Crisis Talk: Turning Chaos into Strategic Communication

Maartje van Krieken: Hi. Thanks for tuning in today. This is The Business Emergency room, and I'm here today with Melissa Hodgson. Melissa is a communications and PR expert, and with over 35 years experience, and has done 20 of those in the hospital environment, so definitely knows what an emergency room does and communications around it in a in a different setting. Today, of course, we're going to take it back to the business context. And the reason I'm really happy that Melissa is here is that I think that communications, and especially external communications, is definitely one of those niches in which you need your experts. It's a whole different ball game. And although many of us believe that we can talk, talking in these situations is a very different space. So excited. You're here, Melissa, very welcome.

Well, thanks so much. I'm really excited to be here. And you're so right when you say, you know that all of us think we can communicate, you know, it's natural, it's what humans do. It's how we get through our lives every day. But there's a strategic nature of communication that can really help you navigate a crisis, and I think that's the important thing for us to learn in today's episode,

Maartje van Krieken: Yes, and you specifically have Yeah, lots and lots of experience the majority of your career in in crisis communications, or associated the associated space. So can you describe for us a little bit the breadth of what you mean by having you know that working in crisis communication? What does that all encapsulate?

Sure, to me, what's interesting about communication is you're thinking either proactively or reactively. And in crisis, generally, we're reacting to something that has happened, and the more we can do to anticipate what could happen, the better prepared we can be for those crises. And in my career, I have worked with private industry, nonprofit public agencies, hospitals, so many different organizations, and regardless of what their backgrounds or purposes or missions are, ultimately, crisis response comes down to planning, and that's where we See the most struggle is with folks who have not planned for things that could happen to their business, or even if they have planned and then sort of put it all off on a shelf, and they don't stop to think about it, and their plans are out of date by the time they really need them.

Maartje van Krieken: Yeah, and so we actually had an episode recently where we talked about that, where there was an onshore communications plan associated with offshore oil and gas emergencies, and it was very clear that the onshore plan had not come off the shelf for ages, and hence fell apart when when used, right and yeah, planning, once an incident happens, it's always feels so counterintuitive. But even then, if you don't have a plan, and you hence need to make a plan once something has happened, you need to create that calm and do that right, and not just start shooting off messages. So absolutely, how would that work?

Well, I think in the same way in public relations, when we take on a new client, for example, at our agency, we like to spend four to six weeks doing a deep dive and learning, you know, background, and helping them understand how to get to the goal they've set. In an emergency or in a crisis. We still need to do some digging, some research, and we still need to do some planning, and it still needs to ultimately look at what's the goal that we're trying to get to. So all of those steps of a public relations plan still have to happen, but they have to happen back, and that's part of the reason that we feel like having some prior planning helps you to have thought about what could happen. What might we do under these circumstances? How we think we would handle these things? Because then, when something unexpected really does happen, you can at least begin with those bones. And yes, you're going to have to pivot. You're going to have to do unexpected things because you're reacting to something, as opposed to that proactive situation where you're driving the action in a crisis. Generally, you are something else is driving action, and you are trying to resolve it or stop it, or, you know, mitigate the damage of it. Yeah.

Maartje van Krieken: So what you're saying is that it's really important for any business to have a relationship with somebody like you, so that even if you don't have a solid plan, or the situation was just something you totally out of left field that you didn't plan for, that they at least know more about your business and who you are and how you operate. Eight to be able to advise better, because that will speed up the response when needed.

You're so right. I can't tell you how many clients we have earned who've come to us once the crisis has unfolded and they are elbowed deep in a situation that they fundamentally do not know how to handle or what to do, and they've come for help, and we can dive into that, and we can just, you know, kind of, as they say, build the airplane as we fly, but it is so much stronger if we have a long established client that we've been doing proactive work with for a long time. We know them. They know us. We understand their goals. We understand their vulnerabilities, because that's where crises usually arise, and we are able to help them, in many cases, see crises before they're really turning into something that everyone is tuned into. And in that case, we're more managing issues, because there isn't a hot crisis in place yet, and we're able to manage that issue back down, or resolve it, or help that client seep through it and get to the other side of it in a much more organized and calm manner. And it's due to that existing relationship.

