[00:00:00] Mel: Hi, and welcome to Less Chatter, More Matter, a podcast about all things communication without the waffle. I'm your host, Mel Loy, and in this show, I will give you short, punchy, practical communication tips and insights. You can start using in your communication practices right away. I'm a former corporate communication executive who happily took a redundancy, started my own business, and never looked back.

[00:00:27] Mel: These days, I use my 20 plus years of experience to help guide organisations of all shapes and sizes in how to communicate more effectively. I'm wife to Michael, cat mum to Cookie, aunty to 12 nieces and nephews, a yoga teacher, and a group fitness fanatic. I promise these episodes will always be short, sharp, and helpful, so let's get amongst it.

[00:00:52] Mel: Hi everyone, and welcome to a fresh new episode of Less Chatter, More Matter. It is great to have you along for the [00:01:00] ride for another week. There is so much going on at the moment for everyone I know, so I genuinely appreciate you all taking the time to tune into this show, share your feedback, questions, and reviews.

[00:01:13] Mel: Now, speaking of time, it is the, of the essence in crisis situations, and today we're going to be tackling more on that subject. Why are we tackling more? Well, because every single day we're seeing something of some kind of issue or crisis bubbling up in organisations of all shapes and sizes. Just in the last couple of weeks alone here in Australia, we've seen some high profile resignations all within a number of days and many of them under a cloud.

[00:01:43] Mel: So for example, the CEO of Woolworths, the giant company that owns a truckload of supermarkets and a bunch of other things as well. The CEO resigned a day after walking out of a TV interview where he was being questioned about price gouging by [00:02:00] the major supermarket chains. Now, apparently that was unrelated, but you know, the look isn't good.

[00:02:06] Mel: The CEO of Virgin Australia, which is the country's second largest airline, announced her resignation as the company prepares to relist on the stock exchange. Again, mere coincidence, we're told. A minister in the Queensland state government, my home state, and our police commissioner also resigned. And apparently, purely coincidentally... it is an election year.

[00:02:27] Mel: That's the personal leadership crises and issues we've seen in just two weeks alone. Never mind the plethora of seemingly never ending cyber attacks, customer horror stories, etc, etc. The fact is, it's really not a matter of if, but a matter of when your organisation will need to respond to a crisis. And the question is, how prepared are you?

[00:02:51] Mel: Now, of course, it pays to put in the work, doing your risk assessment, creating crisis management plans, message matrices, et cetera, et cetera. But if you don't even know [00:03:00] where to start, then today's episode is for you because I'm going to share five key best practice actions for effective crisis communication that would apply to pretty much any crisis that your organisation faces.

[00:03:14] Mel: So if you do nothing else. Use these five actions I'm talking to you about today. Okay, let's get into it. Number one, respond quickly, even if you don't know everything yet. In a crisis, especially in this world of instant communication, you need to be the first to tell the story. If you don't get in first, the rumor mill will take hold and people are likely to remember the first thing they hear.

[00:03:40] Mel: It's called the primacy effect. So even if you correct the record later, it's often too late to set the record straight for many people. Now, responding quickly means a couple of things need to be in place already, ideally. Number one is that your leaders, or those who are responsible for crisis management, they [00:04:00] need to know that during a crisis, they need to drop everything and approve things quickly.

[00:04:05] Mel: There is no time to argue over semantics. You just have to get in and get it done. So they need to review and approve very quickly. Number two. You need to have the templates, key messages, and channels ready to go so you can very, very quickly activate your communication and get it out ASAP. So this means that, best case scenario, you've already got a crisis management plan in place, a crisis comms plan, and everyone involved has been trained in putting them into practice.

[00:04:35] Mel: But even if you don't have these things in place, getting a statement out quickly is still your imperative. It's what we call your initial statement and it's out as soon as possible once you've been notified of an incident. All this statement needs to say is that you're aware of the incident, you're responding, and you'll provide more information as soon as possible.

