In his Crisis Guru Commentaries, Jim Lukaszewski provides real answers to real questions about your most critical communications problems and issues.

To submit a question, please direct it by e-mail to crisisguru@e911.com.  Be sure to include your full name, affiliation, address, and telephone number.  All published questions will be identified by title and industry only.  Your confidentiality will be protected.

Question:
 
Dear Crisis Guru:

There is a lot of pressure on PR consultants to get their client’s into themedia, particularly those clients that operate in a business to business environment.  BUT, when a crisis or issue develops there is a need to keep the client out of the media in certain circumstances.

What action steps do you suggest, as well as strategies, to keep clients out of the media and what strategies should companies have in place to prevent any coverage from happening should that necessitate?  (Obviously the basic rules of any crisis are important:  plan, practice, tell it all, tell it quickly, never lie, always apologize and engage the various publics telling them what will be done to ensure it never happens again.)

Thanks, I enjoy your e-mails.

PR Consultant
South Africa

Answer:

Dear Communicator:

There is a formula for getting out of the news quickly, but it involves things that organizations generally detest doing such as admitting responsibility and paying some form of penance or restitution.

In general, the prescription for becoming less and less newsworthy with greater and greater speed follows a behavior scheme I call “seeking forgiveness and rebuilding trust.”

The restoration process involves completing the eight steps below.  To achieve trust restoration in the shortest possible time, these steps must be completed in the order presented, as quickly as possible.  One could call this “Lukaszewski’s Law of Trust Restoration.”  But in truth, it is society’s requirement for relationship restoration.

Step #1    Candor:  Outward recognition, through promptly verbalized public acknowledgement (or outright apology), that a problem exists; that people or groups of people, the environment, or the public trust are affected; and that something will be done to remediate the situation.

Step #2    Explanation (No matter how silly, stupid, or embarrassing the problem-causing error was):  Promptly and briefly explain why the problem occurred and the known underlying reasons or behaviors that led to the situation (even if we have only partial early information).

Step #3    Affirmation:  Talk about what you’ve learned from the situation and how it will influence your future behavior.  Unconditionally commit to regularly report additional information until it is all out or until no public interest remains.

Step #4    Declaration:  A public commitment and discussion of specific, positive steps to be taken to conclusively address the issues and resolve the situation.

Step #5    Contrition:  The continuing verbalization of regret, empathy, sympathy, even embarrassment.  Take appropriate responsibility for having allowed the situation to occur in the first place, whether by omission, commission, accident, or negligence.

Step #6    Certification:  Promptly ask for help and counsel from “victims,” government, the community of origin, independent observers, and even from your opponents.  Directly involve and request the participation of those most directly affected to help develop more permanent solutions, more acceptable behaviors, and to design principles and approaches that will preclude similar problems from re-occurring.  Accept outside oversight or independent monitoring to certify that what you say you will do is what you do.

Step #7    Commitment:  Publicly set your goals at zero.  Zero errors, zero defects, zero dumb decisions, and zero problems.  Publicly promise that to the best of your ability situations like this will never occur again.

Step #8    Restitution:  Find a way to quickly pay the price.  Make or require restitution.  Go beyond community and victim expectations, and what would be required under normal circumstances to remediate the problem.

Adverse situations remediated quickly cost a lot less, are controversial for much shorter periods of time, suffer less litigation, and help the victims come to closure more quickly.

Cordially,

Jim Lukaszewski