BE READY TO ACT WHEN THE SITUATION TURNS RED

 

 In journalism and PR, the importance of acting quickly and tactfully to right a wrong can not be overstated.  Call it the art of turning negatives into positives. I use the term “art” because tact is just as necessary as corrective steps when addressing a crisis.   I can attest to this personally during my 10 years as a reporter for Passaic Valley Today Newspapers in Woodland Park, NJ.

  Needless to say, there been many times when turning negatives into positives put everyone affected back on the plus side. One such incident happened during my early years at the paper. A production error mysteriously made one of my Totowa, NJ, stories disappear.  I remember opening up that Thursday’s edition, only to see blank white space where the article should have been.

  In response, my editor spoke to the article’s interviewees by phone. She explained that a production mistake had occurred. She said the piece would run in next week’s edition.

The story did appear as promised with an editor’s note apologizing for the error.    Everyone wound up happy, and the episode became history.

  This recovery resulted from turning a negative into a positive. Rapid action with diplomacy prevents a problem from becoming a permanent setback. Putting out fires before they become infernos saves you, and other people, from a lot more hell. That’s a lesson that Sarah Palin and Tony Hayward learned the hard way.

   Sarah Palin did not address the Katie Couric interview gaffe, but she could have. How? Palin immediately calls a press conference to answer the questioned she dodged. She cites two or three newspapers and magazines she regularly reads. She follows up by discussing a couple of interesting stories she saw in those publications.  Palin then opens the press conference to questions, takes them, and adroitly answers them.

    Fact is, we never got to see if Palin would make this tactic work.  But I can say the strategy does make sense. If executed well, Palin would have reestablished her credibility with the press. She would have turned a negative into a positive, which would have served to silence her critics.

   I think Tony Hayward is a different story. The BP oil spill is a far more serious misfortune that Palin’s interview mistake. I don’t think Hayward himself could recover from the “I want my life back” bombshell. That statement is especially callous in light of the 11 workers who died in the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion.

    Nevertheless, Hayward could have implemented damage control for BP. How? Hayward publicly apologizes for a grossly inappropriate statement. He states that nothing is more important than compensating the victims’ losses, capping the leaking well, and cleaning up the environmental mess.

   Hayward then appoints a communications savvy American BP official as public relations liaison. This person provides concrete answers about the company’s oil spill clean up strategy and tactics, and damage reimbursement initiatives. And, of course, Hayward resigns as BP chair. After all, the last thing the company needs during a major oil spill catastrophe, or for its public image, is an insensitive corporate head.  And by stepping down, Hayward fulfills his wish to get his life back. 

     Remember, when crisis strikes, you need to mobilize right away and start transforming that negative into a positive. Doing nothing solves nothing, except creating a worse predicament that casts a bigger and longer lasting cloud on your reputation.