Maartje van Krieken: Yeah, yeah. And that comes down to, I often talk about decision paralysis. We all know that feeling that we hope that something will just go away by itself, right? But trust your gut right? When you know that something's building up, it's better to actually tackle it head on and have a scenario for it and have a plan and then you might not need it, than just kind of sitting on it, because if it then explodes later, yeah, more damage and more you're right, harder recovery, right? So can you talk about about the breadth of the kind of business emergencies, or crisis organizational crisises? Can you give us some examples of what are then the things that really blow up and really need your attention.

I think regardless of where we're located, weather can certainly be an issue. You know, you have hurricanes or you have tornadoes or earthquakes or wildfires. There are winter storms. You know, depending on your geography, you have to be prepared for those kinds of things, and so it's important in your crisis planning to think about communication from those standpoints. But truthfully, I think we're all, sadly, a little bit more practiced and comfortable with emergencies related to the weather. Some other kinds of things that can happen to us are, you know, when unexpected media attention, for example, happens so a hospital, for example, may have someone accusing its emergency room of harming patients, or, you know, treating them in ways that violate their dignity, or something like that, having media accusing a hospital of something negative in that way, when what hospitals exist for and their entire mission is to take care of people, and particularly in their emergency room, they're seeing people when they're at their worst and they're in, you know, scary situations. So something like that can really take a hospital as whole, and certainly the emergency department team by surprise, and it can sort of put them on their back foot, because they're focused on trying to help people. And here's this media attention accusing them of doing terrible things or of neglecting their patients and not doing anything. And so the response to that can be very defensive. It can be very angry. And of course, that really just feeds the story, and it helps that media outlet draw more people paying attention to the story. And so in a situation like that, from a public relations perspective, we've got to be able to get in there and help that team understand that they're going to need to diffuse the situation, as opposed to defend the situation, and so they ultimately need to help the media see that the information they have is incorrect, and they need to be able to do that with some openness that they're not going to feel and they're not going to lie. But you know, we do need to engage with media when they are focused on us. You were talking earlier about kind of hoping something will go away. When you have one media story or one media outlet who said something negative about you and you're upset about it, your first response might be, okay, well maybe now they'll move on to something else, and in many cases, especially if it's salacious or it's something everyone has turned their attention to, it's going to get bigger before it gets smaller. And so we need to work with that client to kind of look at what are the actual facts compared to what has been said, and how do we demonstrate that with respect now, in the case of a hospital. You have the added issue that you need to be very respectful of patients privacy, even if patients are violating their own privacy by talking to media. The hospital, still, you know, has an obligation not to talk about specific patients in their specific situation, and so you have to be able to dive in and work with that team to understand the actual truth, and help them shape those key messages, and then push those key messages out through owned media, which would be their own channels, earned media, which would be responding right to those media that are saying the things that you disagree with, and then paid media, which is advertising, and you kind of want to layer those things so that through many different communication channels, people are beginning to hear the nuances and the facts that help people understand the context of what initially had their interest and had them thinking terrible thoughts.

Maartje van Krieken: Yeah. And the issue, of course, also, is that if you don't put an issue to bed, so if you you're hoping that another story will take over. These days, everything's kept forever, even more so than it used to, right? So if it doesn't get some kind of status for factory level of close out, it's just going to come back the next time something happens, right?

Yeah, I agree with that. We have a tendency to say, if it's not your story, it's their story. And so we want to work with our clients to help them own the story and steer the narrative, because otherwise, other people who don't have that first hand information, the media themselves, or the public, or someone with an ax to grind, because that does happen, will be carrying that story, and you will just be getting dragged along, and your facts will be thrown in as extra content, but your points may be completely lost, and that's why you really have to get in there and respond and take interviews and kind of Do the hard work to see to it that the actual details of the real situation make it out into the public sphere.

Maartje van Krieken: Internally, when I talk about dealing with emergencies and upheaval, I advocate for extreme transparency rights, and that's not of course, would be nice to be able to do externally. But unfortunately, with people picking and choosing which parts of the messages they take, that can also be a very dangerous concept. How important do you feel that that openness and transparency is in that external communication in these situations?

