Communicating During a Crisis Without Making it Worse


AccountingWEB.com - September 14, 2006 - Maybe Patricia Dunn, the chairwoman of Hewlett Packard (HP), just wanted to know who was talking to reporters so she could be sure they had the most accurate information. It is more likely, however, that she wanted to find out who had loose lips so she could have them removed or at least silenced. Instead, she just made a bad situation worse.

Unfortunately, making a bad situation worse is not an uncommon occurrence when it comes to crisis communications, particularly with the media and law enforcement personnel.

"From the results of our crisis research for the second quarter of 2006 it is apparent that effective crisis management training and skills development are sorely needed in the local market," said Evan Bloom, Managing Director of the Crisis Communications Consultancy. "For example, during this period 40 various crises occurred, of which a staggering 82.5% had their origins inside companies and organizations and 17.5% outside. Management were responsible for nearly 70% of all crises during this period, with employees accountable for just over 30%."

The key point here is that management is causing, not fixing or mitigating crisis situations. That is exactly what happened at HP. Dunn wanted the situation controlled, instead it swiftly spiraled out of control and her efforts landed her on the front pages, and out of a job.

Dunn wasn’t entirely wrong, however. She was trying to control communications about the company being made by persons not authorized to make them. One of the biggest challenges companies face in crisis situations is that communications about the situation are coming from everyone, not just the people responsible for communicating it. In some cases, particularly those involving smaller businesses, this can happen because there is no official crisis management plan. Couple that with a high level of perceived “ownership” which often occurs in small business where employees are more like “family”, or at least “close friends”, who therefore feel able and justified in addressing the situation publicly or even just answering questions when sought out by journalists and things can get out of hand fast.

In order to prevent crisis situations from becoming larger than they are or need to be, businesses of all sizes, but especially smaller businesses without an official public relations department or even person, should follow a few simple rules:

Know where the business is vulnerable. Where are problems likely to develop? Is a staff member prone to complaining about clients, vendors or even fellow staff members? If so, what is being done to limit their contact with persons who might be offended by the complaining or, worse, take the comments as an expression of a company-wide sentiment. Is the receptionist or someone else prone to gossip? In the wrong hands, information about others personal relationships, habits or opinions can cause problems. Gossipy or chatty employees should be trained not to share “insider knowledge” with those not employed by the company and particularly not with representatives of the media. Business should also carefully examine the type and amount of information shared with vendors, suppliers and other service providers. Certainly these people need some information to do their job and meet company needs and expectations. However, giving non-employees too much proprietary information can also pose significant risks.

Have a plan. Keep it simple. Identify a crisis team who can evaluate a situation, set the appropriate steps for resolution in motion and address any public or legal inquiries in the immediate aftermath of a crisis situation. Think of this team as the people to notify if the equivalent of a burglar alarm goes off in the middle of the night – the entire staff probably doesn’t need to be notified immediately, but a very few key personnel probably need to know, if for no other reason than to make sure the facility is secure for the rest of the night. If the situation is larger than can be reasonably handled by two or three individuals, these are the people who make that determination and decide who will be responsible for handling the crisis itself. In most, but not all cases, the individuals who first spoke to reporters should continue to do so.

Get professional advice. Consult a crisis management professional or firm while developing a crisis management plan. Experienced professionals can help identify key audiences, select and prepare the most likely spokesperson to deal with media who may be on-site even before the full extent of the crisis is known, communicate the importance of following the plan to other staff members and perhaps even identify potential problems and solutions that have been overlooked. In addition, consult a lawyer to ensure that everything is within the law and as a safe-guard should law enforcement become involved in a crisis situation. It may not be necessary to have a crisis management professional or lawyer on staff all the time, however, every business should establish a relationship with these professionals or their firms, so that in the event of a crisis, there is someone at least marginally familiar with the business who can step in to help.

Work the plan. Once a crisis management and communications plan has been developed, distribute it to staff members. Solicit feedback and adjust the plan if necessary. Then, just when everyone is forgetting about it – stage a crisis drill. A crisis drill can be anything from having someone call the business and ask probing questions, to a false burglar alarm, to a staged “real” disaster. Be sure that if the crisis drill impacts anyone outside the firm, law enforcement, fire officials, customers, vendors, etc., that they are alerted that the situation is just a drill. If possible, involve them in the staging, but certainly do not stage a mock bomb threat or hostage situation without first notifying police and fire personnel to what is going on.

It is important to remember that crisis situations can arise very quickly and cause a great deal of stress. Being prepared and practiced will help everyone be more confident dealing with crisis situations as they arise and help reduce the stress on everyone. Remember, the keys to successfully handling any crisis situation are:

Quick Action – Crisis situation may take weeks or months or longer to fully resolve, however, it is important that the company is seen as taking immediate action.

Tell the truth – lying, especially to law enforcement and probably the media, is a bad idea. In a crisis situation, particularly one that is still unfolding, it is permissible to say “I don’t know.” Above all, do not guess. Always verify and reverifiy facts prior to making public statements regarding situations, particularly those involving physical injury. Communicate changes in the status of the situation as quickly as possible.

