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When Tragedy Strikes
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This past Wednesday, the news was abuzz with reports of a shooting at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. I won’t explore the details here; the issue for this blog entry is, if you’re the public relations person where such tragedy strikes, how do you handle it?
First, there’s a swarm of immediate challenges—working with police, the sudden maelstrom of media live trucks, reporters, and assorted journalists, the need to ensure the safety of visitors and staff and to communicate with those who may be off campus but have connections to your institution (i.e. board members, stockholders, family members, etc.)
Then, there’s the inevitable aftermath. There was a time when once all the reporters went home, you could take a deep breath, finally go home and get some sleep. Not so much the case anymore thanks to the internet. You’ve got 24-hours-a-day blogging, tweeting, FACEBOOK and MYSPACE commenting, bulletins and the like, online journalists who may be calling…and then there’s the “after shocks,” as traditional media reporters do their followups.
When you’re dealing with a crisis on the level of a Katrina, it doesn’t really end for months. Having a post-crisis press conference is as important as meeting with the press DURING the event—let the world know how you’ve handled things and how you’re making them better (psychologically, it is also a way to help provide closure).
You must take the time to evaluate what happened, what worked and what didn’t. How do you rehabilitate your image? How can you avoid past mistakes and what can you do to improve matters? Should you just go forward and try and put the bad memory behind or do you confront it? And if so, how do you do that? Have a special memorial service or event of some kind? But will that look like you’re trying to “cash in” on the tragedy, “milking” the issue for publicity?
Ultimately, your best course of action is going to be dictated by who and what you are—that is, what’s your organization REALLY about. Check the company MISSION STATEMENT. Whatever actions you take should be reflective of whatever that statement is. So yes, mission statements really do have a purpose. Consider the Tylenol crisis of 1982 when someone laced Tylenol capsules with cyanide. Tylenol’s response has become a famed example in PR circles of how to properly handle a crisis.
According to the webpage, “Effective Crisis Management” (http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Fall02/Susi/tylenol.htm), “the reason Tylenol reacted so quickly and in such a positive manner to the crisis stems from the company’s mission statement. (Lazare Chicago Sun-Times 2002). On the company’s credo written in the mid-1940’s by Robert Wood Johnson, he stated that the company‘s responsibilities were to the consumers and medical professionals using its products, employees, the communities where its people work and live, and its stockholders...Johnson & Johnson’s responsibility to its publics first proved to be its most efficient public relations tool. It was the key to the brand’s survival."
So, perhaps the best advice one can give in times of crisis is, “To thine own self be true.” Does that make Shakespeare’s Polonius one of the world’s first PR men? That’s one to grow on…
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