It doesn’t matter how good your spokesperson is – how articulate, how experienced, how intelligent – if he does not have a good story to tell, he won’t be able to do a good job of making the organization’s case. Every time I conduct a workshop, I see the same thing.

Two weeks ago we worked with a manufacturing facility that uses a very hazardous chemical as part of its operations. Just this past week, we conducted the workshop for an institution of higher learning. But I’ve seen it play out similarly with banks, hospitals, not-for-profit agencies, and other organizations.

Spokespeople stand up in front of a TV camera in an interview or address a group of unhappy people (their own employees, neighbors, customers, etc.). Despite the normal case of nerves brought on by being in this uncomfortable situation, most of them do a good job when they are handling many of the questions.

But as soon as the reporter or angry person in the group meeting asks a question where the spokesperson either

(1) does not know the answer, or

(2) knows it, but realizes the answer will demonstrate a serious mistake the organization made or neglect to do the right thing

Knowledge Brings Confidence

It probably goes without saying that those who are well prepared are better able to answer questions. If you have sat with your crisis management team and thought through what the likely questions will be and done the best job you can preparing your answer, you will sound confident and competent as you lay it out. It’s when the question is “out of left field” – something that you and your colleagues did not anticipate – that the eyes begin to shift and the “um’s” and “er’s” are heard.

This underscores the value of spending some quality time in preparation. Three or four people putting their heads together to brainstorm the best approach and trying to anticipate the most likely questions will be much better than having one person trying to go it alone. And having a number of colleagues working hard to determine the facts of the situation will yield more information from which the spokesperson can draw.

Granted, in a real crisis, you sometimes do not have all the facts right away. Thorough investigations take time. And no one person will have ALL of the facts and information. There are times when you simply have to say, “I do not know the answer to that question right now. I will look into it and get back to you.” Used sparingly, when needed, this is justifiable. Used a lot, and used when answering things a spokesperson SHOULD know about, it will cause you to look incompetent or untrustworthy.

You Can’t SAY the Right Thing If You Don’t DO the Right Thing

The other reason that spokespeople often don’t provide a good story is that there is not a good story to tell. If your organization has:

(1) cost too much or
(2) be too much work or
(3) make the organization look bad if they reported it

So, if you want to give a good account of yourself and your organization when the stuff has really hit the fan, you better step in front of those reporters or those angry people secure in the knowledge that you tried hard to DO the right thing and then have prepared all the facts you can muster to help you SAY the right thing.

Special Note to All Subscribers: My newly revised web site went live earlier this month (still at www.judyhoffman.com). In addition to a lot of new text, I have added some additional features you might want to check out. First, I will be posting all past editions of my e-zine on there, so if you are a recent subscriber, you can go there and read them or print them out. Second, you will see one of the navigation bars now reads "Rate Yourself as a Crisis Manager." This is a contest which I am trying out. The prize for the best entry submitted in the next few months will be a big package of my products (more of which are now available on the web under the "Order books/CD's" button). The first section is a fairly straightforward multiple choice test which many of you might find interesting. The second part requires that you compose three media statements to address various crisis scenarios for different industries. I think even the most experienced of you will find this challenging -- and good practice to keep your skills sharp! I am hoping to see some of your contest submissions in the coming weeks. Good luck!

Until next time...KEEP COOL!

Copyright (C) 2004 JCH Enterprises

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