Chapter 12 Flashcards
Storm before the Storm
August 2004 - Hurricane Pam exercise shows dangers of gulf coast hurricane
Report urges extraordinary level of advance planning to improve government readiness
August 2005 - Katrina strikes before plans in place
*dangers had been known for decades, but failure to mange relationships b/w key stakeholders
Exxon
spilled 11 million gallons into Prince William Sound
CEO Raul refused to go to accident site
waited a week to make comment, blamed coast guard and alaskan gov’t for delaying cleanup
apologized but did not take responsibility
slow response, failure to communicate resulted in long-term problems
Johnson & Johnson
Tylenol poisoning - quick, candid, values-driven response led to CEO being seen as hero
Crisis Planning
imperative for 21st century organizations
most surveys show - many orgs are not prepared
Problems
commonplace, predictable, quickly resolved, may go unnoticed
Crises
less predictable, time-consuming, expensive, bring unwanted attention
Major event - with potentially negative results
Can significantly damage organization, employees, products, services, financial condition, reputation
Crises run risk
closely scrutinized
escalating in intensity
damaging bottom line
interfering with operations
jeopardizing image
Institute for Crisis Management (ICM) Crisis definition
“a significant business disruption that stimulates extensive news media coverage. The resulting public scrutiny will affect the organization’s normal operations and also could have a political, legal, financial, and governmental impact on its business”
Acts of God
ie natural disasters
Mechanical Problems
failure
Human Errors
people fucking up
Management decisions/indecision
one of the biggest issues
Crisis Cycle/Dynamics
Warning Stage
Point of No Return
Cleanup Phase
“return to normal” (did we learn anything)
Challenger
Warning stage: engineers aware of O-ring issue, debated it 12 hours before launch (too cold)
Point of no return: exploded 71 seconds into flight
Cleanup: NASA silent for 5 hours, Reagan had to confirm death of crew
Normality: loss of public confidence and external investigation (made worse by NASA response)
Columbia
Warning stage: NASA aware insulating foam had struck orbiter - determined it posed no threat
point of no return: shuttle disintegrated on reentry
Cleanup: within minutes, NASA confirmed shuttle had broken-up, started technical briefing within hours of incident
Normality: NASA response won public praise, helped avoid traumatic restructuring
Crises opportunities
- heroes born
- acceleration of change
- fixing latent problems
- people changed
- evolution of new strategies
- development of early warning systems
- new competitive edges
Step One Crisis Communication Plan: Risk Assessment
Identify threats
Eliminate/minimize threats
consider values
done by consultant/crisis planning team
Crisis Plotting Grid
Crisis Probability Factor (CPF) along y-axis (vertical)
Crisis impact value (CIV) along x-axis (horizontal)
High likelihood, low impact upper left = amber zone
High likelihood high impact upper right = red zone
low likelihood low impact lower left = green zone
low likelihood high impact lower right = grey zone
Step Two CCP: Developing the plan
develop precise definition of what constitutes crisis & crisis management team
identify stakeholders, emergency operations centre, media information center
remember internet and social media
train employees
Emergency operations centre
Flip chart, TV, whiteboard/projection screen, personnel of Crisis management team– admin support, legal counsel, financial counsel, crisis manager, PR counsel, technical experts (as needed)
Communications and Media Monitoring (EOC):
Tvs, radio monitors/recorders, internet monitoring station, fax machine
Security Post (EOC):
receptionist/telephone operator, security post (don’t let anyone in main meeting room or to CEO)
Admin Support and Rumour Control (EOC):
rumour control, word processing, photocopying, graphic support, still monitoring for mis/disinformation
Step Three CCP: response
stage in which crisis plan is executed
like any other plan, crisis communications plan must be flexible
Step Four CCP: Recovery
ask:
were actions consistent with values?
did we anticipate aspects of crisis?
where did we fail?
how did our employees perform?
lingering effects?
did stakeholder views change?
next actions?
Crisis planning ethics
- ethical responsibility to plan for the worst
need to solve crisis AND orgs MUST communicate with important publics during crisis
