“You just have to learn that shelling isn’t personal….”
More than a decade ago I was having a conversation with a grizzled veteran of oil exploration and production in Africa. We were discussing unusual safety risks when he mentioned his company’s experience with storing of crude oil in tank farms. They were operating in a country with significant rebel activity, and they realized that land-based storage was just at too great of a risk from guerrilla attacks . The decision was made to build an offshore storage platform, which was completed in short order and put to immediate use.
Unfortunately, while this platform minimized the threat of rebels storming the facility, it soon became apparent that it had been built within artillery range of the mainland. The risk of guerrilla attack on land was replaced with the reality of occasional shelling as the rebels attempted to impinge on the flow of oil, and revenue, for the government in power.
Of course I had to ask him how it made him feel when he was aboard the facility while it was under a shelling attack. His laconic reply was simple; “They weren’t very accurate, so it wasn’t that big of a deal.” Then he added an instantly classic phrase to this crisis communicator; “You just have to learn that shelling isn’t personal. They’re not trying to actually hit YOU.”
You’re pretty tough when you consider artillery shells to be a minor disruption!
Why has this phrase stuck in my mind for so long? First, even Chuck Norris isn’t that tough! Mostly, because as a communicator, it’s easy to take stakeholder reactions personally. When something bad has happened and a bunch of people are upset, you get reactions from them that can feel a lot like artillery fire. It’s easy to become disheartened, worn down, overwhelmed or even simply afraid. Your response communication efforts can dwindle to defensiveness instead of taking advantage of all the new interaction opportunities provided by your upset, irate and concerned stakeholders.
You have to remember that shelling isn’t personal. It may feel personal, especially if a round lands close by to you. But they’re not actually aiming at you. They’re aiming at the organization, at the response, at ‘them’. Chances are, if you sat down for lunch with one of these people, it’s likely you could have a relatively normal conversation. You might even leave as friends.
I know, today we have the ‘web mob’, just waiting. Like the undead these apparitions arise at the smell of blood and seek out their victims. But their impact is ephemeral, disappearing in the light of informed and comprehensive engagement.
Regardless of the flying shells, you can engage with your stakeholders. Stand up, reach out, share information. Use the framework of response – Incident Command or Unified Command – to build your response communication platform, safe from hand-to-hand combat.
You do have an enemy. It just isn’t people:
- It’s not ‘the media’. Traditional media remain a valuable message multiplication platform, one that is very effective at mass distribution. Social media can span the globe quickly, but major newscasts reach far more people rapidly and with the same message. Media self-sorts to match your stakeholder groups; national news escalates to national outlets, local news tends to stay local. There are magnifiers of course – deaths, injuries or lurid graphics often make a local story into a national one. But even then, ongoing local interest supports ongoing local coverage.
- It’s not ‘the activist’. Activists are actually your friends. They are interested, committed and connected. They have the interest to listen to you, usually the ration to consider your message, and the ability to share it, usually as influencers. Many activist organizations encourage their members to contact you in a response, so you feel the full weight of their outrage. What they’re inadvertently doing is giving you a free mailing list of a bunch of concerned, committed citizens who tend toward reasonableness. They may not send you a Christmas card, but they will read what you send them. Actual response experience demonstrates that many opponents can gain an acceptance and appreciation of what is being done to ensure an effective response and recovery.
- Believe it or not, it’s not ‘trolls’ either. Trolls are foul, frustrating, sometimes fecal individuals who come out of the shadows to bomb a victim with negative, misleading, obscene or cruel comments. These web versions of restroom walls are disgusting to read and unproductive in content or context, a waste of bits and bytes. But by their very nature they’ll never coalesce into an actual threat. They’re shadows of putrescence (I’ve always wanted to use that word in a blog!), as unappealing to each other as they are to themselves. To deal with them constructively; put their little offerings into the same pile and have someone with a strong stomach go through it to find any actual threats. If the threat is there in a text or a pattern of texts, turn it over to law enforcement. Then forget it.
- It’s not the ‘negative’ either. By definition, your incident has caused actual or perceived harm to a significant group of people. They are upset, and frankly they have a right to be. That doesn’t make them your enemy. They are, in fact, your friends. These are the people who can be engaged with, to foster understanding and acceptance of the response. They will be upset at the incident, but they’re just waiting to hear how they can trust the response. Their negative comments are simply truth. Answer their concerns or attacks honestly and respectfully and you just might gain allies.
- It’s not ‘todays polarized society’ either. We may disagree on politics, we may disagree on religion. We might disagree on global warming and who the greatest second baseman was. But time and again, the human experience demonstrates they we come together in crisis. We want to know, we want to help and we want to work together in the face of adversity. No blood drive screener asks you what political party you belong to, or what religion you are. People may not agree with the business model of the Responsible Party, the politics of the lead Agency or the efficacy of regulations brought into play, but they will agree with effective response actions and priorities. The schisms may arise in the recovery and investigation process, but right now virtually everybody wants to see you succeed.
There are enemies to an effective response, particularly in the communication sphere.
Your communication foes aren’t people, not even almost-people (sorry, trolls). You will find support from every quarter if you work hard to respond well and to share your story effectively. All effective responses are built around doing the right thing. Are you fearlessly making sure everybody is being told about it? Don’t let fear disrupt your mission; communicate!
Next post, we’ll identify some of the REAL enemies you need to deal with.
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My mission is to help you communicate better in a crisis, both in preparation and in performance. If this post raises questions about your crisis communication capacity, let me help.