Communicators’ Corner

Who are we trying to engage with anyway?

Pull out the objectives for the last exercise you attended. Dimes to dollars that JIC capability was measured by holding a press conference. Now review the differences between Liaison and Joint Information Center in the NRT manual, your Area Contingency Plan or your own organization’s crisis response manual. Each document clearly identifies a select group of people important to your organization; the elusive, magical stakeholder.

It’s not surprising who is listed in these documents; it is surprising who is not.

People We Are Interested In

Plans and policies you already have access to reveal a classic definition of a stakeholder: They are People We Are Interested In.

For decades, a core objective of the Joint Information Center has been to conduct Press Conferences or Media Briefings, to provide information we want the media to have. These objectives define media as perhaps the primary stakeholder. How can I be sure? Because our actions determine our priorities, and every exercise expects the action of a Press Conference, so media must be a priority.

In the same way, Liaison’s effectiveness is often measured by an Elected Officials’ Briefing, or a Community Meeting, thereby identifying two more stakeholder groups of People We Are Interested In.

So our classic stakeholder list thus consists of: Media, Elected Officials and Community. Your plans may have more but, since we seldom actually have a full listing of stakeholder groups, we end up missing important people. Not because they don’t exist, but because we’re not looking for them. They are not People We Are Interested In.

Big mistake!

The capability of any individual to broadcast information via their cellphone, combined with the accompanying ability of any person to access countless media sources, means the classical definition of a stakeholder is obsolete. Our traditional stakeholder groups have important functions, but relying on them to share our message is an exercise doomed to failure. We must broaden our definition of a stakeholder.

People Who Are Interested in Us

Today’s communication environment multiplies any message across myriad platforms, places and people groups. Any person from any location can participate in our response, instantly sharing any concern or comments about our actions with like-minded people across the globe.

This reality forces us to accept this new stakeholder definition: People Who Are Interested in Us. They may be media, they may be elected officials; they might be business owners, parents, activists, any group of people who are interested in our actions, or the consequences of our actions.

These new stakeholders don’t replace our traditional stakeholders, but they amplify them, which in turn allows communicators to amplify the response message. In a world where everyone is Media (Media = every person who can multiply your message), every targeted stakeholder group becomes more valuable for sharing your story. As communicators, we need to expand our stakeholder horizon to include all this new group of People Who Are Interested in Us.

The bad news

We don’t find these people easily. Traditional stakeholder mining can’t identify our new stakeholders, because they aren’t traditional groups. We can subscribe to media list builders or elected official list builders. We can use local resources to find Chamber of Commerce or Service Club members. We can use our procurement people to give us local businesses contacts. But how do we get lists of activists? Even if we have names, can we determine their interest? How can we tell who is concerned about specific topics? How do we find people concerned about fish, or jobs, or local sponsorships?

This is the challenge we face. Identifying these new People Who Are Interested in Us is a challenging process that seems to require more resources than we have.

The good news

The good news is that we don’t have to find these people; these people find us. While their names aren’t listed in the yellow pages under categories and their resumes don’t list their interests or concerns, these people hold deep and long-term interests or concerns for specific issues. They are affiliated with groups that support their causes. They go to the same events and they give to the same organizations. Their concerns are active and enduring. People Who Are Interested in Us are always interested in what they are interested in.

What we need to do is help them self-identify with us. For response planning, this means that we make sure we have a ‘capture’ tool – an intake process. It could be our social media accounts that allow people to follow our posts. It could be a proper inquiry management tool that lets people submit their concerns for our response. It could even be the old low-tech registration form or comment sheet we use at community meetings or presentations. It can even be our own careful notes from meetings we have attended.

Just make sure the intake process allows people to indicate their concerns as well as their contact information. Then use this resource on a daily basis; we don’t have to wait until a crisis to share key information with interested stakeholders. Get in the habit of responding to individuals’ questions and concerns on a regular basis, and we’ll have more finely honed messaging in place for use in response communications, supported by a more finely tuned group of stakeholders.

