAs don’t really understand the differences either.
Even in public relations, many do not realize how difficult it is to be a crisis communication expert. The expert is the one who prepares on a clear sunny day for what might happen on your darkest day. At the university level, most public relations classes touch on crisis communication as an evaluation of how well you manage the media after a crisis erupts. That is outdated and flawed. Preparation = professionalism.
Fearing reprisal from their leadership, some people in our allied fields would rather try to disguise their lack of knowledge and expertise rather than asking for help. But in the C-Suite, the reality is the boss wants you to speak up and say, “I need help. This is beyond my level of expertise.” Most people in the C-Suite, while never wanting to spend money they don’t have to spend, realize that getting help from an expert could preserve their reputation and revenue.
Don’t try to fake it. That will ultimately cost you your job, as well as the company’s reputation and revenue.
Never be afraid to say, “I don’t know the answer to that.”
Ask for help.
If you’d like some FREE help, join me on Friday, October 17, 2014 for a free webinar that explores what you need to do today to prepare for your possible Ebola communications tomorrow. Register here.
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Your personality type may decide the fate of your crisis communication response if the Ebola crisis touches your company (or the company for your work for.) On one extreme is the personality that says, “It’s too soon. Maybe we should watch it and wait and see.” On the other extreme are those who say, “Heck, let’s get prepared. I’d rather be prepared and not need it than to be in the weeds if it hits us.”
If one of your employees gets Ebola or is perceived to possibly have Ebola or may have come in contact with an Ebola patient or a place where an Ebola victim has been or has come in contact with a person who came in contact with an Ebola victim, then the crisis now affects you.
Here are 5 Ebola Crisis Communication Considerations:
1) The Need is Real
The crisis may touch your organization because of a person who is actually ill or because of rumors or hysteria. Either option may really happen, forcing you into reactive communications mode. You’ll need solid internal employee communications and customer communications. You’ll need external media relations. You’ll need to fight the trolls and naysayers on social media. Why not start planning your strategy and messaging now? My belief and experience is that you can anticipate nearly every twist and turn on a clear sunny day, in order to manage effective communications on your darkest day.
2) Ask for Help
Many CEOs and executives hire one person to manage their image. Often they will hire a marketing specialist, never realizing that marketing is not public relations, media relations, or crisis communications. Fearing reprisal from their leadership, some people in our allied fields would rather try to disguise their lack of knowledge rather than ask for help. But in the C-Suite, the reality is the boss wants you to speak up and say, “I need help. This is beyond my level of expertise.” Most people in the C-Suite, while never wanting to spend money they don’t have to spend, realize that getting help from an expert could preserve their reputation and revenue. Don’t try to fake it. That will ultimately cost you your job, as well as the company’s reputation and revenue. Never be afraid to say, “I don’t know the answer to that.” Ask for help.
3) Tie Ebola Communications to Business ROI
Preparing for communications you may or may not need will cost either time or money. It may cost both. But communications preparation can pay for itself.
Here are just a few considerations of doing nothing:
The cost of rumors
The cost of a single case linked back to your organization
The cost of a cluster of cases linked back to your organization
The cost of becoming synonymous with Ebola
The cost of worker illness and lost productivity
The cost of your company going out of business
Communications about precautions is step one. It may quarantine patient zero in your organization and keep the virus and negative news from spreading, saving the company huge sums of money in all of the categories listed above.
4) Plan Now
Don’t wait until you are in the middle of your crisis when you are forced into reactive mode. Proactive mode is the sign of a public relations professional. Now is the time to review your crisis communication plan and to determine if it is Ebola-ready. For some of you, now is the time to write that crisis communications plan that you have never written. Now is also the time to write messaging templates for before, during and after an event. Plus now is the time to conduct media training for potential spokespeople and to conduct a crisis communications drill. Response should be planned and never reactive.
5) Be Opportunistic
If you haven’t been able to get a seat at the table or get executive attention in the past for crisis communications, consider this your golden opportunity.
