"Coal-Mine Crisis -- Your Crisis, Too"

What I write here is meant to help you today.  View me as your tried-and-true "laboratory" on how to succeed in public relations, marketing and corporate communications.  I have 20-plus years of experience with Fortune-500 firms, the nation's news media and with representing some of our nation's most important issues in the media worldwide.

I've been allowed to learn and do what you want to know.  I have set up or performed more than 5,000 interviews in the media worldwide, developed 1,000-plus news releases, and coordinated hundreds of public, press and regulatory meetings and I have trained senior corporate officials, elected officials, and local, state, federal and community leaders for them.  That means my portfolio of experience -- my intellectual capital earned on the street -- is available to you right now.  I've managed the communication of crises, both short- and long-lived events.  Some events involved VIPS, highly sensitive personal and/or classified information.  Some I can't talk about.  Along the way, I've learned a lot and been both honored and humbled by the journey.  I am wired to do what I do and I have lessons and perspective to share.

So, it is not lightly that I say to CEOs out there, in small companies or large ones:  The recent coal-mine crisis is your crisis, too.  Let me explain.

[Full Story...]

The crisis is still unfolding, as I type this; it's in the "under review" stage.  This tragedy, unfortunately, is an extended crisis and going to be a case study.  Don't wait, however, for the final reports, the investigations (and federal funding for more mine safety).  You, the CEO, are faced with an imperative.  Anyone following the crisis through its stages knows we are in a new era of "Ultra-Fast Crisis Communications."  If you think this is an era that will pass, you are wrong.

You now know that:

• The news media is open 24/7 -- radio, TV, the Internet
• There is now:  News, Developing News and Breaking News.  One story can be all three and the last two categories "allow" for inaccuracies
• Big news goes worldwide in moments, especially "bad" news
• Command Centers and procedures, aside, cell phones and text messaging can leak around your "crisis-response" systems
• This portable technology makes "spokespersons" of individuals who may have absolutely no training to "represent" a story accurately to media gatekeepers
• A "bad-news" story is not over in an hour -- it has legs and will evolve over stages and time
• A crisis is about your reputation and the future of your business
• It can negatively impact the reputation of your entire business sector for years 
• Preparing and training for a crisis -- before a crisis -- has never been more important

I'm not breaking new ground here, except for this.  It is time for you to look in the mirror and do a quick assessment.  If I ask you to ask, "Is my company ready for a crisis?", I already know the answer.  Most companies never have been. But ask this, "What one step could I take in the next few weeks that would increase the probability of my company not just surviving a crisis, but also managing a crisis to success in the eyes of my stakeholders?"

Here's my blunt answer.  Get media training for your senior team.  And, then, provide the same training as deep into your organization as possible. I'm not saying that the operators who answer your phones should be quoted some day...but they just might.  So could that intern with a cell phone who sends a text message to friends or family.

I have said that the first casualty in a crisis is communications.  That used to mean good information took time to get or that communication systems broke down -- think power outtages, an event at 2 a.m. on a weekend when mustering your response team took time or fully understanding the complexity of the situation (Three Mile Island). 

Now, however, that means technology makes information available more swiftly than ever and through informal channels command centers need to consider in their crisis planning. 

You now know that the "spokesperson" who shapes your company's performance in a crisis -- perhaps way to the downside -- may be a friend of a friend or family member who heard second- or third-hand from a well-meaning, but emotional someone with a cell phone.  It is now likely, that it will not be the trained professional in a tie preparing a press briefing at the "official" command center at a "coordinated" time. This is important.

Crisis communications is not just for the people in the command center, anymore.  I am saying that if you think a crisis is something PR, safety and security people do huddled in a command center -- with the obligatory practice drills a couple of times a year -- you are admitting you want more risk:

• How trained is your leadership team for a crisis that plays out in the media?
• How comfortable are you with your ability in front of the media or the public? -- could you have done what that coal-company CEO did before the cameras and with the grieving families?
• How trained is your organization?  Are staff at least aware of the stakes -- honestly?
  
• How are your relationships with first responders, elected officials, regulators and your employees?

If just one of these questions made you uneasy consider that not just a wake-up call, but a gift.  My advice -- start (or refresh) your media training now.  Develop (or update) your crisis communications plan.  Again, I already know that most companies are ill prepared for a crisis.  There are books on that. And, although better prepared in general, I'm not giving a pass to the nuclear, defense and other high-risk, high-visibility sectors here.  And then ask how you will bring that training vertically into your organization.  Training is not just for the "C's," anymore.  In a crisis, leadership is needed at all levels.

But can you afford to? I would say, "How can you not afford to?"  For a small- to mid-sized organization, the cost is probably equivalent to the monies needed to make three brochures (on your new HR offerings, perhaps) and one billboard on a busy street for two months.  Skip the brochures and the billboard.  Cancel a couple of "standing" meetings.  Replace them. Remember, you do not need to hire people in-house to do this, (as in add overhead).  You can hire the expertise to help you prepare.   And I'm not talking about someone who can teach you how to give good "sound-bites" because they were once reporters -- you need that and someone who knows corporate America, our nation's emergency response systems and has done it.  A crisis is not amateur hour.

Be prepared.  Beforehand.  It's your company's reputation and future at stake.

A final thought:  Every crisis I have been involved with -- from the Columbine incident to the Space Shuttle Challenger mishap -- has revealed material things that could have been managed differently.  Don't wait for a crisis to start learning how to be better.

More on "How to survive the First Hour" of a crisis in future posts.