Category: Wednesday’s Smart Shibboleths

If your leadership or management is asking you to make recommendations regarding something they are doing that you know is irregular, immoral, monumentally stupid, perhaps dangerous, and even a touch illegal, this is a signal for you to leave. Now.

Too many of our colleagues, perhaps you, have stuck around working for people they like but behave badly, hoping that you can have enough impact on them to move them to a more reasonable course. Almost never happens. In my experience, it never happens. Bad leaders and managers stay bad.

If you are one of those hanging around waiting to be effective again, just look around. Be honest with yourself. Actually look for the last time you made significant changes in their direction or their intentions. What likely comes to mind are lots of promises, stumbling starts, but never specific, concrete, permanent change. It’s just not there. It never will be. Head for the door.

Once you recognize that you’re involved, you have become complicit in everything they are doing. Your loyalty needs to stop. Leave that day. It will be one of the best decisions you ever make in your life, for those you care about and, those who care about you.

The Leader’s and the Spokesperson’s Greatest Vulnerabilities

The activist, the agitator and reporter often intentionally use verbal agitation tools to provoke or inflict consternation, fear, doubt, terror, errors, confusion, and uncertainty. Learn to accommodate, absorb, ignore, or deflect to avoid that crashing and burning feeling. Respond with positive declarative words. These are only words until you succumb. If you take them personally you will crash or be crushed.

Gleaned from hundreds of crashed and burned interviews or confrontations by leaders and spokespersons who failed to prepare for these totally predictable tactics. Be prepared to instantly bridge away from these provocations with simple, sensible, appropriate, empathetic responses, usually beginning with, “Here’s how I would describe that…,” or, ”My view is different . . . ,” or, “A more accurate, helpful view is . . . ,”

Remain calm, Practice, practice, practice.

Reporters learn that the toughest truths may only come through upsetting, irritating, and provocative questioning techniques. I have never understood how using a technique that is upsetting, insulting, and usually only partially truthful helps get to the truth. The resulting confusion or anger allows the antagonist to use these spontaneous outburst responses as validation of whatever insinuations or conclusions are created, supposed, or proposed.

Be ready. Tough questions and questioning comes with the leadership
territory these days.

1. All questionable, uncivil, indecent, inappropriate, unethical,
   unconscionable, immoral, predatory, improper, victim-producing,
   and criminal behaviors are intentional. Adults always knowingly
   decide to do these things.
2. All ethical, moral, civil, decent, compassionate, and lawful
   behaviors are also intentional. The choice is always clearly yours.
3. Workplaces with integrity, civility, respect, and decency are safer
   and more ethical.
4. Those who lead with integrity, civility, respect, and decency are
   likely more ethical and trustworthy.
5. Unconscionable intentions, behaviors, actions, and decisions, those
   that vilify, damage, demean, dismiss, diminish, humiliate, cause needless intentional pain, express anger and irritation, demand, or bully, are mean, negative, insulting, disrespectful, disparaging, tone deaf, without empathy, intentionally injure, accuse, overbear, punish, harmfully restrict, exceed decency’s, civility’s and integrity’s boundaries are all unethical.
6. Evil is human behavior and actions that intentionally harm the
   innocent, people, animals, and living systems.
7. Apology is the atomic energy of empathy. Apologies can stop bad
   things from starting and start stopping bad things.
8. Empathy is positive, constructive, decent, and civil deeds that
   demonstrate integrity and speak for themselves louder than words
   ever can.
9. Ethics is seeking ideal behavior. (According to American
   Philosopher Will Durant in The Story of Philosophy, pocketbook
   division of Simon and Schuster © 1926)
10. Only truth can earn forgiveness. Liars may seem forgiven but
    they always know they don’t deserve it.
11. Dump, distance yourself, and don’t look back from those
    who behave unethically, without empathy, unconscionably,
    uncivilly, indecently, and with evil intentions. They will always be
    this way. Life will be happier immediately.

Crisis Definition

A people-stopping, show-stopping, product-stopping, Trust busting, reputationally redefining event that creates victims and/or explosive visibility.

Grand Crisis Response Strategy

• Stop the production of victims
• Manage the victim dimension
• Communicate internally
• Notify those indirectly affected
• Manage the new media, legacy media, bloggers, guessers, and
  people smarter than you

Crisis Truisms

• Bad news always ripens badly
• Crisis management is fixing mistakes faster than you make them
• Critics and victims accumulate
• Every moment of indecision creates unseen but avoidable
  collateral damage
• Failing to talk promptly is the death of any effective response
• Failing to talk to your critics rots your internal credibility
• Failing to talk to your critics triggers people to make things up that
  you end up owning
• Negative aggressive responses empower your opponents, aggravate the victims, and give all media bad headlines you will live with forever.
• Once a critic, enemy, or victim, always a critic enemy or victim
• Silence is the most toxic, top executive career-busting strategy
• Speed beats smart every time, when in doubt do something . . .
• Talking to your critics builds your credibility and silences or invalidates key adverse audiences.
• There is no such thing as 2020 hindsight because there is no such thing as 2020 foresight
• There will always be bellyachers, bloviators, gripers, secondguessers, and backbench complainers

See also:
OUR MANIFESTO FOR COMMUNICATIONS SUCCESS

LUKASZEWSKI’S CONTENTION SURVIVAL MANIFESTO – Keeping Yourself and the Things That Matter Under Control

One word: Silence.