Demonstrate confidence and compassion – this is a very fine line that can be difficult to walk. Practice extensively or leave it to a professional to deal with “outside” audiences. Internal audiences, such as staff members or key vendors or customers, may need to hear directly from the crisis team, but communications with the media and general public can be left to professionals if they are available.

Be accessible to the media – as tempting as it may be to close the door, pull the shades and disconnect the phone and computer, these responses will only cause problems. The person designated to deal with the media, whether a staff member or a professional, needs to keep the media informed and be available to answer questions. Unanswered questions and speculation can be very damaging; the best way to prevent them is by being accessible and readily sharing information when it becomes available.

Proactive communication and planning are vital during the events leading up to a crisis and during the crisis period itself. "Many journalists will attest that a company spokesperson was either not available or refused to comment. This is indicative of the fact that companies are not crisis-ready and do not know how to handle the media," Bloom added.

No one wants a crisis to occur. Unfortunately, they do happen and sometimes the best any business can do is communicate the facts and hope it remains manageable.

Personal Goal Setting
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Goal setting is a powerful process for personal planning.



The process of setting goals helps you choose where you want to go in life. By knowing precisely what you want to achieve, you know where you have to concentrate your efforts. You'll also quickly spot the distractions that would otherwise lure you from your course.



More than this, properly-set goals can be incredibly motivating, and as you get into the habit of setting and achieving goals, you'll find that your self-confidence builds fast.

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Achieving More With Focus

Goal setting techniques are used by top-level athletes, successful business-people and achievers in all fields. They give you long-term vision and short-term motivation. They focus your acquisition of knowledge and help you to organize your time and your resources so that you can make the very most of your life.



By setting sharp, clearly defined goals, you can measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals. You can see forward progress in what might previously have seemed a long pointless grind. By setting goals, you will also raise your self-confidence, as you recognize your ability and competence in achieving the goals that you have set.



Goals are set on a number of different levels: First you decide what you want to do with your life and what large-scale goals you want to achieve. Second, you break these down into the smaller and smaller targets that you must hit so that you reach your lifetime goals. Finally, once you have your plan, you start working to achieve it.

Starting to Set Personal Goals
This section explains a simple technique for setting personal goals. It starts with your lifetime goals, and then works through a series of lower level plans culminating in a daily to-do list. By setting up this structure of plans you can break even the biggest life goal down into a number of small tasks that you need to do each day to reach the lifetime goals.



(Don't forget: If you want to fast-track your goal setting and get the most from it, then either join our Design Your Life program or talk to one of our coaches.)
Your Lifetime Goals
The first step in setting personal goals is to consider what you want to achieve in your lifetime, as setting Lifetime goals gives you the overall perspective that shapes all other aspects of your decision making.



To give a broad, balanced coverage of all important areas in your life, try to set goals in some these categories (or in categories of your own, where these are important to you):
Artistic:
Do you want to achieve any artistic goals? If so, what?
Attitude:
Is any part of your mindset holding you back? Is there any part of the way that you behave that upsets you? If so, set a goal to improve your behavior or find a solution to the problem.
Career:
What level do you want to reach in your career?
Education:
Is there any knowledge you want to acquire in particular? What information and skills will you need to achieve other goals?
Family:
Do you want to be a parent? If so, how are you going to be a good parent? How do you want to be seen by a partner or by members of your extended family?
Financial:
How much do you want to earn by what stage?
Physical:
Are there any athletic goals you want to achieve, or do you want good health deep into old age? What steps are you going to take to achieve this?
Pleasure:
How do you want to enjoy yourself? - you should ensure that some of your life is for you!
Public Service:
Do you want to make the world a better place by your existence? If so, how?

Once you have decided your goals in these categories, assign a priority to them from A to F. Then review the goals and re-prioritize until you are satisfied that they reflect the shape of the life that you want to lead. Also ensure that the goals that you have set are the goals that you want to achieve, not what your parents, spouse, family, or employers want them to be.

Starting to Achieve Your Lifetime Goals
Once you have set your lifetime goals, set a 25 year plan of smaller goals that you should complete if you are to reach your lifetime plan. Then set a 5 year plan, 1 year plan, 6 month plan, and 1 month plan of progressively smaller goals that you should reach to achieve your lifetime goals. Each of these should be based on the previous plan.



Then create a daily to-do list of things that you should do today to work towards your lifetime goals. At an early stage these goals may be to read books and gather information on the achievement of your goals. This will help you to improve the quality and realism of your goal setting.



Finally review your plans, and make sure that they fit the way in which you want to live your life.
Staying on Course
Once you have decided your first set of plans, keep the process going by reviewing and updating your to-do list on a daily basis. Periodically review the longer term plans, and modify them to reflect your changing priorities and experience.



