Communicators’ Corner

Accidents are inevitable, so we prepare for them.

Good communication planning includes preemptive actions to build stakeholder trust and acceptance. We work hard to make sure our neighbors and communities understand that we are trying to be good neighbors. We bank on their goodwill and make sure we’re ready to respond to the inevitable accident. We plan and prepare.

Our messaging is designed to support our response efforts, to remind stakeholders of our commitment to our community. We prepare key messages to use when needed; messages to assure affected people that we are responding as well as we can. We plan and prepare for community acceptance of our activities.

And as the joke says; “Sixty percent of the time it works all of the time.”

Inevitably and despite our plans and preparation, in a response a common foe may raise its head. Individuals don’t accept our response actions, or they don’t accept our role, or they decide to be offended, or they overreact and out-shout our message. They get afraid and frustrated that they’re not being cared for. And outrage rises – pent up frustration, anger, fear self-righteousness, enmity; the list reads like a list of ‘thou shalt nots’. But it is real, and often based on reality.

The ‘outrage balloon’ begins to fill with pent up FODU – Fear, Outrage, Doubt, Uncertainty. It grows, and grows, looming over the response and our reputation. One thing is certain – a bloated outrage balloon usually bursts with uncontrollable force, damaging everything in its path; response efforts, reputation, community trust, even the well-meaning, honest and skilled responders desperately trying to resolve the situation.

How do we prevent the damage? We’ve got to burst the balloon early. How do we identify a filling outrage balloon and how do we burst it?

Identifying outrage

Consider your own anger. How does your behavior change when you become increasingly frustrated or angry? We get loud, or we go silent. We stop listening. We raise our voices. We start talking over other people. We attack the messenger. We argue. We accuse. We demand. We walk out. We hang up.

Organizations and groups of people act like…. people. So if you’re hearing anger and seeing it, you’ve likely got outrage swelling. Don’t delay identification of outrage. Better to diagnose it too early, than too late.

Addressing Outrage

Deal Quickly: We don’t have a lot of time to deal with outrage – it forms quickly, and will multiply faster than we can keep up.

Deal Clearly: Identify the specific outrage you want to address, and address it. As with relationships, there’s no such thing as a general apology: Exactly what did you do wrong? How did you offend?

Deal honestly: Own what you own. Admit when you’re wrong. Take responsibility. No weaseling. Don’t blast past the apology part. Let it set in that you are seriously sorry for what happened. A long moment of silence is good at this point. Don’t rush your stakeholders to accept your apology. Don’t jump past it to how good you’re going to be. Listen for a minute.

A word about ‘I’m sorry’: An apology is not always an expression of guilt. We are all sorry for a lot of things we didn’t cause. You can be sorry for the impact of an incident even if you’re not sure you caused it. One certain outrage-accelerator is your refusal to acknowledge it: “We are truly sorry for the inconvenience this has caused” sounds, and is, far more caring than “We can’t comment on the cause (read: blame for) of this event at this time”.

Promise better: They may not believe you, but you need to express intent for the future. Keep it simple and short, and leave it with your listeners. Don’t cover up good intentions with blather. Keep it simple and direct. There will be plenty of time to talk about it more.

Stop and listen: Give time for understanding. Let your listeners react. Accept further upset. Thank them for sharing. Promise additional information when you have it. Remind them of resources available.

Rocket science?

I know, this isn’t rocket science. We all know to do this. But stress, attack and fatigue can strip us of our sense. It’s easy to do, but it’s also easy to forget. It’s helpful to plan for, so add ‘Apology’ to your crisis communication strategy and plan – and make sure the approval dragon is dealt with.

A Good Example

Boeing has had their share of challenges that have culminated in a challenging (to say the least) stakeholder communication environment. Safe to say that the outrage balloon is always out of the package, ready to be inflated! Even in this environment, can the outrage balloon be burst in time?

Consider their recent run-in with noise restrictions: A delayed series of engine test runs resulted in widespread community concern. You can see the outrage coming in the first paragraphs of the Seattle Times article:

“Residents near Boeing Field, from Georgetown to the west and as far as Mercer Island to the east, were blitzed with long and extraordinarily loud jet engine noise late Tuesday night.

The culprit was Boeing, which broke a community noise curfew by running protracted engine runs on its new 777-9X at the north end of the airfield until after midnight.”

Think of where this could have gone for Boeing. But it didn’t and it hasn’t. Why not? Look at what Boeing said: “There is no excuse,” said Boeing spokesman Bernard Choi. “We’re apologizing to nearby residents.”