There seems to be a latent fear of engagement with stakeholders in a crisis. Communicators concerned about being overwhelmed with questions or comments sometimes resist the opportunity to capture them. We’re afraid that we won’t have time, messaging or resources to respond to every one. The truth is, capturing concerned stakeholders allows ongoing communication with each one, now and in the future. Even if it takes time to respond, it is better to respond when we can rather than rebuff their attempts to communicate.

A great investment

Remember too that we pay for mailing lists, but People Who Are Interested in Us come to us for free. We don’t have to pay to capture their interest; we already have it. Plus they’re motivated; they actually want information from us. And they share it, multiplying our message to their own followers and friends.

This activist dynamic is the opposite of traditional list-building, where we spend money on contact information, then spend time and money developing a message which we send to potential stakeholders, in hopes of developing a dialogue with some of them. This new stakeholder group of People Who Are Interested in Us starts with their own dialog, and they are already interested and engaged. This is the most cost-effective stakeholder group we can build!

The silver lining

Crises are challenging experiences to be avoided whenever possible, and no organization wants to be embroiled in an issue. Both crises and issues entail an expenditure of large amounts of time and money, often a squandering of reputation and resources. We can’t avoid expending time, money, reputation or resources but at least we can capture and communicate with key stakeholders.

People Who Are Interested in Us are a group of powerful stakeholders who will either help or hurt our reputation, and we have unhindered access to them. They are waiting to hear from us. With proactive communication strategy and tactics, we can emerge from a crisis or issue response with more interested and involved stakeholders than we had before. With long-term commitment to ongoing response communication, we have an opportunity wrapped up in a crisis: People with influence, accompanied by a greater understanding and appreciation of our organization, potentially more supportive of our ongoing activities.

What do we do?

• Look for People Who Are Interested in Us. Remember that the person we talk to in the grocery line may have more followers than our local newspaper has subscribers.
• Engage with as many stakeholders as we can. Set up routing procedures at our workplace so we get all the calls and emails. Answer them!
• Always offer opportunities for interested people to register for more information. Invite them to do so, and thank them when they do.
• Look outward to new stakeholders, invite them in. Reach past traditional media and groups and engage with individuals.
• Answer people’s concerns, and continue each conversation. ‘Interview 101’: Repeat the question or concern. Provide information you can. Thank them for asking. Pivot to a key message that supports their concern. Ask if they have another question.
• Develop a dialogue, not a sales pitch. Don’t sell, engage.  You’re not selling a product; you’re offering understanding.
• Be a follower! Join in stakeholder in conversations on their own turf! ‘Friend’ people, use LinkedIn, attend interest group meetings, hit the turf of our community.
• Offer more.  Always offer additional material, information and opportunities to share.
• Ask our own questions. Use the conversation as an opportunity to learn about them, their interests and affiliations.

How about you?

What tactics have you used to capture People Who Are Interested in You? Share them here!

Interested in more information?  Contact me!

Every so often, a sea change occurs in our communication world.

Sometimes without us realizing it.  We tend to notice major sea change, when its impact makes recognition and understanding unavoidable. But some changes sneak up on us and change our world without us realizing it.

In the FX television series “The People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story”, the prosecuting attorney’s office was portrayed as confident of their capability to win the case. They had the evidence, the chain of custody, the motive and the method. Yet the series portrays how, through a series of missteps, they lost the case badly.

As I watched the series (binge-watched – all 10 episodes over a single weekend!), I was struck at the lesson for communicators: If we don’t remain aware of the world changing around us we won’t even know the peril we’re in. Instead of watching and learning, we will try to address new issues with the same old strategies and tactics. We’ll end up losing before we even start.

In the show, the prosecution team failed to realize that the defense was launching an unforeseen strategy.  The defense team contested neither facts, timeline or evidence. Instead they challenged the veracity of the witnesses and used outside events to cast doubt in the jury’s minds. The prosecution didn’t lose because O.J. was innocent, they lost because they gave away the confidence of the jury. The prosecutors failed to establish a narrative leading to O.J’s guilt for the jury, instead they depended on the facts. The defense did provide a narrative regardless of the facts, and their narrative led the jury to doubt the prosecution’s case.