Opportunities to discuss crisis communications with the CEO and the leadership team do not happen often enough. It takes a crisis that hits all businesses equally to sometimes get their attention. The feared Y2K crisis in 2000 caused CEOs to write checks for millions of dollars, mostly to IT experts. Other companies used it as a reason to develop a small part of their crisis communication plan. Sadly, it was usually targeted at only Y2K issues. The H1N1 threat in 2009 once again got the attention of executives to the extent they were willing to give staff time and money to do what needed to be done.
The opportunity for crisis communication planning and crisis management planning is once again upon us because of Ebola. Now is the time to initiate discussions with your executives. It is also useful to seek partners from other departments. Human Resources, operations, international travel, and risk management departments all will need to manage various portions of this crisis. Each are wonderful partners who may already have a seat at the table and who already may have the knowledge and skill to get the time and money needed to accomplish your tasks.
In the coming week I’ll share more lessons and insight with you. On Friday, October 17, 2014, I’ll host a live discussion via webinar. Sign up for FREE with this link. On November 5 & 6, 2014 I’ll host a workshop in New Orleans that will allow you to create a 50 page crisis communications plan with up to 75 pre-written news releases. You’ll walk out of the workshop with a finished crisis communication plan and the skill to write even more pre-written news releases.
Is it too soon to talk about your Ebola crisis communications strategies and plan? A New York based public relations professional asked me that question today. I responded by saying, “Why wait? One week ago no one in Dallas gave Ebola crisis communications a second thought. Today, at lease 14 businesses and government entities have to send spokespeople out to talk to the media about their portion of the Ebola crisis.”
I say start getting your Ebola crisis communications plan and crisis management plan in place now. Your Ebola crisis can crop up without warning. Your crisis could result not only from an actual Ebola case, but from the hysteria of false information about a case.
Register Here
You may own a business, be the CEO or leader of a business, hospital, school, or non-profit. You may be the public relations or crisis management professional for a business, hospital, school, or non-profit. NOW is the time to realize that it only takes one case of Ebola to be associated with your organization for a world of media attention to descend upon you. Along with media scrutiny and hysteria, you will also have to deal with the online social media trolls. If you skip a beat… if you hesitate… if you are just slightly behind the story or the crisis, the institution you are associated with will be treated like a 19th century leaper – no one will want to have anything to do with you. It becomes the ultimate crisis, defined by complete harm to your reputation and revenue.
Examine the case in Texas, in which Ebola patient Thomas Duncan has died at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. The airline, the TSA, the Border Patrol, the hospital, the apartment complex, the sheriff’s department, the patient’s church, the school system, the Texas Department of Health, the Texas Governor, the Dallas County Medical Society, the Dallas County Coroner, and the mortuary that cremated his body are all suddenly players having to communicate about some aspect of this crisis. That means thirteen entities that were far removed from the crisis a few days ago are suddenly thrust into the crisis. Fourteen people, if not more, suddenly need to be a spokesperson about their portion of this crisis. Each suddenly needs a crisis communications expert. Even Louise Troh, Duncan’s longtime partner, has retained a public relations firm to speak on her behalf.
The piece-meal communications I’ve seen indicates that each of these entities are having to develop their crisis communication strategy on the fly. If they have a crisis communications plan, it appears none were updated prior to the crisis to address Ebola. In other instances, it is clear that no crisis communication plan exists, which is the reality for many organizations. And experience in reviewing a vast number of documents that public relations people call their crisis communication plan has proven woefully inadequate. In no way do they meet the criteria of a document that would guide and manage communications in a crisis.
Click image to watch video
Could you suddenly be a small part of this bigger story? You bet.
Are the odds low? Maybe yes, maybe no?
Could that change quickly because of variables beyond your control? Absolutely.
Is the risk high enough that you should invest time and money to prepare? The vast majority of organizations will say no, because they are in denial about how real the potential threat is. Yet it is a fool’s bet to stay unprepared, when the act of preparing can be done quickly and affordably. Furthermore, when done correctly, you can develop a crisis communications plan that will serve you for Ebola, as well as hundreds of other crises you may face in the future.
