Tag Archives: crisis response

planning and prevention

Crisis communications planning gets unfairly tarred by oil spill critic

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On June 15, U.S. Congressman Bart Stupak (D – MI) issued a statement on “misplaced priorities” of oil companies in the wake of the spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  In it, he uses the ExxonMobil oil spill response plan to draw conclusions about oil industry lack of preparedness.  Stupak concludes that the plans are “great public relations….  But these plans are virtually worthless when an actual spill occurs.   And that’s exactly the kind of misplaced priorities that led to this disaster.”

In my opinion, Congressman Stupak’s conclusion is murky. 

Don’t get me wrong – history will eventually assign plenty of shared blame for the Deepwater Horizon situation.  The events leading up to the oil spill, the BP “responsible party” efforts to stop the leak, the ongoing and future clean-up work and the public relations responses all deserve to be scrutinized, heavily.  However, the Congressman’s buckshot against the oil industry hits crisis communications planning with collateral damage.  And that’s counterproductive.

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crisis response

Lessons from a Messy Diaper (Situation)

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I have my reasons why I refrain from giving thumbs up/down opinions on specific crisis situations.  However, I try not to miss opportunities when current lessons can be applied to the profession of crisis management.  A recent Advertising Age article provides such a case, through its rare in-the-moment account of strategic planning and execution that takes place in a crisis “war room.”  Here’s a link to the article.

In this case, Procter & Gamble assembled a crisis team to help protect the Pampers brand of diapers when critics began to question whether its new Dry Max formulation was creating “chemical burns.” 

Although the situation is ongoing and a quick scan of the brand’s Facebook page suggests the situation is far from over, the article does provide insights to some very good crisis management practices:

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crisis response

Analyzing Five Commonly Held Beliefs about Managing 2.0 Crises

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Crisis managers prefer to operate within established protocols, rules, laws and beliefs.  Therefore, it’s not surprising these have already been established in the nascent area of 2.0 crises – those that erupt online.  However, the online networking space is changing so fast it’s prudent if we didn’t etch our beliefs in stone just yet.

This is the underpinning of my article in the current issue (Winter 2010) of The Public Relations Strategist, one of the official publications of PRSA.  My intent is not to be contrarian, but rather to be more complete.  The full article is available through the link above, and a PDF copy is also available here — “Sudden Impact: An analysis of five commonly held beliefs about crises that erupt online” — and also in the Articles and Links section of this Web site.

In case you want the Cliffs Notes summary:

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"Ask the crisis manager"

“Ask the Crisis Manager” Vol. 1, No. 1: Clear steps, disaster communications and social media in a crisis

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I received a terrific first wave of questions for this feature — thanks to all for participating!  To maintain my post-brevity rule, I’ll post three answers at a time and queue up other questions in future editions.

Keep those questions coming by posting here, or through Twitter. 

Onward — to your questions….

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crisis response

Desert-Island Crisis Tool

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Remember when radio stations would ask for the title of your “desert-island disc” to help you survive if stranded?  (Remember radio stations?  Or, for that matter, discs?)

Over the years, I’ve been asked the same about crisis management – is there one tool that I favor over all the others? 

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