[MUSIC] In our first three videos, we have focused on what to do when crisis strikes. But having an idea of what to do is not the same as being ready to do it. So in this video, we will talk about getting at the truth, and as important, having your communications plan for delivering it to the people who count when it comes to protecting your reputation. So what about getting at the truth? This is the point in the course where I tell students that the role of the public relations communications professional, is to represent the public in the executive conference room. Your duty is to be the audience, be the customer, and raise all the issues that affect their view of the circumstances. Ask tough questions and keep asking them until the answers are satisfactory. As a colleague of mine at NASA once told me, if you think there's a problem, keep your hand raised until you're recognized. Just keep in your mind your job is to be the chief skeptics officer. Put another way, you are the inside journalist investigating the problem and getting ready to report on it. With this journalistic view in mind, the way to get ready to deal with the unplanned is to plan for it. How do you plan for the unplanned? This is neither a riddle or an oxymoron. There are no trick answers, no jumbo shrimp for minor crisis type wordplays. You actually have to have a plan. So here's how you go about it. The very first thing you need to do is figure out where your company may be vulnerable if the media were to report on a shortcoming or accident or misstep. It is one thing to know how to clinically address an E coli contamination for example, it is quite another to deal with a crisis when it becomes a matter of public consumption by a social media or local press or, God forbid, the New York Times, and the network news. So find out from company executives and operating managers what keeps them up at night, and you'll have taken a critical step in the planning process. Second, create a set of worst case scenarios that go directly towards your CEO's sleepless moments. Be a reporter and use your news instincts to develop a plausible media crisis. Think about what the media, social and mainstream, might do if there is a fatality at a work site. A spill of toxic materials in a residential neighborhood, a contamination of your dairy product, a breach of your data security, the discriminatory denial of service, an allegation of harassment, an outbreak of measles at your store, a Federal investigation, an airplane accident. Third, and this is where the job actually gets to be fun, you need to simulate the crisis response. The management convenes on the members of a crisis team. You put them in a room and put them through the paces, step by step. I've found tabletop exercises to be very effective starters. You lay out the situation and insert the media. Typically, you are answering questions like what should we do? Who needs to know? What should we say? Do we have a policy for news cameras on site? Should we issue a statement? What do we do if the media is interviewing bystanders or victims' families? Who is our spokesperson? Do we have allies that can speak on our behalf? What happens if the politicians start weighing in? The point is, your planning has to address the items you will confront if the media finds your crisis to be the story du jour. Crisis is not just an item for the executive suite. In almost every instance, it involves parts of your organization that have never been the focal point of news media attention. In addition, it is the rare company that thinks out loud about threats. The question becomes how you sensitize your internal audiences to the brand significance of crisis response. Your crisis responders need to know where there are limits to their discretion. I've seen cases where procedures get in the way. The GM of an assisted living complex owned by a national chain wouldn't authorize an urgent middle of the night spend of $26,000 because his discretion limit was $25,000. So he wouldn't order any new supplies to address the food born illness issue. His bosses were flabbergasted, but they got the point, as I hope you do too. Doing what's right is more important than following the procedure book. Finally, your company needs to be ready to talk to the media. And the best plans we study at Northwestern, there is accommodation in the crisis plan for media training people who can be called on to represent the company as spokespersons. The training is invaluable because, believe me, there is no scarier prospect for a business executive than sitting down with a reporter, pen in hand or camera ablaze, knowing that every word, twitch, hesitation will be in the morning paper or on the nightly TV news. And you can't do this once and think you have it mastered. Refreshers are mandatory. You also need to have someone at the ready to deal with social media, responding or not responding to tweets, Instagrams, Facebook posts, is an art under normal circumstances. In crisis, under pressure, it is a skill set you must have access to. If you take these steps, and if you get your management to strongly endorse them, you should be ready to respond. Don't forget, the key is in the questions. Keep asking them, keep testing the answers, stay attentive to change. A crisis plan after all is a living document. It requires review, rehearsal, restatement. The return on investment for the time in energy required to keep your plan breathing is one you will appreciate the day something goes wrong, and the media is banging your proverbial door, looking for the story. [MUSIC]
