In a crisis, it’s your most precious asset
When a crisis hits an organization, being accepted as a trusted source of true, timely and accurate information is essential in safeguarding reputation and mitigating the worst of the consequential fallout from the incident.
But the centre of crisis, with critical operational decisions to be made, with rumour, mis-information and deliberate dis-information competing for attention, is not the place to begin building trust.
By then, it’s already too late.
Rather it’s time to draw down from the bank of trust that should have been built up with customers, clients, partners, stakeholders, the media and the public over many years.
If an organization is known for its honest, straightforward and transparent approach to providing information ‘in normal times’ then it has a much greater chance of being accepted as the source of truth when it really needs to be believed.
In his book, ‘How to Survive a Crisis,’ Sir David Omand, former Director of GCHQ and a man who has been at the sharp-end of many crises, put it this way:
‘Reputation, like trust, needs to be earned in advance of need and to be suitably banked in the public consciousness so that it can provide reserve capital to be drawn on when things are going badly.’
This is particularly important in dealing with the media; badly handled the media can make a difficult situation infinitely worse but handled with frankness and understanding of the journalist’s role, it can be helpful in getting your message across to the public quickly.
In a crisis, it’s easy to think that the media is ’out to get you.’ Unless you really are the villain of the piece, then this is rarely the case.
It’s worth a reminder of the media’s legitimate role. It is to:-
- Inform
- Investigate
- Expose
- Entertain
- Question
- Query
- Hold those in power to account
Appreciating the media’s role helps to understand why journalists ask the questions they do.
So, how to use and reinforce the trust you’ve earned in the good times when the ‘**** hits the fan?’ Here are a few essential tips:-
- If you say you will do something, do it
- Remain true to the values you have promoted
- Be straightforward in what you can say and honest about what you can’t
- Deal in known facts and not speculation
- Have empathy for those affected
- If your organisation has a settled tone of voice, don’t change it in a crisis; it’s part of your identity and will only risk unnerving your audience
- Don’t hide behind jargon and complex explanations – keep it simple!
- Communicate regularly and with consistency across all channels
Although you can’t expect to escape completely unscathed from a crisis, you can emerge from it with a reputation for truthfulness tested and strengthened.
And that can only help the recovery process!