Managing the Crisis

Communicating In A Crisis A guide for management Communicating In A Crisis A guide for management Rene A. Henry Author of You’d Better Have A Hose If You Want to Put Out the Fire Gollywobbler Productions Library Of Congress Cataloging-in-publication Data Henry, Rene A. (1933- Communicating In A Crisis: A guide for management Rene A. Henry – 1st ed. p. cm. Includes biographical references and index 1. Crisis communications. 2. Crisis management. 3. Public relations. 4. Risk communications. 5. Public Affairs 6. Customer service. 7. Reputation management. I. Title Library of Congress Control Number: 2008928463 ISBN # Hardcover: 978-0-9674535-1-4 Paperback: 978-0-9674535-2-1 © 2008, Rene A. Henry Gollywobbler Productions Seattle, Washington All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electrical or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the copyright owner. First Edition, 2008 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the U.S.A. on acid-free paper meeting NISO standards for permanency of paper for printed materials. Cover design by Jack Cullimore Jack Cullimore Graphic Design, Ilwaco, Washington Other Books by Rene A. Henry Offsides! Fred Wyant’s Provocative Look Inside the National Football League, Gollywobbler Productions and Xlibris, 2001 You’d Better Have A Hose If You Want To Put Out the Fire, Gollywobbler Productions, 2001 Bears Handbook – Stories, Stats and Stuff About Baylor University Football, co-author with Mike Bishop, Midwest Sports Publishing, 1996 Marketing Public Relations – the HOWs that make it work!, Iowa State University Press, hardcover 1995, paperback 2000 MIUS and You – The Developer Looks At A New Utility Concept, co-author with Joseph J. Honick and Richard O’Neill, U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development, 1980 How To Profitably Buy & Sell Land, John Wiley & Sons, 1977 Special Thanks The author wishes to specially thank the following for their assistance with this book – Clive E. C. Banfield, KSJ, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands Jay W. Bell, marketing and communications consultant, Forestville, California Jonathan Bernstein, president, Bernstein Crisis Management, Sierra Madre, Cali- fornia Pat Boyle, emergency planner, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Phila- delphia, Pennsylvania and former senior director of communications for the American Red Cross Southeastern Pennsylvania Chapter Jack Cullimore, Jack Cullimore Graphic Design, Ilwaco, Washington Hon. Cari Dominguez, former chair, Equal Employment Opportunity Commis- sion and former assistant secretary of labor, Gaithersburg, Maryland Michael Fineman, president, Fineman PR, San Francisco, California Elise Friedbauer, Esq., Seattle, Washington Deborah Gardner, CMP, speaker and president, Compete Better Now! LLC, Phoenix, Arizona Joseph J. Honick, president, GMA International, Bainbridge Island, Washington Anne Sceia Klein, president, Anne Klein Communications Group, Marlton, New Jersey Tower Kountze, government relations advisor, Husch Blackwell Sanders, Omaha, Nebraska Anastasia Kostoff Mann, chairman and CEO, Corniche Travel Group, West Hol- lywood, California John Martin Meek, president and CEO, HMI, Inc., Green Valley, Arizona Mary Miner, Edmonds, Washington Professor Ken Mizrach, Seton Hall University, South Orange, New Jersey John Myer, Esq., Seattle, Washington Jack O’Dwyer, J.R. O’Dwyer Company and www.odwyerpr.com, New York, New York C. Robert Paul, Jr., retired vice president public relations emeritus, U.S. Olympic Committee, Bayside, New York Rich Perelman, president, Perelman, Pioneer & Company, Los Angeles; former vice president-Press Operations, Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIII Olympiad (Los Angeles 1984) Harvey P. Posert, former vice president of public and industry relations, Robert Mondavi Winery, St. Helena, California Stephen M. Reed, associate vice president for external relations, office of the president, California State University, Monterey Bay, California Catherine Ritzinger, Seattle, Washington Gene Ritzinger, Seattle, Washington Joan Ritzinger, Seattle, Washington Joan Short, president of WorldWide Golf & Travel, Inc., Newport Beach, C a l i- fornia Dr. Melvin L. Sharpe, APR, Fellow PRSA, professor emeritus, Ball State Uni- versity and former chair PRSA Educators Academy and College of Fellows, Muncie, Indiana Jude Sotherlund, former deputy assistant secretary of labor, author and corporate consultant, Merritt Island, Florida Lawrence Teller, senior advisor, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Philadel- phia, Pennsylvania John Vondras, former vice president AT&T Wireless, managing director AT&T Indonesia, and managing director Belize Telecom, Scottsdale, Arizona John J. Walsh, Esq., senior