Archive for category News
Ten thoughts on crisis leadership
May 23, 2013Posted in: home, Miscellaneous, NewsComments Off
- During a crisis it’s not bad news that makes people panic, but rather conflicting messages from those in authority.
- Crises can be slotted into three boxes: Longevity, Intensity, and Gravity. Each of these factors has an effect on a leader’s decision-making ability. In a crisis when the above factors are high an ineffective leader will continue demanding a higher quantity and quality of information, but still prevaricate.
- Time limit is an important issue in crisis management. A good leader must be able to make a decision based on available and often incomplete information.
- A bad leader is not someone who takes a wrong decision, but someone who takes no decision.
- Crises demand constant decisions and calculated risks. No leader is going to make the right call every time. Admit your mistakes!
- Crisis leadership is about recognising that you actually have a crisis. If an incident seems out of control this can challenge a leader’s pride, which can result in a faltering response to an emergency when it comes to allocating resources and expertise.
- Too busy to plan, train and practice? Seriously? That’s a definition of poor leadership.
- Strong leaders take ownership of a crisis, but they don’t work in a vacuum. They recognise the importance of a team and embrace skills and ideas proffered by others.
- In an emergency, praise should be freely given when deserved, and firm but compassionate redirection when necessary.
- A good leader must institute an enlightened post-crisis review to understand and mitigate shortcomings while at the same recognising that the next emergency will be different, as no two crises are the same.
Jim Preen
Article published
April 12, 2013Posted in: Case Study, home, Miscellaneous, NewsComments Off
Jim Preen, head of comms at Crisis Solutions, has his article Brave new Media republished in Business 2 Community.
Here’s a taste: People involved in crisis communications are obsessed with social media. Newspapers, TV, internal comms are all very well, but Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Foursquare and YouTube, that’s where the real action lies. Forget the old and bring on the new.
But has there been a real change in crisis communications or is this new media just smoke and mirrors?
Crisis Solutions is big hit with US bank
March 29, 2013Posted in: home, Miscellaneous, News, UncategorizedComments Off
A Crisis Solutions team recently headed to the US to deliver a series of crisis management training events to an American bank. Training completed; the client surveyed those involved to get their opinions on the quality of the training. Crisis Solutions emerged exceptionally well from these evaluations.
- When asked whether they were satisfied with the event, a whopping 94.7% said they were ‘extremely satisfied’.
- To the question ‘How skilled were the presenters?’ 89.5% replied ‘extremely skilled’.
- More than 84% said all the training objectives had been met and 78.9% felt the information presented was ‘extremely well’ organised.
The survey also included comments from participants:
- ‘One of the best training sessions I have attended in 30 years of banking. Very engaging.’
- ‘The event was great. I wish it had been longer so that we could have done a few more rounds of planning.’
- ‘This was the first training I have ever received around incident management. I have felt confused over my role during past incident calls. I now have a clear understanding of my role.’
- ‘It was very well done and useful. It was interesting doing interactive case studies with colleagues from all walks and ranks of the bank.’
Novel use for Twitter
March 22, 2013Posted in: Case Study, home, Miscellaneous, News, UncategorizedComments Off
Recently I talked about using Twitter in a crisis. Here’s another Twitter inspired idea. When training comms teams we spend a lot of time talking about ‘key messages’. As part of the training I now get delegates to express their messages as tweets. They only have 140 characters so it forces them to compact their thoughts and think deeply about what they are trying to say. Perhaps you’re about to write a memo – try composing it under the same restrictions.
Jim Preen
Brave new media
March 21, 2013Posted in: Case Study, home, Miscellaneous, News, UncategorizedComments Off
People involved in crisis communications are obsessed with social media. Newspapers, TV, internal comms are all very well, but Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Foursquare and YouTube that’s where the real action lies. Forget the old and bring on the new.
All of which may be bewildering for those involved in resilience and crisis mitigation, but are not directly responsible for comms.
So what has changed? Is it all smoke and mirrors or has there been a real shift?
The really irritating reply is that everything and nothing has changed. Which probably leaves crisis managers thinking: “Why can I never get a straight answer out of the comms department?”
Look at it this way. The rules of good communication still apply. In a crisis, be proactive in your dealings with the media, provide a steady stream of information, don’t allow an information gap to open up and keep in touch with the public mood. Then there’s internal comms, make sure your staff and other stakeholders (customers, suppliers, regulators etc.) are kept in the loop.
This may be entry-level stuff, but it all still applies and you ignore it at your peril. But there has been a change.
In the past communication was very top down. You communicated to your audiences, now you communicate with your audiences. Today it’s a two way street whether you like it or not. It can be tough to move beyond the “I speak - you listen” mentality and really engage.
But engage you must as communication is now conducted in real-time across multiple channels. Stakeholders can be pretty unforgiving if a prompt and timely reply isn’t forthcoming.
Perhaps you’re attacked on your Facebook page. You can keep saying this isn’t a customer service site but that’s not going to stop people venting their spleen, so you’d better have a plan in place.
If you do respond don’t get involved in an on-line slanging match, but try to answer questions and generally be helpful. If your brand is attacked and you wish to respond do so on that same channel. If you’re attacked on YouTube, respond on YouTube.
And make sure is doesn’t read or sound like an automated response. Be human, if appropriate be chatty and bold. In fact, just good old-fashioned communications on a new platform.
In the past, people used to talk about the golden hour, which allowed you time to prepare to face the press and other audiences. Social media has taken that golden hour and melted it down.
The speed with which you respond to the public is seen as an indicator of how prepared you are to respond to the emergency. From a comms point of view, if the public isn’t aware that you’re responding to the problem, then you’re not!
First impressions are lasting impressions – this doesn’t necessarily mean having all the answers; it means having an early presence so the public knows that you’re aware of the emergency and have systems in place to respond.
Social media, particularly Twitter, is excellent for releasing quick, short statements, giving you that early presence. It may also be appropriate for you to produce a Twitter version of all press releases, press statements, responses and information updates.
The Internet has made media monitoring both easier and more difficult. More difficult – because of the plethora of digital media. Easier – because of the wide availability of search engines to help you find out what’s being said.
So spread your media monitoring net wide and listen, listen, listen to what people are saying about your brand and respond in a timely, thoughtful, human and adaptable manner. And don’t forget to treat your staff in the same way.
It’s no longer “I speak – you listen” but rather “You speak – I listen – I speak.”
Jim Preen