As expressed in the LA Times review of the series: “The explanation for the phenomenon was addressed in the “Conspiracy Theories” episode when Alan Dershowitz (Evan Handler) instructs his Harvard law class that, “You need to provide a narrative, not just in the courtroom; in the world” before saying, “Look at what the culture is becoming. The media, they want narrative too. But they want it to be entertainment.” It’s a meta moment in a television series filled with them.”

As proof of point, consider that O.J. lost the subsequent civil trial with the same evidence, where a judge, not a jury, rendered the verdict.

Dealing with Sea Change

New tactics that weren’t foreseen by the prosecution decided the ‘trial of the century’. The prosecution didn’t recognize the sea change, to a world where opinions and innuendo could neutralize facts.  In the same way, if we don’t adapt to emerging communication realities we will lose our effectiveness. If we don’t recognize the sea changes that impact communication strategy, we’ll expend scarce resources on the wrong actions and lose resources for the right actions.  Sea change leads to new strategies and tactics – old ones need to be discarded as relics of another time.  We need to recognize our relics – the old ways of doing business we keep using – and address them.

What are today’s response communication relics?

In today’s world some of ‘what we’ve always done’ is fruitless at best and wasteful of scarce resources at worst. Much traditional response communication strategy won’t help us succeed at effective stakeholder communication when we need it the most. Yet response structures tend to enforce and rely on the following relics:

1) The Press Release: Developed in the day when we depended on the Press to multiply our message, the press release gave members of the media key information and statements they could use to write their stories. It’s an anachronism today. The news cycle doesn’t follow media publication schedules, nor do progressive media use content of press releases to generate news stories. Today’s instant demand for the latest information forces media outlets to find and publish instant news. Media will publish or air longer stories when they can, but first they need a flow of information that helps them keep their viewers.

Crafting a press release for distribution wastes time and resources that could be used to disseminate facts and justification of response activities. Better for you to establish a flow of facts, as short as single statements. Give your stakeholders the ‘what’ first; then provide regular releases explaining why Command decisions are made with subsequent actions taken. The media you depend on to multiply your information will be happier and more cooperative if you are giving them the fact-flow they need for relevance.

2) The media packet: Today’s media packet is easily defined as ‘everything they can find online about you’. Response communicators must ensure an online presence of pertinent information, immediately posted for global use:

• What spilled? Post the product MSDS and other safety information or fact sheets.
• Are you using dispersants? Post the dispersant MSDS and any pertinent fact sheets about dispersant use.
• Are you mobilizing SCAT (Shoreline Cleanup and Assessment Technique) Teams? Publish local Ecology agencies’ SCAT fact sheets.
• Do you have equipment deployed? Are you cleaning a specific beach? Post images of it.
• Is Command making critical decisions about sensitive issues? Provide information that supports an understanding of these decisions.
• Questions about your financial capability? Make sure your latest Annual Report is available.
• Questions about your commitment? Post your latest Sustainability Report

3) The Press Conference:  Who is going to wait for a scheduled Press Conference to gather information or ask questions? Media don’t have the luxury of waiting for you to tell them what is happening. They need information now. Reporting resources are ever more scarce in the news business; the media outlets most affected by your incident may not even be able to expend news staff time and travel funds to attend your press conference.

Where will you hold the press conference? At Unified Command? Why would any media come to the Command center? Every response plan includes identification of a location for Press Conferences, usually close to Command but not in Command. Planners seem equally concerned with allowing media to get close, yet keeping them away. But nothing ever happens at Unified Command.

The action is all ‘out there’. If you invite media anywhere, they should be invited to visit any location where command activities are underway.  The only restriction of media access should be for safety reasons.

Think of responding to an incident that impacts shorelines: Why would media want to come to the command center?  The action is on the shore. Instead of Press Conferences, hold Press Briefings, where they’re needed, on a scheduled basis. Use the Press Briefing entirely for the ‘why’. Expect media to have the latest facts, and use the time with them to provide and explain Command perspective.

