The Crisis PR Balancing Act

It's better to be right than to be fast.

In a crisis, the media have an interest in speed and in exclusive information.

The job of the Crisis PR Manager is to reconcile those needs with the company's primary objectives: truth and accuracy.

It helps to separate facts into categories:

1. The public has a right to know. Recently Indiana's statewide school testing system crashed on the most important testing day of the year. Billions of dollars are at stake with the results of these tests; people get fired, schools get closed. The local school system responded promptly by holding a news conference announced this way: "ISTEP+ testing has been disrupted this week across the state due to computer complications. FWCS officials will give a report on what happened, how it affected schools and what is the current status of testing." Perfect. This issue affects every student, parent and taxpayer, so this issue is "bigger than you," and the public's right to know is paramount

2. Stakeholders have a need to know.  Sometimes your crisis affects only your customers, employees, or some other group with a vested interest. The media perhaps would LIKE to know, but your customers NEED to know. Understanding the difference is helpful in dealing with the trade or consumer media. Is the issue of public interest? Or of narrow interest to people directly affected.

3. The media would LIKE to know. Your CEO leaves abruptly. It could be a health issue, a family issue, a termination. Publicly traded companies may be bound to release material information; but the media may LIKE to know more than they NEED to know.

So ask yourself when under fire:

Is this a "right to know" issue, a "need to know," or "like to know."

This can help you triage your crisis communications, meeting the media need for speed and facts, while giving you the latitude to put truth and accuracy first, ahead of all other issues.

Facts are your friend. Make a list of all the things you DO know. Separate them into these three categories.

Make a list of the things you are DOING to resolve the issue and to prevent it from recurring. Separate these into their proper categories (public interest, need to know, like to know). These will be your most important messages in the early phase of a crisis.

Make a list of the things you DON'T know. If they are of public interest, you must find out the answers, and in the interim, state what you are doing to find the answers. Similarly for the "Need to Know" category.

Being prepared to state the things you don't know with confidence is crucial. Crises don't reveal themselves all at once. New facts emerge to complete the puzzle. "We don't know" is a great answer, if you can then say, "Our vice presidents are working 24/7 to research the answers and we expect to have more information as soon as possible."

Steve Cebalt, Problem Solver
Highview Public Relations
www.highviewhelp.com
"Reputation and Crisis Management" (260) 471-5870
e-mail: info@highviewhelp.com