A rapid, direct and simple addressing of the issue. Accepting responsibility, acknowledging fault and expressing an apology. And later, another statement from Boeing: “This was not a normal occurrence and we are making adjustments to prevent it from happening in the future”.

Simple, direct and honest. And the outrage balloon is burst. Good work, Boeing!

Questions? Did you hear ideas in this post that you’ve never heard of before? Contact me!

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How much does bad response communication cost? Is there a penalty for poor performance?

In “Getting a handle on a scandal” the Economist Magazine looked at eight different corporate crises since 2010, to determine if they actually damage shareholder value. The consensus from a review of large crises is that a crisis actually does:

“After their crises struck all these firms suffered an absolute drop in their share prices. At the lowest point the median share price was down by 33%, although it took anywhere from two weeks to two years for different firms to reach this nadir. In most cases the companies have clawed back the absolute losses they suffered. However, what matters is their relative performance compared with a basket of industry peers over the same time period. On this basis the median firm is worth 30% less today than it would have been had the scandals not happened. For the eight the total forfeited value is a chunky $300bn.”

The Economist also offered possible sources of this value loss: “Fines and legal costs explain only a small part of this. A big scandal distracts management, leads to other kinds of painful regulatory scrutiny and, if a firm has a stretched balance-sheet, forces it to shrink.”

One clear trend is that mishaps and mistakes cause loss. Some of the studied companies practiced effective stakeholder communication, some didn’t. In either case a cost was incurred.

So what’s the moral to the story? As one major firm once put it: “Don’t do anything wrong for the next decade.” But what if you do? What if less-than-stellar response communication is part of your mistake?

What if people just don’t trust you anymore?

Communicators talk about ‘license to operate’ and use it as a veiled threat to encourage more investment in effective communication. What does ‘license to operate’ entail? Ultimately, it entails grace, usually conditional grace. Conditional grace is accepting an individual or organization on the basis that you trust that they will do well, at least better than they have in the past. We all receive conditional grace in our manifold imperfect relationships.

What if we lose grace? What if we neglect to build trust? How does mistrust impact future operations? First, let’s accept that none of us is perfect. We all have made mistakes and have had to restore relationships. Since we have failed in the past, we will fail in the future.

If you don’t rebuild your relationship with stakeholders, what happens when you fail again?

Here’s an example: “FAA faces dilemma over 737 MAX wiring flaw that Boeing missed”, published by the Seattle Times on February 14, 2020.

Note that the subject of the article is the Federal Aviation Administration as much as it is Boeing. The issue seems simple; For the new 737 MAX aircraft, Boeing was required to modify previous 737 wiring placement for ‘safe wiring separation’ to prevent possible short circuits that could cause loss of control of the aircraft. Instead all 737 MAX aircraft were wired in keeping with all previous 737s.

What is the risk? “There are 205 million flight hours in the 737 fleet with this wiring type,” a Boeing official said. “There have been 16 failures in service, none of which were applicable to this scenario. We’ve had no hot shorts.”

Zero (0) ‘hot shorts’ in 205,000,000 flight hours (0/205,000,000 probability of failure). That’s pretty safe, demonstrably safe. So safe, that revising the wiring on the already produced aircraft may result in a greater risk than leaving it untouched.

Based on probabilities, it may be best to leave the wiring as-is. But that likely won’t be good enough. Because of a lack of grace caused by a loss of trust, it is extremely unlikely that the FAA can give Boeing a ‘pass’ on this one. Regardless of risk, regardless of safety, the FAA most likely will enforce the wiring change, as they will enforce any additional corrections in the future (remember, since we have failed in the past, we will fail in the future).

Loss of trust leads to loss of grace. Loss of grace leads to additional costs and complications in a myriad of ways. The Economist measured shareholder value, management and revenue impacts to determine the cost of a crisis. But the cost of loss of grace is higher, extending into the future for affected companies as an ever-growing, unnoticed cost.

Communicating poorly removes grace, and opportunity to recover can leave with it. If a 0/25,000,000 probability of failure isn’t enough to buy trust, what is? Effective communication may be our ONLY chance to recover.

If you want to talk about this more, contact me.

I can help you evaluate your current Communication Plan readiness, conduct a formal Plan review or offer strategy suggestions to awaken your leadership to the danger they’re in. Who knows, it might even save money, even a reputation or two!