Communicating effectively is essential in a crisis By Russell W. Snyder, CAE
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arly in my professional career I was a reporter and editor for United Press International. To impress upon those new to the profession the gravity of our charge, one of my favorite sayings was, “You’re always one story away from the end of your career.” The point was, of course, that every story, every fact gathered and reported, must be treated with the utmost care and respect because, ultimately, the fate of your career and professional reputation is on the line, not to mention the reputation of the news organization you represent. And so it is with communicating in a crisis. As we have seen with the recent COVID-19 pandemic, this crisis swept in seemingly out of nowhere, and has swamped our ability to understand its implications, make good decisions to protect our businesses, and resist the “fog of war” syndrome of being paralyzed by too much information, bad information or missing information. As a reporter, I personally covered countless natural disasters, wars, riots and other types of crisis situations, and witnessed the enormous strain they put on first-responders, leaders and others called upon to not only manage the crisis, but also to communicate effectively to demonstrate they are competent and responding effectively. After leaving my career in journalism, I got to get a dose of my own medicine (being on the other side of tough questions hurled by the media) when I was a Public Information Officer for the California 8
Department of Transportation. I’ll have more on that later in this article. First, I wanted to establish the importance of effectively communicating, which is always essential, but is never more critical than in a crisis. In the introduction to his book, “Crisis Communications: The Definitive Guide to Managing the Message,” Steven Fink puts it as succinctly as I have read: “At some time, every company—large or small, publicly traded or privately held—will find itself mired in a crisis of some kind and have some communicating to do. It’s only a matter of time and of degree. And how that crisis is managed— and how the management of that crisis is communicated—often spells the difference between the life and death of the company, the rise and fall of its stock price, and the hero or goat label attached to management. Crisis communications defines a company, for better or worse, and for many years to come.” Fink goes on to write, “Make no mistake, the ripple effects of poor crisis communications are far-reaching and can disrupt
lives, livelihoods, stock prices, shareholder value, employees, employee morale, the company’s image, management’s reputation, the firm’s ability to conduct business, its ability to obtain credit, and on and on; it can also lead to loss of jobs or loss of business, as well as triggering media exposes, litigation, hostile takeover battles, government oversight and investigations, labor woes, legislative hearings and so much more. All this can happen in a heartbeat, all with the slip of a tongue.” A colleague of mine, Jeffrey C. Bliss, is an authority on communications and has spent many years working in the higher education sector. He’s currently the executive director for leadership communications for California State University, Long Beach. I queried him recently on this subject via e-mail and here was his reply: “There is a tried-and-true adage in the crisis communications field: ‘You will be judged more harshly for the way the organization is seen to be responding rather than the initial problem itself.’” And, he added, “Keep that in mind, especially if
California Asphalt Magazine • 2020 Special Emergency Response Issue