Listen Up, BP: What the Experts Say About Crisis Communication

Toyota and BP have recently been criticized not only for their problems but the way that they handled the problems publicly. These examples are business-related but public crises happen in all sizable organizations: The irregularities in the Georgia CRCT exams, the Atlanta Police Department raid that killed 92-year old Kathryn Johnston, and so on. The way an organization responds to crises is important but no less critical is how they communicate about their response.


To learn more about appropriate use of public relations, the AJC’s Henry Unger talked to three local PR experts. Read the entire article here. Here’s what the experts recommend for any organization handling a crisis:

1. Don’t wait. Take charge of informing the public immediately.

2. Plan your work and work your plan. All organizations should have an updated communications plan that has been vetted through crisis simulations. The uncertainty involved in these situations calls for more advance planning, not less.

3. Be clear. The entire organization should be clear on who the messenger is from the very beginning. The messenger should most likely be the CEO, mayor, superintendent or equivalent senior position.

4. Listen to your experts. Organizations should include their PR experts in their senior-level crisis team and listen to their advice.

5. Send the right message. It should always include these points:

• A clear description of what went wrong and expression of remorse.
• No minimization of the impact until everything is known about the situation.
• The organization’s immediate plans to make it right.
• The organization’s long-term plans to make it right, even as far as 5-10 years out.

Based on my experience handling smaller scale crises and observing others’ work with the big ones, I would add:

1. This advice is portable. While details may differ, these principles also apply to internal organizational communication about difficult predicaments and even, to a certain extent, to thorny one-on-one conversations.

2. It’s important that people know you get it. You should, if at all possible, apologize even if you didn’t directly cause the problem. At least say something compassionate that indicates you understand how the problem has affected people. They’re smart enough to figure out if a problem was caused by factors beyond your control and you can gently craft your words to help them connect the dots, without making excuses. The bottom line is that people need to know you understand the impact they’ve experienced.

3. No pseudo-apologies. If you say something along the lines of, “I’m sorry that people/the media, etc. misconstrued my comments,” it sounds condescending and infuriates people. Never do this -- ever -- whether it’s a personal disagreement or a public crisis. Apologize sincerely or don’t apologize at all, but don’t make fake apologies.

4. Transparency and courage pay dividends. Don’t dodge the media or treat them as enemies. Stand up, take the heat for what happened on your watch and try not to be defensive or secretive. Giving the appearance of covering something up or being less than forthcoming will only hurt you, even when you did nothing wrong.

What do you think of this advice? How would you or your organization use this information? What lessons have you learned about crisis communication in your experiences? What examples of good crisis communication have you seen?