[00:04:54] Mel: In some cases, you may also need to include that you're working with authorities on responding to the [00:05:00] incident or you may need to issue some directives to keep people safe. So, for example, let's say you've become aware that your systems have just been hacked and data has been stolen. Your initial statement might say something like, We're aware an illegal breach of our systems occurred approximately one hour ago, and we know data has been stolen.

[00:05:19] Mel: Right now, we're working to understand exactly what data has been stolen, and we're also working with police and cyber experts to respond to the incident to ensure no further breaches take place. Our customers should immediately take steps to protect your data just in case it has been compromised. This includes X, Y, Z.

[00:05:37] Mel: We will provide another update as soon as possible and we recognise this is an uncertain time and we apologize to our customers. So let's unpack that a little. In that statement, we've acknowledged the event has taken place. We've talked about the elephant in the room. And we've also acknowledged that we don't know everything.

[00:05:53] Mel: And the truth is, you often won't have all the facts in place within that first hour. And it is okay to admit [00:06:00] that. In fact, it helps people understand why you're not sharing more information. We're also trying to maintain confidence in the organisation by saying we're working with authorities to respond and to protect against further breaches.

[00:06:13] Mel: And we're reaching out to customers to give them some steps to take while also acknowledging their feelings. Now, this approach harks back to the three principles of crisis comms, which I mentioned way back in episode nine. So I won't labor on them here. You can go back and watch that at your leisure.

[00:06:29] Mel: And those principles are the three T's of trust, which are thoughtfulness, timeliness and transparency. So in this statement, we're showing thoughtfulness by acknowledging people's feelings. We're being timely by getting it out super quickly. And we're being transparent by not hiding what's happened and also sharing what we don't know yet.

[00:06:48] Mel: This is your opportunity to try and maintain trust and protect the organisation's reputation as much as possible from the very first second of the crisis. So make sure you are ready to go [00:07:00] very quickly. Okay, the next step is really critical, and this is tell your people first. The only exception to this rule is that if another group of people are in immediate danger.

[00:07:12] Mel: So for example, customers or clients or suppliers, and you need to help keep them safe basically. Now, in a crisis, your people can be your greatest advocates. And the last thing you want is to get them offside. A really good way to get your people offside, is if they hear about the issue from media, social media, or friends and family, before your leaders have said anything. We want your people to help steer your company through the crisis and support your stakeholders as well.

[00:07:41] Mel: So we need to set them up for success from the beginning. And that means bringing them into the tent from the start. So when you're creating your crisis comms plans and you're thinking about how you're going to prioritise your comms, the very first audience will be your people. Now again, there may not be a whole lot you can tell them right away, [00:08:00] but by being timely and thoughtful, it will go a long way to retain their trust and even encourage them to help you navigate the crisis.

[00:08:08] Mel: Now, similar to your initial public statement, you will acknowledge something's happened. You'll explain what you're doing now to rectify the situation, and you'll be clear on what you know and acknowledge people's feelings, but you may also consider including information on how your people can help. So you would also potentially include reminders of your media and social media policies, what people should do if they're contacted by the media, and also FAQs for your customer facing staff to use.

[00:08:37] Mel: Now, very importantly, make sure that whatever you say internally is consistent with what you say externally. There is a very high probability in crises that internal comms will be leaked. And if your messages don't align, trust me, that makes news in and of itself. We saw this a few years ago with an issue with an American airline where their [00:09:00] external and internal comms told two very different stories about their take on this situation.

[00:09:05] Mel: And it really didn't take long for that to get out and that became the story. So, tell your people first, include ways they can support the business and your customers, and make sure the internal and external messaging actually aligns. Also, in both cases, I would point your audiences to one source of truth.

[00:09:24] Mel: So whether that's a website or an internet site, and that way they know where to go to check in for facts, support resources, and so on. And these are the crisis channels that you would have outlined in your crisis comms plan, ready to activate them when needed. Okay. The third action is one that needs to be taken from the start and taken seriously.