4) Prime time or drive time interviews: Countless exercise injects include provision of interviews at selected times. There is value in providing sound bites or video footage for media use, but there is no value in providing it only at specific times. Media can’t wait for a quote or image – they need it NOW.

You need to provide a constant source of quotes, images and video. This is one function of the Command location; Open a Media Center at Command facility where media can visit with subject matter experts, assigned information officers or command staff. Keep this center staffed with one or more spokespersons for an extended time, and for heaven’s sakes serve coffee and meals. Treat it as a drop-in center for wayward media. Welcome them with food and conversation – and it is all on-the-record conversation.

5) ‘Off the record’: Off the record doesn’t exist at any level. Remember this with community meetings, agency briefings or elected official briefings (Liaison). Anything you say can and will be used against you. Period. This does NOT mean you don’t talk. It just means you never consider any discussion to be ‘off the record’.

6) The photo pool: The Internet killed the photo pool, and cell phones and drones drove the nails into its coffin. Response communication today must include provision of high quality imagery and video, not by selected media but by trained response personnel. Communication plans and resourcing must include this capacity. YOU are the photo pool!

Don’t yield to sea change and give up the battle for imagery; providing high quality imagery from within the response is a powerful communication advantage. Media will use any images they can get, but they will replace them with better quality and better perspective images, that only response personnel can provide. There is no better source of high quality, in-demand images than a trained photographer can provide from locations only accessible to responders. They will be used, and they will replace the ubiquitous and impersonal distance shots.

7) The flight restriction: Drones. Enough said. The flight restriction may keep piloted aircraft and news helicopters out of a safety zone, but you can’t control drone images and video. This is another major sea change when every study shows the massive impact of video on stakeholder understanding and acceptance.

All the more reason to provide quality imagery and video.

And don’t accede to any suggestion to announce Command’s intention to disable or down drones to neutralize their intrusion. This ‘reasonable’ command impulse is death to Command reputation. Flight restrictions do apply to drones, as well as numerous other regulations for safe flying.  But not all drone pilots follow them.  Let law enforcement deal with this, and do not comment on it. Do you really want to be known as the people who shot down drones?  Or arrested people for flying them?

8) “No comment”: Many organizations coach line staff to defer media questions to an ‘authorized spokesperson’. This is common in responses as well, when Command instructs all physical responders to defer any media questions ‘to Command’ or ‘to the PIO’. The problem with this fourfold:

• The media is on-location. Media want to be where the people are and the action is. They’re not going to leave the people and action to ask someone else, somewhere else, their questions. They will either keep asking until someone talks, or they will report ‘a spokesperson was not available for comment’ – allowing themselves full reign to determine your reputation. If you want response personnel to defer to a spokesperson, the spokesperson needs to be where they are.
• It sounds evasive. Why don’t you want response personnel to talk? Are you trying to hide something? Any deferral requires careful coaching, and it won’t stop additional questions. Better to empower personnel to share specific comments and give them suggestions for how to defer if they really don’t want to talk.
• Someone else will talk. There is always someone who will talk. If not response staff, a bystander will always be willing to become the ‘instant expert’. Instructing people who know something about what is happening to refuse to talk simply ensures that a less knowledgeable and less qualified person can become the voice of the response.
• ‘Your people’ still talk.  Even if ‘your people’ don’t talk to the media on location, they still talk. They talk on Twitter, Facebook, across the fence, at dinner, out for drinks. This may be the greatest sea change;  every person is now the media, multiplying your message on multiple platforms.  You simply are not going to staunch the flow if information, and it will inevitably end up as public comment.  Far better to include all responders in the response information flow so they know the big picture of what’s going on, and to provide solid guidance in what to say in response to media inquiries.

How about you?

What response communication relics caused by sea change do you know of? What tactics have you used to be effective in today’s communication world? Share them here!

Interested in more information?  Contact me!

Trauma exposes the real us: We may look sleek and shiny on the outside, but the truth is that there are always messes inside. When trauma slices across our lives, it exposes our secret side even as it impacts our prepared public face. In every personal crisis, all our internal stresses and strains come to light. The messy truth of our lives emerges and we have to deal with it. It’s part of counseling, part of social work, part of all our lives.

