April was a hectic but interesting month! I have always believed that the principles of successfully dealing with the media during a crisis are consistent regardless of the type of organization. But there is nothing like putting yourself in front of a new audience to prove it!

Let me recap what my month was like and I hope it provides you with some ideas you can use

The Lawyers: Some of my closest friends and colleagues were aware that I was a bit apprehensive about this one. The in-house counsel for a previous client had recommended me to the program chair of the Business Law section of the American Bar Association that met in Nashville on April Fool’s Day! With the added incentive of giving me a reason to visit our younger daughter who lives in Nashville, I accepted their invitation. The topic was “A Tutorial on Dealing with Publicity Nightmares.” Between accepting the ABA’s offer to speak and going to do it, I was given an inkling of what I might be facing.

In March, I had accepted a pro bono speaking engagement to a small group of people who work for not-for-profit agencies. The president of the group is a lawyer. I was only two minutes into my talk, having just presented my ideas on why you should try to cooperate with the press when he declared: “I couldn’t disagree with you more! The ONLY appropriate response to the media is always 'No Comment!’”

Fortunately, I have long known that this is the philosophy of many in the legal profession, so I was prepared. (By the end of my 20 minutes, he was somewhat mollified, if not totally convinced. The rest of the group apologized for his rudeness and said I’d handled that little “crisis” professionally.)

It did, however, make me even more apprehensive about facing a room full of lawyers on April 1st. As it turned out, I needn’t have worried. The ABA members who chose to attend my session were attentive and non-confrontational. I’ll let you know if, after reading my book, any of them come back to argue.

A Manufacturing Company: Next on the schedule came a refresher media training course for a company which handles some very hazardous chemicals. I think I’d initially been selected by them because of my background in the chemical industry. This time around, though, they had to address two issues which can face any manufacturing company: (1) a recently received notice from OSHA that they were going to be cited for two violations stemming from an employee injury and (2) concern that there may be a work stoppage when their current union contract expires in a few weeks.

This company is one of the most responsible and proactive I’ve had the pleasure of working with in the past 10 years. I was again impressed with their desire to be well prepared for the types of questions that they might get, both from the local media and from townspeople. Since this was a refresher, we did just a half-day of training. We spent only an hour going over some of the basics (The “10 C’s of Good Crisis Communications,” the “Four Fatal Fiascos of Dealing with the Media,” and the basics of Body Language). Then we spent 2 ½ hours role-playing the scenarios they anticipated (with a couple of surprise elements thrown in).

Here’s an important question for my past clients. Answer honestly! When was the last time you took the advice I gave you at the end of the workshop – the part where I encouraged you to put your management team through some role-playing exercises on the type of crisis that could realistically occur at your workplace? Have you put a scenario in front of your staff to test how much they remember and to check how suitable your responses would be and whether your policies and procedures and training are up to date?

For those of you who have my book, re-read Chapter 26 “Practice or Perish!”

A Chemical Industry Conference: The New York State Chemical Alliance and the American Chemistry Council asked me to participate in a program for their members in Buffalo to discuss the new regulations from the New York Office of Homeland Security. With my background in the chemical industry, I was very happy to share my thoughts on “What to Do If You Find Yourself in the Media Crosshairs.” With so much being discussed about the possibility of terrorists targeting chemical facilities, this is something which these companies need to be focused on. Even if no terrorist attack occurs, there are a lot of newspapers and TV station executives who believe it would be interesting to highlight the possible lack of preparedness of local companies. Plant Managers and other spokespeople need to be learning or brushing up on their media training skills if they hope to effectively handle the tough questions that will be posed. And if such an attack is made on a chemical company anywhere in the country, you can be certain the media will jump on the “local angle.”

A Hospital: Until a few days ago, I had not done a session on dealing with the media for a hospital. My sister-in-law is a nurse at a hospital in Florida. She introduced me to the woman responsible for scheduling speakers for the quarterly meetings of their Leadership Institute. When she found out that I was going to Florida in late April to celebrate my mom’s 90th birthday, I was asked to speak at their April 28th meeting.

Just as I thought, I could use my basic presentation, changing only the introductory slides that highlighted various crises that have made sensationalistic headlines drawn from the hospital setting. There is certainly no shortage of crises to deal with in the health care arena. The principles are the same.

College Trustees: This last day of April found me addressing the New York Community College Trustees group at their annual conference. Everyone who works in education – whether primary, secondary or higher – knows that a crisis can occur any day. Anything that happens to children grabs the public at a basic, emotional level. Campuses are hotbeds where ill-considered actions by the teenagers and young adults can bring critical consequences that reflect on the institution. And accidents can happen anywhere. In many cases, it is the administrators who will be called upon to speak, but the trustees realized that they might be asked to comment as well. They seemed quite receptive to my message. I hope they will go back to their campuses and spend a session or two brainstorming what might go wrong at their institutions and do some preparation so they will be able to respond quickly and effectively when something bad happens.

Sorry this issue is a bit longer than usual. As I said, it WAS a busy month. While the differences in problems among the various groups are occasionally striking, the similarity of the right approach is equally dramatic. If it’s been a while since you’ve studied the principles of the best way to deal with the media when bad news hits, commit to doing something about it NOW.

Until next month...KEEP COOL!

Copyright (C) 2004 JCH Enterprises

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