• This fatal mistake is intentionally made in most crises. Management thinks it can beat the odds.
• This is a behavior that lives forever. Once you fail to speak, your reputation will be forever tainted by the question, “Why did you wait so long to talk? To act?”
• There is no rational, believable, sensible, or plausible explanation for silence. It is leadership run amuck in reputational quicksand. Yet the perpetrator is only 240 characters away from avoiding this permanent, toxic reputation stain.
• A sensible, successful response strategy leads with speaking immediately. You can use my grand strategy below for responding even as the fire trucks, victims and media assemble.

Grand Crisis Response Strategic Steps (The First Two Hours In Every Crisis):

1. Stop the production of victims. Continuous victim production is what drives media coverage, public interest, emotionalization, plus commentary and criticism from 1000 different sources.

2. Manage the victim dimension. This is what leaders and senior managers should be doing rather than stalling and second-guessing the command center.

3. Communicate directly and frequently with employees, stakeholders, and those directly affected. Calm and settle people down. Help insiders and victims know what is going on.

4. Notify those indirectly affected, those who have a problem now because you have a problem; regulators, licensing authorities, neighbors, partners, collaborators, key stakeholders, those who need to know and hear from you promptly.

5. Manage the self-appointed and the self-anointed; the new media and the legacy media, those who simply opt in, the critics, the bellyachers, the backbench bickerers, the bloviators. Management and leadership need to help all bystanders focus on resolution and caring for victims. Far too many response plans have only legacy media public relations driven tactics. Crisis communication is driven by a simple, sensible, constructive, positive, and clearly open and achievable strategy.

The Crisis Guru’s Truisms of Crises Response

1. Bad news always ripens badly, it gets worse before it gets better.
2. Every moment of indecision creates unseen but avoidable collateral damage.
3. There is no such thing as 20-20 hindsight because there is no such thing as 20-20 foresight.
4. Silence is the most toxic strategy and the greatest permanent response mistake.
5. Critics and victims accumulate.
6. There will always be bellyachers, bloviators, gripers, second guessers, and backbench complainers.
7. Once a critic, enemy, or victim, always a critic, enemy, or victim.
8. Speed beats smart every time. Act now, fix now, change now, stop now, decide now. Perfect fixing mistakes quickly. There will be many. That’s what crisis is.
9. Lead by wishful thinking and cohort led guesswork, the Boss gets big bonus on exiting.

39 Paths to Decency

The true test of civility is a commitment to verbal, written communication, deeds, and actions that benefit a recipient more than the sender. Here are 39 possible paths that can get you to civility, decency, integrity, and trust. Always pick as many as you can, as frequently as you can.

1. Accountability
2. Apology
3. Calmness
4. Candor
5. Character
6. Charitability
7. Chivalry
8. Civility
9. Compassion
10. Constructiveness
11. Courtesy
12. Decency
13. Dignity
14. Empathy: positive deeds that always speak louder than words
15. Engagement
16. Forgiveness
17. Gratitude
18. Helpfulness
19. Honesty
20. Honor
21. Humility
22. Integrity
23. Listening: the greatest decency
24. Openness
25. Peacefulness
26. Pleasantness
27. Politeness
28. Positivity
29. Principle
30. Respect
31. Responsiveness
32. Sensibility
33. Sensitivity
34. Simplicity
35. Softness
36. Tact
37. Thoughtfulness
38. Transparency
39. Truthfulness

Use this shibboleth as a personal and organizational decency accomplishment checklist.

• Make other additions to this list of things you have already been doing
• Make this list become a living instrument to help you and those you know, and organizations you belong to commit to a broad array of decent behaviors and higher levels of civility.
• Develop examples and illustrations of each of these and the ones you add from your own experience.
• Keep a log.
• Find opportunities to talk about these activities, beliefs, and ideas where they will motivate others to emulate what you’ve learned to take such pleasure in doing.

Remember, the reverse of any of these words, ideas, or behaviors only lead to trouble, problems, and delayed mitigation and resolution; plus revictimizing those who have been injured.

Let’s talk about it. I’m always interested in helping colleagues perfect their own personal decency pathways. Reach out to me at 203-948-7029 or jel@e911.com.

