Managing crises….

Paul MylreaDirector of Communications

University of CambridgeFound.Chart.PR, FCIPR

…or, “What exactly do you do all day at work?

Managing crises….

Paul MylreaDirector of Communications

University of CambridgeFound.Chart.PR, FCIPR

…or, “What exactly do you do all day at work?

There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full.…

Henry Kissinger

What’s it all about?

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it….”

Warren Buffett

The enemy within

“Rogue employees can wreak more damage on a company than competitors”

“The majority of practitioners … still prefer to ‘fly by the seat of their pants’ and use intuition rather than intellectual procedures to solve public relations problems”

James Grunig and Todd Hunt,Managing Public Relations (1984)

What do you need to do?

1. What is the worst thing that could happen to your organisation?

2. What is the group/who are the people who wish you or could wish you most harm?

3. When would be the worst time for the worst thing to happen?

What do you need to think about?

• Incident guides/checklists/procedures

• Bid sheets for media calls

• Audit trails for decisions/statements

• Background briefs

• Policies – e.g. bomb threats,

• Contact details

What tools do you need?

versus

Your team

Your spokespeople

Your partners

Your colleagues

…and the aftermath

It’s all about people…

The victims come first… always!

Python…Or Cobra?

…or Schrödinger’s cat

Competence crisis or character crisis?Another way of looking at it…

Competence crisis or character crisis?

Competence crisis: - e.g. a product recall –Toyota’s 2009-11 recall of 4m of its

cars because of defective accelerator pedals

Another way of looking at it…

Competence crisis or character crisis?

Competence crisis: - e.g. a product recall –Toyota’s 2009-11 recall of 4m of its

cars because of defective accelerator pedals

Character crisis: - questions the culture and behaviour of a company and its

senior executives - Fifa corruption or News International phone hacking

Another way of looking at it…

Competence crisis or character crisis?

Competence crisis: - e.g. a product recall –Toyota’s 2009-11 recall of 4m of its

cars because of defective accelerator pedals

Character crisis: - questions the culture and behaviour of a company and its

senior executives - Fifa corruption or News International phone hacking

When both combine – the worst crisis:- e.g. BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010 - triggered by

a disastrous oil rig explosion but compounded by Tony Hayward’s apparent lack of concern.

- E.g. The BBC and the Savile crisis?

Another way of looking at it…

What do you need to do?

• Accept the problem as yours

• Do not try to ration bad news – get it all out

• Do not attempt to equivocate or get into blame showers

• It will get worse before it gets better

• Victims and relatives always comes first

• Have a plan and stick to it….

• But be prepared to change if the second crisis hits!

• Stakeholders and audiences are key – not internal politics

• Use every available channel to communicate – but make sure you are using the right ones for your audience

• Do not develop a siege mentality. Listen to the ‘enemy’!

• Manage the aftermath. Crises have long tails

Preparation

Expertise

Resilience

Flexibility

Empathy

Coherence

Tone

Perfect

A helpful acronym?

“The events of 7 July were unprecedented in London... The hours that followed the bombings were filled with uncertainty; they were filled with fear, and pain”

Alan Brown, Assistant Commissioner, Met Police

Do the right thing, not the expedient thing…

Last, but not least…

Questions?

You must go on.I can't go on.I'll go on.

Samuel Beckett, The Unnamable

Mitchell, Agle and Wood, 1988

Mitchell, Agle and Wood, 1988