Crisis Management: When Bad Things Happen

This is guest post on crisis management written by Kirk Longhofer who blogs at TechnoPraxis.

Dealing with bad news is a tough nut for a professional communicator. In the best possible situation, it’s painful. But bad news rarely presents itself in a convenient way.It’s generally wrapped up in emotion. It can lead to panic individually and as an organization. Leadership in the organization may want to hold the bad news tightly. Or respond slowly. Or only admit what they have to.

That, unfortunately is exactly the WRONG response.

We live in a blog-driven, instant publishing world. If one person knows, your bad news can be worldwide in a matter of hours, maybe even minutes. Quick, decisive and full disclosure response is critically important.

Put another way, when you have bad news, get it out now. Get it out wide. And most importantly, get it out FIRST.

Mark Ostreicher at Youth Specialties had to deal with that kind of situation last week. I won’t go into all the details. Suffice to say that some material in a book published by YS contained some racially offensive material. It got past the editing process and has been widely distributed for the past few months. Marko responded to the issue on his blog on Friday. It’s a great example of how to handle bad news.

Let’s break down Marko’s response. He opens with a very humble and transparent statement. “We really screwed up, big time.” Acknowledge the issue. Up front. No equivocation. And he apologizes, clearly and without reservation.

He goes on to describe, in detail, exactly the offense that occurred. He resists the temptation to hide behind a lack of ill intent… “intentional or not – that is not at issue here.” He then digs deeper and points out the potential systemic issues that led to the specific issue. He commits to addressing them, both personally and as an organization.

Then, and only then, Marko outlines what YS has done already, and what they will do shortly to correct the mistake and to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Marko had direct and extensive discussion with the person who brought the complaint. He wanted to make sure he understood the full nature of the issue.

And now, they are apologizing publicly. By E-mail, on Marko’s personal blog, and on the web. Marko is even providing his personal E-mail and phone number with an amazing and sincere offer to talk personally with anyone offended. How many corporate executives have you ever seen publish their contact details in the wake of, say, a peanut butter recall?

Does it make a difference? Marko posted at 8:00pm on Friday night. By noon Saturday, there were nearly two dozen comments on his post. All were appreciative of the apology. Several contained suggestions on additional actions that YS could take.

When the news is bad, get it out now. Get it out wide, and get it out first.

Kirk Longhofer blogs at TechnoPraxis.