James E. Lukaszewski
Americas Crisis Guru®

ABC, Fellow IABC, APR, Fellow PRSA, BEPS Emeritus (2015) 

Mainstreet Village, 7601 Lyndale Ave S, STE 32, Richfield MN 
jel@e911.com 
203-948-7029 

16 Ways to STOP Incivility Before or After It Starts

The true test of civility is a commitment to verbal and written communication that are predominantly positive and declarative and behaviors that are simple, sensitive, sensible, constructive, positive, helpful, humble, empathetic, and always benefit the recipient more than the giver. Any other pathways lead only to trouble, prolong problems and delay mitigation and resolution. Empathy means positive deeds that speak louder and more constructively than words.

How to STOP Incivility in Its Track

There are so many pathways to civility, decency, and integrity, pick as many as you can.

Start with Powerful Civilities & Simple Decencies: Actions That Defeat Indecency.

Let’s talk about it. I’m always interested in helping colleagues develop their own personal principles. Reach out to me at 203-948-7029 or jel@e911.com.

Coming up in Shibboleth #9: “39 Pathways to Decency”.

James E. Lukaszewski
Americas Crisis Guru®

ABC, Fellow IABC, APR, Fellow PRSA, BEPS Emeritus (2015) 

Mainstreet Village, 7601 Lyndale Ave S, STE 32, Richfield MN 
jel@e911.com 
203-948-7029 

The Platinum Rule is a big step beyond the Golden Rule. The Golden Rule gives you a better today. The Platinum Rule helps you move someone else into their tomorrow. The Ethical and Practical principles I follow support both rules. Share your own version of this approach with others who work with you and people you’d like to work with. Find ways to discuss these ideas, explain them, and ask and answer questions about them. Everyone you care about or those who care about you should be aware of ideas like these. Help them live and learn from their own principles.

The Ethical and Practical Principles That Guide Jim’s Practice

1. Act ethically, promptly, and urgently.

a. Ask better questions than anyone else.
b. Be 15 minutes early.
c. Consistently challenge the standard assumptions and practices of our profession, build its importance, and enhance the ability of all practitioners to better serve others from their perspective. Raise your hand.

2. Do the doable; know the knowable; get the getable; arrange the arrangeable.

a. Expect to be helpful and useful.
b. Focus on what really matters. Apply your ethics audit analysis.
c. Go beyond what those you work with already know or believe.
d. Intend to make a constructive ethical difference every day.

3. Intentionally look at every situation and circumstance from different helpful perspectives

a. Look out for the real victims.
b. Remember, it’s your boss’s “bus.” They get to drive it wherever they want. If you don’t like it, or can’t deal with it, hop off and go to somebody else’s bus, or drive your own.
c. Clarification: Your role on “the bus” is to help the driver drive better. Taking the wheel is out of the question. If you want to take the wheel, get your own bus.

4. Remember that every issue, question, concern or problem is a management or leadership issue, question, concern, or problem before it is any other kind of issue, question, concern or problem. Always start where management and leadership are. Starting somewhere else only leads to trouble, confusion, and failure.

Let’s talk about it. I’m always interested in helping colleagues develop their own personal principles. Reach out to me at 203-948-7029 or jel@e911.com

James E. Lukaszewski
Americas Crisis Guru®

ABC, Fellow IABC, APR, Fellow PRSA, BEPS Emeritus (2015) 

Mainstreet Village, 7601 Lyndale Ave S, STE 32, Richfield MN 
jel@e911.com 
203-948-7029 

The Purpose of A Personal/Professional Profile

One of the most important steps in crisis work is quickly establishing a connection with senior people. Many years ago I developed a personal/professional profile which briefly and succinctly explains: who I am, what I do, how I work, and what I believe. It has always been a conversation starter. Each topic leads to me sharing relevant recent experiences and talking about next possible steps for the client’s problem. It generates questions you need to hear and promptly respond.

Establishing connections at any level, but especially at senior levels, is up to you and the sooner you accomplish it, the more quickly serious work can begin. Fail to connect early makes progress difficult, maybe even impossible.

My Profile

This connection step is so important that if a technique like this one fails to work for you, it’s likely best to help your client find someone they can connect and work with. Be prepared to get out of the way.

Remember, in true crises, where victims are caused, usually only the boss’ job is in jeopardy. They know it. Early connections must happen fast. That means to always act in the client’s best interest rather than yours.

Remember, every senior person believes that they are a better communicator than anybody, even you. They also believe that their communication skills are why they have the job they have. Remember, too, if all you have is information about how the news media works and how reporters behave, most senior people have made up their minds about these topics already. Focus on finding useful, appropriate, and often inconsistent options for them to choose to develop the solutions their problems require.

James E. Lukaszewski
Americas Crisis Guru®

ABC, Fellow IABC, APR, Fellow PRSA, BEPS Emeritus (2015) 

Mainstreet Village, 7601 Lyndale Ave S, STE 32, Richfield MN 
jel@e911.com 
203-948-7029