Is this line of thought logical? In my world it is very logical. I believe in being prepared. Yet experience tells me that this thought process will be rejected by the vast majority of you reading this and the vast majority of leaders and executives who run corporations, hospitals, non-profit organizations, schools, and small businesses. Human denial is a stronger power than the power to accept a simple option to prepare.
“We don’t need to worry about that,” is easier to say than, “Let’s get a team on this to prepare. The chances are slim, but if it happens it could destroy us.”
“Destroy us?” Is that too strong of a suggestion? Well, two weeks ago the Ivy Apartments in Dallas were a thriving, profitable business. Do you think anyone wants to move into those apartments after an Ebola victim has been there? Do you think existing residents will stay? The owners are already feeling the symptoms of damage to reputation and revenue.
Based on my crisis management and crisis communication experience, don’t be surprised if you see the Ivy Apartment complex bulldozed and the land left vacant for a time, all because they were, through no fault of their own, associated with a global crisis beyond their control.
What are the odds? Very small.
What is the reality? Likely financial ruin.
Are you willing to roll the dice if you own a company? Are you ready to roll the dice if you are the public relations expert for a company?
“Better safe than sorry,” is my suggested approach. Yet, “That won’t happen to us,” or “The chances of that happening to us is so small it isn’t worth our time and effort,” is what the vast majority of organizations will think or say.
In the coming week I’ll share more lessons and insight with you. On Friday, October 17, 2014, I’ll host a live discussion via webinar. Sign up for FREE with this link. On November 5 & 6, 2014 I’ll host a workshop in New Orleans that will allow you to create a 50 page crisis communications plan with up to 75 pre-written news releases. You’ll walk out of the workshop with a finished crisis communication plan and the skill to write even more pre-written news releases.
I’m available to answer your questions on this issue. Call me at 985-624-9976.
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It is always a good thing in crisis management when the person at the top says, “The buck stops here,” and they are willing to resign because a significant crisis happened under their watch.
Listen to my opinion with Radio Host Kate Delaney:
This does 2 things. From a public relations and crisis communications standpoint it:
1) Sends a strong signal that someone is being held responsible
A true leader demonstrates good character by stepping down when they are unable to manage a crisis and when the crisis gets worse. Some of the scandals and shortcomings happened before Pierson took the job. But she was also appointed to clean up the agency last year after the Cartagena, Colombia prostitute scandal in 2012.
Before she could even start to clean up the previous scandal, three secret service agents responsible for protecting the President in Amsterdam were sent home for being drunk. One was reportedly passed out in the hallway of their hotel. Pierson, as leader, put the agents on administrative leave.
But when Omar Gonzalez jumped the fence and got inside the White House, it became clear that too many problems were happening too fast. At the same time a story broke about a November 11, 2011 incident in which a man parked his car on a street near the White House and reportedly fired a semiautomatic rifle multiple times, hitting the building.
Too many security lapses means somebody needs to take the heat for the ongoing crises.
I’ve written many blogs in the past few weeks about the NFL scandals and the need for Roger Goodell to demonstrate he has leadership by admitting his repeated failings and stepping aside. Julia Pierson is a leadership role model for crisis communications and crisis management. Goodell would be well served to learn from her example.
When a crisis strikes where you work, a good leader makes the crisis go away and communicates what happened and what changes are on the horizon. Often your job in public relations is to be the one to support the leader and guide them to make the right decisions.
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Conspiracy to hide the truth is not an effective form of crisis management. Telling a lie is not an effective form of crisis communications.
When those who should be leaders all decide that telling the truth could be harmful to an institution, and hide it, you can bet their bad ethics will catch up with them eventually.
Those with good ethics in the room will often argue their point, yet eventually be dismissed by those in favor of a colorful cover up of the facts.
The men and women who have a strong conscience and need to tell the truth, will disclose to others their dissatisfaction with the final decision. In time, their conscience weighs on them and they leak the truth. Often, in a high profile crisis like the NFL is facing, someone will leak the truth to a reporter. Sometimes it happens in an official media interview. Sometimes it happens in a tip.
It appeared ESPN was on the path to learning the truth about what Roger Goodell and the Ravens knew about the Ray Rice video. Don Van Natta, Jr. of Outside the Lines and ESPN spent 11 days interviewing 20 sources of team officials, current and former league officials, players and friends of Ray Rice. ESPN reported a pattern of misinformation and misdirection by the Ravens and the NFL.