counsel, Carter Ledyard & Milburn LLP, New York, New York TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 A Crisis Can Strike Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere .....................................5 2 The Crisis Team and the Plan .........................................................................31 3 Managing the Crisis ..........................................................................................51 4 Who Said “Silence Is Golden”? ......................................................................63 5 Stupid Is As Stupid Does .................................................................................81 6 You Can Fight Back and Win ........................................................................105 7 Do the Right Thing – Be Responsible and Win Public Support ..............127 8 Crises On Land, In the Air and on the Seas ...............................................151 9 Workplace Crises – Murder, Violence, Harassment and Discrimination ...................................................................181 10 Even the Government Makes Mistakes .......................................................199 11 Foul! Is This Anyway to Play the Game? ....................................................213 12 Institutional Arrogance in the Ivory Tower .................................................243 13 The Aggie Pigs and President Bush .............................................................263 14 The Importance of Customer Service ..........................................................283 15 Closing the Book After an Incident .............................................................301 INTRODUCTION From almost the day I began a career in public relations, I have had to deal with crises. There were no books to read, or guidelines to follow, and the communications strategy basically came down to using good, common sense and street-smarts. During the 1990s, I often wrote and spoke on crisis management and communications and I would give the audience prepared hand-outs with guidelines, tips and tactics. I decided that there was a need for a book on this subject, so in 2000, I authored You’d Better Have A Hose If You Want to Put Out the Fire. Since then a score of books have been published on this subject. But crises continue, and the people responsible for managing and communicating them, obviously are not buying, borrowing, or reading the books available to help them. I wrote Communicating In A Crisis for the senior people in management who most likely will be part of the crisis response team and held accountable in a crisis – the CEO; executive vice president; general counsel; heads of public relations/public affairs/corporate communications, human resources, manufactur- ing/production, sales and marketing, and security. This book also will give entry and mid-level communications professionals an overview, and how-to approach to crises. It will serve as a checklist and reminder for senior practitioners. As did my first book, Communicating In A Crisis should serve as a textbook for faculty to use with students, and as a resource not only for corporate executives, but also officials of other types of organizations including nonprofit, higher education institutions, trade associations, government at all levels, and NGOs. The interaction between the public relations professional and the lawyer is very important to understand. A number of examples are included throughout this book, especially in Chapter 4, “Who Said Silence Is Golden?” I believe that if senior executives and attorneys had a better understanding of media relations and crisis communications, many crises could be contained as only a regrettable incident. To paraphrase the Spanish philosopher George Santayana, we need to anticipate the future by learning from the past. 2 | Communicating In A Crisis I believe this, or any book on crisis communications, should also be required reading for students graduating from law school or business school, so they will at least have exposure to the subject before it becomes reality. However, Timothy Sullivan, the retired president of The College of William & Mary and former dean of its law school, once reminded me, “Lawyers make very little money preventing crises, and a lot of money resolving them.” I had suggested to him a seminar on this subject for graduating law school students ready to take the bar exam and begin practice. Whether or not it is this book, there should be at least one book on crisis management and communications in the library of every law firm, law school, business school and journalism-public relations school in the country, and only an arm’s reach away from the CEO of a company or nonprofit organization, and the president

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