Trial by fire

Crisis Communications has been part of my professional life for as long as I can remember. On my first corporate job, I walked into a work stoppage (strike to those of us not in a union) that almost crippled an iconic Midwestern manufacturing company. It ended mercifully just before they had to close the doors. NBC’s Jane Pauley was one of the local reporters (before she joined NBC) that I had to speak with every day for months. She was new to the news game and had never covered a strike before. Good thing I knew her from college. For both of us, it was a trial by fire… but that’s the only way to learn this business. It’s strenuous and stressful and even scary sometimes. Like many jobs, you have to have the right temperament to be good at it. Since then, I’ve counseled numerous corporations and their executives, sports stars, politicians, non-profit organizations, two Presidents and the Dalai Lama. I’ve now taught crisis communications at the University of Washington for 20 years. The all-day crisis communication workshop is consistently the highest rated single class session in the year-long curriculum. It’s the day when the students feel the pressure and the stress. They come prepared for anything and, thanks to my role-playing friends, they are never completely ready for the communications challenges they are faced with…because that’s the reality of crisis communications…trial by fire.




I have just finished writing an email to a New York Times reporter named Peter S. Goodman. His article in last Sunday’s Times is better than any textbook I have ever seen on this subject. He’s got great material to work with from BP, Toyota and Goldman Sachs. But he gets under the skin of the public face of those companies. And through the eyes of the internal communications chiefs and several experienced outside professionals, he paints a very vivid picture, good and bad, of the impact of this profession on business today. Much of the interpretation and advice in this article are things I have told clients and even some of you who read these blogs. But it never hits home until it happens to you or until a reporter gets to the heart of it and nails it. Kudos to Peter Goodman for masterfully presenting our business in a way that can be understood by many for what it is…artful communication…and remember there’s good art and there’s bad art. If you have the time, read this and read all of it.  It's what I do.  Enjoy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/business/22crisis.html?scp=1&sq=crisis%20communications&st=Search