When you get called in to offer expert advice in a crisis to those in leadership positions, please stand by your ethics. Stand up… and be willing to walk out and walk away from your job when you see a failure of ethics.
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Don’t set me off. I’m a cynic. The NFL crisis and its flawed communications strategy continues to set off the cynic in me. A huge part of my crisis communications plan strategy and the crisis management advice provided to my clients is based upon understanding how to effectively communicate to the cynics.
Sunday night the NFL crisis and the failures of Roger Goodell were not on my mind. I was watching Sunday Night Football on NBC with my wife and enjoying a Sazarac – yes, Saints, Sunday and Sazaracs. (I wish we had won the game.) My goal was to be entertained.
Without the crisis on my mind, a public service announcement ran for an organization called NoMore.org. The campaign originated in 2013, but the NFL played the public service announcement during the game in an effort to “fight domestic violence.”
What did the cynic in me think? Cover-up. White washing. Trying to cover you’re a**. You screwed up and now you’re trying to make us think you’re doing something.
The crisis was not on my mind. Great job Goodell because you just put it back on my mind. Also, my mind isn’t thinking about victims. My mind is thinking about a failure of leadership.
I’ve thought the same thing about all of the commercials BP ran following the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and crisis. The cynic in the oil spill crisis wonders just how much BP spent telling the world they are not the negligent company that they’ve been proven to be in a court of law. While BP says they’ve made things right, my sources say the marshes of Louisiana still have a lot of BP oil that has never been cleaned up.
The bottom line is:
1) Fix your problems to prevent a crisis from happening
2) Address your crisis quickly so there is never a cover-up
3) Say you are sorry to the people you have harmed
4) Don’t brag about how well you allegedly said you are sorry… especially when you have failed to fully address the crisis and the real problem.
For the NFL the problem is not domestic violence. The NFL problem is one man at the top who doesn’t know how to properly investigate a domestic violence case and properly punish a guilty player.
When you brag about the wrong thing, you set me off. Don’t set me off.
The NFL now has two strikes against it for throwing money at advocacy groups and causes as a way to make it appear they care about an issue. Is this corporate whitewashing?
It wasn’t until concussion issues became part of a high-profile lawsuit that the NFL began donating money to groups who could research concussions. They knew about concussions for a long time, but really did nothing about eliminating the risk.
It wasn’t until Ray Rice’s video of him punching his fiancé became public that the NFL began donating money to groups who advocate against domestic violence. They didn’t do it when other players were accused of domestic violence and they didn’t do it six months ago when the Rice case first emerged.
The only thing the NFL has freely donated to without it tied to a scandal is their October breast cancer awareness campaign. Although my cynical mind says this was done primarily as a way to embrace the highly lucrative female audience around the same time the NFL launched its apparel lines for females.
When I was a journalist covering GreenPeace campaigns, they used the term Greenwashing. Greenwashing was characterized as a company with a history of pollution contributing to an environmental cause, even though the pollution continued unabated. The cynical mind of GreenPeace didn’t hesitate to call out the diversion.
Is the NFL, in an attempt to divert attention from their crisis, guilty of whitewashing?
The rules of crisis management and crisis communications are the same as the rules of trust: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
It appears the NFL has two strikes clearly against them.
Business leaders and public relations professionals should continue to monitor signs of Ebola hysteria. The damage to the reputation and revenue of your organization is real. It can come from a direct Ebola contamination to one of your employees or customers. In the case of public institutions like schools, the institution could face a costly shut down or closure.
Should you prepare only for Ebola or should you prepare for everything? My mantra is to do it all at once. You can have a comprehensive crisis management and crisis communications plan that is completed today and ready to be used for years to come.
and when the crisis gets worse. Some of the scandals and shortcomings happened before Pierson took the job. But she was also appointed to clean up the agency last year after the 
Conspiracy to hide the truth is not an effective form of crisis management. Telling a lie is not an effective form of 
Don’t set me off. I’m a cynic. The 
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