[00:09:44] Mel: Own it. Own it, own it, own it. Do not try and pass the buck, even if it wasn't, in inverted commas, your fault. There is a quote by the public relations professional who helped out with the Tylenol crisis in the 1980s and it still rings true [00:10:00] today. He said, Remember, you are not judged by what caused the crisis, but how you respond. So for example, in the case of the Optus cyber attacks in recent times, nobody cares that the cause of the issue was illegal hackers, but they care how Optus responded. They're not angry at the hackers, they're angry at Optus for their response. So trying to distance yourself from the cause of an issue can really backfire.

[00:10:24] Mel: It sends a message that you're not taking responsibility, that you're not taking it seriously, that you don't care about the impacts. Even if it's a complex issue, you have to own your part in it, and that means not throwing blame onto other parties. So let's say you're a bank, and a third party system you use, like a customer database system, has been compromised by hackers.

[00:10:45] Mel: So in this case, the issue itself stems from poor cyber security management practices at the third party company, not your company, but your customers don't care about that. They probably didn't even know that party existed. They [00:11:00] care their data has been compromised. So instead of blaming this other company, I would demonstrate how you're working with them to understand what led to the issue, how to prevent further data being stolen, and what recovery actions are taking place.

[00:11:14] Mel: And by saying you're working with this other company, it does show that you're not the sole cause, but it also shows that you're taking responsibility. And at the end of the day, that's your customers. So that is your responsibility. I've seen way too many examples of businesses not owning their mistakes, and it ended up being far worse for their reputation in the long run.

[00:11:34] Mel: So just own it. And move on to fixing it. Number four is to keep communicating, even if there's not always something new to say. And this is especially important if it's an evolving situation, like a fire at a factory or a siege, for example, or a natural disaster. But, it's also important to stick to the commitments you made in your initial statement, where we said we'd keep people updated, right?

[00:11:59] Mel: When you [00:12:00] don't keep people updated, you create an environment of uncertainty, and uncertainty breeds fear, which breeds poor behaviours. That's when people get angry, they start leaving nasty messages on social media, they treat your call centre people really badly, or they go into your stores and yell at people, and so on.

[00:12:18] Mel: So you need to update people regularly with what you know, and what you still don't know. And what people need to do. The other risk with not updating frequently is that you leave a silence that others will happily fill for you. And we saw this with the Optus outage a few months back. In some cases, there was six hours between updates.

[00:12:37] Mel: So in the silence, others filled it with their own noise. There was media conjecture, social media was an uproar, and so on and so on. So in short, it left the doors open for others to control the story. And it created an environment where the public were forced to trust other sources of information rather than trusting Optus because they simply weren't being timely or transparent or thoughtful.[00:13:00]

[00:13:00] Mel: Now your regular updates do not have to be long and detailed. In fact, they shouldn't. And particularly when you're managing a number of channels, because there's a risk of inaccuracies as you tailor the comms to meet the different parameters of each channel. So rewriting something for Twitter or X rather, uh, versus writing something for a media statement or writing something for LinkedIn.

[00:13:22] Mel: There is a really good chance that some inaccuracies will creep in. So what I strongly recommend is that you update with a short message and keep pointing people back to that one source of truth, that website or intranet site where you're putting the more detailed information. That way you only have to update that one source of truth in one place.

[00:13:42] Mel: Now the final of the five actions is to be in it for the long haul. And that means that while you're responding to the immediate issue, also have an eye on the longer term impacts. A crisis doesn't stop when the systems come back online, when someone gets charged or jailed, or when the fire is [00:14:00] out.

[00:14:00] Mel: Crises have long term impacts on people and on an organisation's reputation. And those long term impacts could include things like insurance cases and insurance costs, massive costs, court cases, brand damage, a reduction in sales, a reduction in headcount, building costs, issues with attracting and retaining people, compensation costs, just so much more.

