When crises hit the fan

Photo by Inspirationfeed on Unsplash

By Deron Snyder

“As we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know that we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say, we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don’t know we don’t know.” – Donald Rumsfeld.

Few individuals can express an idea as eloquently as former Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld. But his most famous quote boils down nicely as follows:

Crises happen. That much is known. But the who, what, where, when, why and how are often unknown.

One morning, you’re the happy leader of the world’s largest hotel operator. The next morning, you’re announcing that 500 million guests might’ve had their personal data stolen by hackers.

“We deeply regret this incident,” Marriott’ President and chief executive Arne Sorenson said in a statement Friday. “We fell short of what our guests deserve and what we expect of our ourselves. We are doing everything we can to support our guests, and using lessons learned to be better moving forward.”

The company’s stock had dropped 5.6 percent when the market closed. Suffice it to say that after an unusually hectic Friday, weekend plans were subject to change for Marriott’s corporate communication staff. But their response to the crisis will make a great case study.

They hit all the right notes as the event unfolded, posting about the breach at 6:05 a.m. simultaneously on Twitter and Facebook. Replies in which customers ripped Marriott to shreds are still on those sites, reflective of a wise decision to allow venting. The sole corporate reply directs customers to a dedicated website for more information, where they’ll find a list of steps Marriot has taken. These include a dedicated call center and one year of free enrollment in WebWatcher, a personal information monitoring site.

I wonder who had “computer hack” in the office pool on Marriott’s next crisis.

Every organization must be prepared for a number of potential events involving natural disasters, workplace violence, technical breakdowns, employee misconduct, etc.  Public relations practitioners shirk their responsibility when they don’t compile a list of possible risks. A hotel chain’s list will have some difference from, say, an automaker’s list, but there will be some similarities, too. The key to successfully handing any situation is to be ready for any situation.

Some are fairly easy to predict. California is going to endure wildfires and hurricanes are going to affect the Gulf Coast. Another active shooter will wreak havoc somewhere and terrorists in dark places are plotting their next act. Effectively responding to some events will require high levels of coordination and cooperation among multiple agencies at the local, state and federal level. As we learned from the response to Hurricane Katrina, the best-laid plans are worthless if communication is weak and interpersonal/interagency relationships are dysfunctional.

There were plenty of failures in New Orleans, including huge gaffes officials and the media, but the city itself might’ve suffered the biggest reputational blow. Once most of the reporters and TV cameras had moved on – you know, post-crisis (which is just another stage of the process) – the job of restoring New Orleans’ credibility remained. One method that municipalities and private businesses might want to consider is Blog Mediated Crisis Communication.

Authors Yan Jin and Brooke Fisher Liu propose a model that “helps crisis managers monitor the blogosphere and respond, when appropriate, to influential external blogs.” They found that the public increasingly turns to blogs for immediate and in-depth information during crises; in one survey, 36 percent of respondents selected blog as their most visited source of information the week after Hurricane Katrina. Considering that they cannot be controlled by crisis managers, external blogs have the potential to deliver the most significant reputation damage.

Crisis communicators must walk a fine line, telling the truth while not harming the  organization too much. The task is especially difficult when it involves fatalities attributed to failure – human or mechanical – on your company’s part.

Southwest Airlines found itself in that situation on April 17, when a passenger was sucked out of an airplane after engine trouble damaged the fuselage. The airline was roundly praised for a response that was timely, detailed and empathetic. There were brief statements on social networks and online, followed by a longer statement as well as a video from the CEO. “Good crisis response happens long before a disaster or a death; there’s no time for planning after a crisis, only action,” APCO media relations director Anthony DeAngelo told PRNewsOnline.com. “Southwest Airlines showed it was prepared. Their response was fast, set the right tone and put the right people out front to address the issue.”

Determining who speaks can be as important as what is said.

The Washington NFL franchise learned that lesson on Nov. 27, when it signed a player that San Francisco had released 48 hours earlier for a domestic violence arrest. Instead of having the team president address the media – which skewered Washington locally and nationally – the job was left to a lower-level executive and the coach. But everyone knew neither of those individuals had the power to make the controversial move. By failing to be transparent, declining to step forward and face the heat, the team president caused even more damage to the franchise’s reputation.

Handling domestic violence cases has been a crisis for the league since 2014, when a video surfaced showing Ray Rice punch his then-girlfriend. Ironically, the NFL found itself under intense criticism again on Friday – three days after Washington’s ill-advised move.

A video surfaced showing Kansas City’s Kareem Hunt in an altercation with a woman. His team released him the same day, but critics pointed out that the league and the team knew about the incident since it occurred, in February.

“It’s not hard to draw parallels between Hunt’s situation and the one involving Rice and the Ravens four years ago,” the Boston Globe’s Ben Volin wrote, echoing the sentiments of many. “The team and the league willfully looked the other way and supported the player, until TMZ published a video making everyone look foolish.”

The headline: “Kareem Hunt incident shows NFL still not taking domestic violence seriously.” And just like that, the league’s communication professionals had an unusually hectic Friday, with weekend plans subject to change. Another crisis was at hand.

Who knew?

You never know.