An easy way of doing this is to use the goal-setting software like GoalPro 6 on a daily basis - we review GoalPro on the left-hand sidebar, alternatively you can download GoalPro from Success Studios web site. GoalPro uses a similar set of categories to ones we recommend - either use theirs, or adapt the software to use ours.
Goal Setting Tips
The following broad guidelines will help you to set effective goals:
State each goal as a positive statement: Express your goals positively - 'Execute this technique well' is a much better goal than 'Don't make this stupid mistake'
Be precise: Set a precise goal, putting in dates, times and amounts so that you can measure achievement. If you do this, you will know exactly when you have achieved the goal, and can take complete satisfaction from having achieved it.
Set priorities: When you have several goals, give each a priority. This helps you to avoid feeling overwhelmed by too many goals, and helps to direct your attention to the most important ones.
Write goals down: this crystallizes them and gives them more force.
Keep operational goals small: Keep the low-level goals you are working towards small and achievable. If a goal is too large, then it can seem that you are not making progress towards it. Keeping goals small and incremental gives more opportunities for reward. Derive today's goals from larger ones.
Set performance goals, not outcome goals: You should take care to set goals over which you have as much control as possible. There is nothing more dispiriting than failing to achieve a personal goal for reasons beyond your control. These could be bad business environments, poor judging, bad weather, injury, or just plain bad luck. If you base your goals on personal performance, then you can keep control over the achievement of your goals and draw satisfaction from them.
Set realistic goals: It is important to set goals that you can achieve. All sorts of people (parents, media, society) can set unrealistic goals for you. They will often do this in ignorance of your own desires and ambitions. Alternatively you may be naïve in setting very high goals. You might not appreciate either the obstacles in the way, or understand quite how much skill you need to develop to achieve a particular level of performance.
Do not set goals too low: Just as it is important not to set goals unrealistically high, do not set them too low. People tend to do this where they are afraid of failure or where they are lazy! You should set goals so that they are slightly out of your immediate grasp, but not so far that there is no hope of achieving them. No one will put serious effort into achieving a goal that they believe is unrealistic. However, remember that your belief that a goal is unrealistic may be incorrect. If this could be the case, you can to change this belief by using imagery effectively.

This is something we focus on in detail in our "Design Your Life" program, which not only helps you decide your goals, it then helps you set the vivid, compelling goals you need if you're to make the most of your goal setting.



SMART Goals:
A useful way of making goals more powerful is to use the SMART mnemonic. While there are plenty of variants, SMART usually stands for:
S Specific
M Measurable
A Attainable
R Relevant
T Time-bound

For example, instead of having “to sail around the world” as a goal, it is more powerful to say “To have completed my trip around the world by December 31, 2015.” Obviously, this will only be attainable if a lot of preparation has been completed beforehand!

Achieving Goals
When you have achieved a goal, take the time to enjoy the satisfaction of having done so. Absorb the implications of the goal achievement, and observe the progress you have made towards other goals. If the goal was a significant one, reward yourself appropriately.



With the experience of having achieved this goal, review the rest of your goal plans:
If you achieved the goal too easily, make your next goals harder
If the goal took a dispiriting length of time to achieve, make the next goals a little easier
If you learned something that would lead you to change other goals, do so
If while achieving the goal you noticed a deficit in your skills, decide whether to set goals to fix this.

Failure to meet goals does not matter as long as you learn from it. Feed lessons learned back into your goal-setting program.



Remember too that your goals will change as you mature. Adjust them regularly to reflect this growth in your personality. If goals do not hold any attraction any longer, then let them go. Goal setting is your servant, not your master. It should bring you real pleasure, satisfaction and a sense of achievement.


Example:



The best example of goal setting that you can have is to try setting your own goals. Set aside two hours to think through your lifetime goals in each of the categories. Then work back through the 25-year plan, 5-year plan, 1-year plan, 6-month plan, a 1-month plan. Finally draw up a To Do List of jobs to do tomorrow to move towards your goals.



Tomorrow, do those jobs, and start to use goal-setting routinely!


Key points:



Goal setting is an important method of:
Deciding what is important for you to achieve in your life
Separating what is important from what is irrelevant
Motivating yourself to achievement
Building your self-confidence based on measured achievement of goals

When you achieve goals, allow yourself to enjoy this achievement of goals and reward yourself appropriately. Draw lessons where appropriate, and feed these back into future performance.



The following services and resources can help you set and achieve your goals more effectively:
Design Your Life: Design the life of your dreams, and then set the goals you need to live the life you design, with "Design Your Life", Mind Tools life design and goal setting system. Click here to find out more.



Make Time for Success: This Mind Tools course contains more than 140 pages of time tested tips, techniques and skills that can help you work better and get the most that life has to offer. You will learn how to set realistic goals, generate a life plan and leverage all of the opportunities that life has to offer. Many of the lessons include workbook exercises so that you really understand how to put these invaluable skills to work in your life. Click here to learn more.


Goal Setting with Mind Tools Career Coaches: Our coaches specialize in helping you understand your deepest motivations, set clear and appropriate goals, and then help you make success, the achievement of these goals, a habit. Our coaches speed you on your way to well-balanced, long-term success.



GoalPro 6: GoalPro provides dedicated software support helping you set personal goals and to monitor your achievement of them. GoalPro has a 28-day trial period so you can try it before you buy it.



MyGoals.com: MyGoals provides pre-defined goal plans that help you get started with goal setting quickly and effectively.