Yeah, it's vitally necessary, and you have to take into consideration each audience. So you mentioned internal you know, when you're in a crisis and you're looking at how you're going to communicate your way through, you have to stop and think about who your audiences are, what they need from you, and how you can deliver it to them. So you think internally about your staff and about maybe your stockholders or your board of directors or your members. You know, depending on what kind of an organization you are, you're going to have lots of internal audiences, and you're right, there needs to be just some blatant transparency, and it needs to happen fast and tactfully, and so you want to think through what you're saying and how you're saying it. But those people on the inside are the ones that are going to help through the crisis. They're also going to be unofficial ambassadors who are going to wind up talking to other unofficial audiences. Now you need to make sure every one of them know they don't speak on behalf of your organization officially, because the last thing you need is for them to be popping off at the mouth to local media, or, you know, getting out on social media, but they will be talking to their family, their friends, their other contacts, and so in those unofficial situations, you need them to be armed with really good, honest, appropriate information. And then you also need to turn your attention externally. And yes, you need to be transparent, but of course, you also have to be respectful of the things that belong inside your organization and the things that belong outside your organization. I mentioned earlier the example of the hospital. They've got HIPAA laws that they have to obey and be sure that they're not inappropriately being too transparent, because they could violate someone's privacy. Businesses and nonprofits and schools, municipalities, all kinds of different clients of ours have different sorts of challenges about what they can and cannot issue to the public and what's appropriate or not appropriate to share, but we always want to start with what is the biggest detail, what is the fullest amount of information that we have, and then let's sort it and understand. How we can push that out appropriately to internal and then larger and larger external audiences, and what channels can we use to do that?

Maartje van Krieken: Okay, yeah, and, and a gradual, kind of diverging, converging process, right? It's as you find out more and know better what you have, you can also say more. And that brings me to the next question we we often also see in in the movies and in real life, this no comment, no comment. Is that actually ever an answer and that is appropriate,

No comment. It no comment. It's one of the most unfortunate responses you can possibly give. There is nothing about no comment that inspires any trust or confidence in the media you're talking to or the audience you're talking through the media to, because it's important to remember sometimes that the media aren't actually your audience. They're just a channel through which you're trying to reach an audience, and that's the general public. And when you say no comment, what you are telegraphing is that you have things that you don't wish them to see or know you are hiding something. So even if your comment needs to be no comment. What we like to do is work with our client to think about, okay, well, what is the most we can say, even if we can't ask specifically, what's we can't answer specifically what's been asked of us. How close can we come? What can we give the public that will help them understand and let's get as much information into that statement as we can to be as helpful and as diffusing as we can without divulging whatever that piece is that is inappropriate to share with the public.

Maartje van Krieken: Yeah, and I like that you're using the word inappropriate because it often gets painted, as you know, not wanting to share, but there's definitely the information that is inappropriate to share or out of context is not the right information to put out there. So I like the news of that term in here. When we look at businesses right they there's many different scales. So yeah, larger companies typically have somebody like you on retainer or relationship there. If you are a smaller company or a growing company, yeah, the fast growing companies are definitely have more challenges or quicker challenges than others. How do you kind of filter, or how do you decide that it's time? Because some of them have internal communications specialist or people who do communications internally, so at what point do you need to start thinking about building a relationship with somebody like you?

I completely understand that question, and I think a lot of our clients kind of wrestle with that a little bit, particularly if you are large enough to have communication staff. CEOs have a tendency to think, well, we have communication people. We don't need Communication Consultant. And there are often times and incidences that it just helps to bring in some outside perspective. Sometimes that's for perfectly sunny and happy purposes. You know, sometimes it's just smart to bring in an advertising agency to help you think about, you know, new concepts and new ad themes that your communication team is way too inside your organization to step out and be that creative. You know, that's certainly a common way that businesses engage outside Communication Consultant. But then when you're thinking about communication strategy, or you're thinking about defending the reputation of the organization, yeah, you have a tendency to think, Well, my communication staff will do that. Sometimes the challenge that you're faced with is outside their area of expertise. But sometimes, even though it is completely within their area of expertise, you are asking a group of people who are already up to their necks and communication responsibility, who work all day, every day, to hammer out the internal communication and the proactive information that goes to public and plan that annual report and that magazine and the newsletter and, you know, all the bulletin boards throughout all the buildings in the organization, all that communication that they're doing every day. And somehow just see every bit of that while they sink themselves into this crisis. You know that's counterproductive to your organization and to everyone feeling informed and aware of everything that's happening. And so in order to let that communication team do the things that they are best at, you can involve an agency to step the. In those times of crisis or in those times of celebration. You know, if you have a big anniversary coming up, it's sometimes a good idea to have an agency take care of that aspect so that your team can continue to do the routine communication that they ordinarily do.