[00:14:23] Mel: There are so many long term impacts. And for example, let's think about the Juukan Gorge case. So, for those of you who aren't aware, in 2020, uh, mining giant Rio Tinto knowingly blew up a sacred Aboriginal site here in remote Western Australia. Now, as you can imagine, the immediate impact of this was completely heartbreaking.

[00:14:46] Mel: Thousands of years of cultural history treated as nothing more than being in the way of profits. So there was immediate impacts on the Aboriginal community. But also on the company's reputation as it very quickly became a big story. And [00:15:00] rightly so. It didn't end there. The long term impacts to the business have included the resignations of three executives, including the CEO at the time, a federal parliamentary inquiry, Rio Tinto was forced to pay restitution to the traditional owners of the land.

[00:15:15] Mel: And four years later, they are still working on making up for the incident with Aboriginal communities and repairing the business's reputation. Essentially, they've become the poster child for destructive corporate greed, and that's not something you want to be known for. So when facing a crisis, think about the potential long term communication efforts that may be required, especially if your organisation has fallen foul of the public.

[00:15:42] Mel: Okie dokie. It is time for your episode recap. So if you tuned out or you went down a rabbit hole of googling some of those case studies I've mentioned, time to tune back in. There are five key actions every organisation should take with their communication when responding to a crisis. Number one,

[00:15:59] Mel: respond [00:16:00] quickly, even if you don't have much to say yet. It is better to say something and be the first to tell the story than come in too late and others have already cast dispersions. Remember the primacy effect. It means that people are more likely to remember the first thing they hear. So make sure it comes from you.

[00:16:18] Mel: And make sure that initial statement reflects the three T's of trust. Timely. Transparent and thoughtful. Number two, tell your people first. They can be your greatest advocates or your greatest detractors. You want them on side to help navigate the crisis. So make sure they hear about the crisis first from you, not from their friends or on social media.

[00:16:40] Mel: And ensure that whatever you say internally aligns with what you say externally. Number three, own it. Do not try and cast blame on others. It always backfires. Remember that people don't care about the cause of the crisis. They care how you respond. So by showing that you're taking ownership, you have a better chance of [00:17:00] maintaining trust in your leadership and your brand.

[00:17:02] Mel: And that's better for your reputation in the long term. Number four, keep communicating regularly, even if there's not that much to say. You don't want to leave the door open for others to take control of the story. And you want to give as much certainty as you can to avoid people reacting poorly out of fear.

[00:17:20] Mel: So when communicating. Remember, keep pointing people back to that channel that's your one source of truth. And number five, be in it for the long term. Keep an eye on the horizon and start thinking about what longer term communication activity you might need to take to help repair your organisation's reputation.

[00:17:38] Mel: Remember, the crisis doesn't stop when the fire is out. Now, if you enjoyed today's episode, then I think you will love my crisis comms bootcamps. The first one is coming up very, very soon. It kicks off on the 18th of March. Now, right now we have almost 15 people signed up and I like to cap these sessions at 20.

[00:17:56] Mel: So everyone gets a good experience and a chance to ask [00:18:00] questions. The bootcamps involve a one hour webinar every day for five days, along with two live Q and a sessions. So you'll get a whole bunch of time to pick my brains and get really deep into crisis comms. You'll also get a whole bunch of templates, so you can start your own crisis comms planning and we go through a huge number of different case studies so you can see how it all looks in real life.

[00:18:22] Mel: The good, the bad, the ugly. Now, if you're keen, I'll pop a link in the show notes to the course, or you can head to the training page of my website or just shoot me a message. Happy to have a chat. Okay, folks, that's all we have time for in today's episode. I hope it's given you some food for thought so that you're better prepared for a crisis.

[00:18:39] Mel: And remember, it's likely a matter of when, not if a crisis will impact your business and being prepared is the best way to respond. In the meantime, I hope you have a stellar week. Keep doing amazing things and bye for now.