The same thing happens with organizations: No individual and no organization is completely transparent. If for no other reason, there simply isn’t time or interest in reporting every peccadillo or stumble. So we continue our everyday practice of being or looking ‘good enough’. We work to deflect attention from mistakes or misdeeds.

Then a crisis occurs, and suddenly everything is fair game. Past indiscretions don’t remain in the past. They’re always there, under the surface and waiting to bubble up when we least want them to. Past issues well-dealt with still emerge, and issues never resolved emerge anew alongside the latest outrage:

A refinery suffered a major accident resulting in injuries and fatalities. This refinery had endured decades of bad relations with employee unions and the local community. Guess what information emerged during the response: The old antagonisms between the company, the union and the community again rose to the surface.

Rumblings about poor corporate safety culture were reinforced with release of previous confidential internal memos outlining safety concerns. Community complaints and grievances were aired publicly. On top of the current accident and tragedy, all the old baggage came out on display.

There were practical impacts to this feud:

• The refinery owner didn’t allow photographs of the response efforts to be taken, due to fear that the communities’ prevailing animosity would use the images as ammunition against claims of poor safety record (“If we post pictures of responders in protective gear, the family will want to know why their dad didn’t have any”).
• Without effective imagery of people responding, the response was never ‘humanized’, defined instead by aerial photographs of the facility damage and spilled product.
• The discussion quickly shifted from incident response to the stewing debate about neglected safety and poor community involvement.
• In the poisoned atmosphere, the resulting bunker mentality merely ensured that the public dialogue ignored response efforts while focusing on decades-old issues.

You don’t get do-overs in crisis response. You can’t correct old wrongs. You have to play the messy hand you’re dealt. This will always happen. Every person, every family, every community and every organization has skeletons in the closet. They will be exposed, one by one, as a crisis unfolds. The glare of the public eye will find your every mishap or misdeed and broadcast it for all to see.

You need to be ready for this. It is inevitable. So what can you do?

Know your flaws

Don’t ignore your organization’s history. Research past incidents and issues that have impacted your community’s perceptions of your organization. Determine what has been done in the past to rectify or resolve them. Don’t be caught by surprise!

Accept your flaws yourself

Know that dirty laundry will be pulled out of the hamper, skeletons will rattle out of closets and dirt will be drug out from under the rug. Don’t waste time, emotions and energy in despairing or reacting. There’s nothing you can do to prevent it. You need your energy and emotions for proper response communication.

Verify, verify, verify

Confirm the charges. It they are real, they are real. Acknowledge past issues and incidents. Express your commitment to prompt and accurate reporting. Assure stakeholders that you take all charges seriously, examine them carefully and own what is true.

Acknowledge reality

Don’t attempt to deny or deflect: Don’t throw red meat to a critical audience. If the charges are true, acknowledge them If they are new, say so. If they were previously received and addressed say so. If they are your’s, own them. Remember that facts tell us what, not why. Acknowledge the ‘what’.

Never deny the truth

Today’s pervasively connected world has foisted a level of transparency on all our actions. It is not possible to keep secrets any more. So here’s a radical thought: Tell the truth. Telling the truth may be painful and may expose your organization to a harsher light than you may wish, but it is also economical. Tell the truth, apologize and make amends, and the issue is done. If it comes up again, refer to the original acknowledgment and move on. Lies require constant repetition or reinforcement. Truth is truth. Save time and effort.

Promise action

Accept new allegations as valuable in your organization’s efforts towards safe and responsible operations. Express a commitment to include them in any investigation or discovery process. Promise to deal with them seriously, and to report back. Share why this action is important; it reflects your values, and your values define your reputation.

Pivot to the current response

Remind your stakeholders that you’re committed to an effective response for the current situation. Indicate that your organization is committed to resolving the current issue with all diligence. Express your commitment to transparency and sharing.

Move on

Receive, verify, acknowledge, promise and pivot. Then leave it behind. If the same charge comes up again, refer to the original statement. Turn the conversation back to current response information. If a new charge comes up, wash rinse and repeat.

Interested in more information?  Contact me!