Maartje van Krieken: Yeah, and I'd say it from my side, coming in as a consultant and then advising people that they do actually need specialist support. It's also something around the speed, right? If the events are big, yes, there is, or there's always things you can do yourself if you'd really want to, but then other stuff has to be put aside, one and two, if it's not something you do every day, right? So if your communications teams normal day to day activities don't involve this whole maybe image, yeah, or negative news, or things like that, then, or a public opinion management then, then bringing in a specialist who does this all the time will make you so much more effective, so much quicker. So I think that's also a major argument to keep in mind when you make these decisions right. And I think typically what I see is that when chaos ensues, right? So I often talk about the type of business emergencies that are more like the art the plaque buildup in your artery, it's all these little things that are just a little harder that they should have been, and then they start to be out of sync, and suddenly there's this one thing that tips you over. And so there's some unpacking to do in hindsight, which is the most awful, but in hindsight, typically, as a leader, you know in your gut, right? That something's gonna get bigger or might become a thing. And I would say that, in this day and age, reputation is such a big deal that that ignoring that gut feeling when it comes to external communication can be very costly, right?

Yeah, I agree with that completely. You know, we like to think if we just ignore it, it'll go away, but like your blood pressure and those other kinds of things, there are telltale signs in your organization that something could turn into a crisis. You know, if everyone talks about what a creep this particular guy on your staff is. And you keep rolling your eyes and thinking, well, that's just him. And then the next thing you know, you have this terrible scandal where he's apparently been, you know, inappropriate with so many employees, and HR has been rolling their eyes going, well, you know, he's just the way he is. Those are the kinds of things that we want to take a step back and recognize what the vulnerabilities in our organization are. Get that kind of help, you know. So, for example, that individual who's inappropriate, get him some training to understand what his appropriate behavior at work needs to be, and give him an opportunity to get it right. And then, you know, show him the door if he can't. And I say he but of course, we know it's a problem for all people. He's in, she's in this world. You know, when your organization is trying to get everything it can out of a piece of equipment, and you know, you want that piece of equipment to last as long as it possibly can, you will want to make sure you're doing your due diligence. And the same thing can happen with communication when you are kind of trying to limp along with something that you know is not altogether right. It could blow up, and it could turn into something that the entire, you know, metro areas, media is all going to take a look at, and that's the point at which, like you said, you're going to have to have some hindsight and think about what to learn from this experience, though it does not happen to you again.

Maartje van Krieken: Yeah, and I always talk about work on the things you can control, and the things you can control is making that assessment right, having a look at potential vulnerabilities and saying, okay, there are things that can happen that I can't control, so how can I put a bit of a structure in place to to deal with those when they do start derailing? And that's, yeah, I often talk about strategic risk management, and this is part of it, right? And yeah, I think we, we want to underestimate the risk of these things happening to us, or the likelihood of them happening to us, but unfortunately, yeah, life throws us curve balls. And yeah, many of them don't happen fortunately, but when they do, they're big hitters. So yeah, I think we could talk about this much more, because I think you have lots of great experience and stories for our listeners here. So if, after hearing you talk today, they would like to know more about you, or work with you, or find out more about what it is you and the ADC you work with offer, where do they go? How do they find you?

Oh, thanks. I'm Melissa Hodgson vice. Then at gamble communications. We're at gamble pr.com, and we would love to hear from you.

Maartje van Krieken: Great. Well, I am very glad you came here today. I met you through a networking chamber related networking and or another networking event, and it's clear that you're well connected to lots of local businesses. So I think you're servicing, I hear you're servicing the local market very well, which is why I was keen for you to join me here. Thank you for a lot of the fabulous insights, and for outlining a little bit better when to decide or at what point this topic might actually need some attention and having a relationship with an external communications advisor, yeah, of some extent, sounds like a no brainer, so that there is at least something there to start building on when you really need it, right? So thank you for joining me today and in close out of the episode. Do you have a chaos theory or wisdom, lost wisdom to share with the audience?

I do. Thank you for that. It really all comes down to trust respect and love. And in business, we would say, Trust respect and affinity. We've gotta trust the process in each other. We've gotta respect each other, and that means respecting the media, and then everything we do should ultimately be done in love, or at least affection for each other. Thank you.

Maartje van Krieken: I love that, so thank you for listening and tuning in today. Thanks Melissa, and hope to see you here next week. Bye.