The Dome

My wife bought me a great present a couple of weeks ago: The Dome, by Stephen King.  He is a master storyteller with a brain that should be studied.

I haven't been able to put the book down, though it weighs in at 6.17 lbs (1,074 pages, soft cover - much like that all-in-one Lord of the Rings tomb my son is working through). As of page 812, the story, in a nutshell, is Lord of the Flies-like.  People get stuck in a New England town and, in a matter of days, all hell breaks loose.  Riots.  Murder.  Suicide.  All good King fare.

But what does this have to do with  my usual topic of pontification?

I wonder, inexplicable/supernatural events notwithstanding, how accurate is King's narrative?  Very, I would venture.  Psychological experiments have shown it again and again.  Here, we have a small town where everyone knows just about everyone.  Yet, at the drop of a hat, teams coalesce and it quickly becomes "us versus them."


It's amazing how innate it is to find someone to blame for a problem rather than focusing on a solution.  We see this all the time when it comes to emergencies and crisis situations.  First response by most people is to say, "It's not my fault!"  Preschoolers to Fortune 500 CEOs do it.

Here's my thought for the day: in a crisis situation, focus on solving the problem, not laying blame.  Your constituents won't necessarily remember who caused the problem (unless perhaps you pour a bazillion gallons of crude oil on them), but they're likely to praise and forever remember who solved it.

The End of Forgetting

This past Sunday, The New York Times Sunday magazine featured an article about the end of forgetting.  In it, Jeffrey Rosen presents a rather scary proposition - one that ought to be intuitive to anyone with any familiarity of online culture: every move you make can be kept online for posterity and come back to haunt you in ways you never imagined. 

Take for example, Stacy Snyder, whom Rosen references.  She had what was deemed as "inappropriate" photos of herself and, as a result, was denied a teaching job.  Why should what she does during non-work time at all affect her professional qualifications?

I can't go into the depth of argument Rosen did - I don't think I'd have anything to add - but I do want to comment on this from a perspective of reputation management.  As anyone who has been at the wrong end of a reputation crisis can attest: one "oh crap" is far more powerful than 10 "attaboys." 

Today, individuals who engage in public displays of everything personal must take upon themselves the same rules of engagement as companies and other organizations interested in reputation management.  To a large extent, what is right and wrong is irrelevant.  We can only deal with what is.

Preparing for the Unpreparable

I'm no follower of Polish politics.  Before a few hours ago, I would have been hard-pressed to tell you that Lech Kaczynski was the country's president.  In fact, there is no way on Earth I would have guessed.


As I read a few postings on the Polish President's plane crash and the death of everyone on board, I was struck by the magnitude of the crisis now taking place in Poland.  Is this a scenario they could have planned for?  Sure, we all know there is a line of succession in the United States and anyone who's watched The West Wing can tell you why a member of the Cabinet stays behind at the White House during the State of the Union address.  But I mean, really, do these kinds of situations really happen?

Well, yeah.

Business owners have a responsibility to consider what will happen to their businesses in the event of a crisis.  Issues of safety, succession and business continuity must all be addressed.  Depending on the size of the company and the product or service offered, crisis communications planning must be part of the consideration.  Smart managers will take the time now - while they have it - to think about a variety of scenarios that could come up and how they ought to go about managing the communication around these scenarios.

Tiger Inc.

Seems like lots of commentators are piling up on Tiger for his mishandling of the crisis communications around his car crash and subsequent fall from grace.

I'm not sure I agree with them.

Yes, silence is typically not a good thing when faced with a pressing issue, however, this article from The Wall Street Journal makes some good counter-points about why he may be shutting up.

Basically, it seems that Tiger's people are trying to make sure any more of his extra-marital lovers keep their mouths shut. And, Tiger has the money to make that happen.

A PR pro typically wants to make sure his client is communicating the correct messages. Sometimes, though, there is nothing to say that will be helpful.

If I had to make a prediction, I'd say everything will go back to "normal" before long in Tigerland, assuming he gets back on the golf course and does what he does so well. In the end, that will allow endorsers to keep making their money and that's all that really matters.

Two Great American Pastimes - Baseball and Criticism

Readers of this space will know I'm not a huge baseball fan. I certainly enjoy watching an occasional game and, when I'm offered tickets, I usually say yes. So, last summer, when a friend offered me four seats to a Yankees game that were so-close-to-the-action-you-could-see-the-sweat, I couldn't turn it down. Plus, it was close to the end of the last season the team would be playing in The House that Ruth Built.

What amazed me, though, was that there are people who actually buy those seats!

What I failed to comprehend, was how the Yankees organization could possibly think it would fill a new stadium with even more expensive seats.

Turns out, just about everything that can go wrong continues to go wrong. Here's a piece that carefully outlines why the new stadium is a PR disaster. Granted, it's written by a Red Sox fan, but I'm not sure how one defends the Yankees organization in this case. What's gone right with the new stadium?

So, what can management do to right the wrongs? It's obvious and will require a top-down approach to regaining the public's trust and admiration. What I hope is that when management wakes up, their plan will involve something a little more substantial than a pathetic "Fan Appreciation Day" (which always make me wonder, isn't every day Fan Appreciation Day?).

TMI - Three Mile Island or Too Much Information?

This weekend marks the 30th anniversary of the Three Mile Island meltdown. Without a doubt, people a whole lot smarter than I will be discussing and dissecting what happened and what should have happened from both a communications and operational point-of-view.

The meltdown led to several new "truths" in crisis communications and nuclear energy. Specifically, the world was taught the importance of preparing for the former and the hazards of the latter.

But is nuclear power dangerous? The common perception is that it is. (You can read an article from The Washington Post about the relative safety of nuclear power. You can also read about the critical hours of the meltdown here. ) In many ways, that's all that matters.

To be sure, the world of communications has changed drastically in the past 30 years and, while there is a lot to learn from the events of Three Mile Island, it's important to remember that at the time, there were no cell phones or Blackberrys; internet or email. Information could be released in a controlled, deliberate manner that I'm sure some communicators look back upon with envy.

I think the lesson for today's communications environment is attitudinal in nature. It's important to remember that companies and organizations much do what they can to prepare for a crisis situation. They must be ready to communicate effectively and avoid stonewalling. Information will always find a way out, either through deliberate or accidental action.

Take the steps you need to now by examing what your organization's exposure to risk is and determine how you can prepare to deal with a crisis when it happens.