Asiana, the NTSB and Crisis Lessons

I first saw Deborah Hersman, the chair of the National Transportation Safety Board a few hours after the Asiana Airlines crash at SFO.  She was holding a press conference in Washington, DC announcing her plans to leave immediately for the West Coast to launch her agency’s investigation.

Since then, she has been everywhere.  On the air, online, in print.  Press conferences, interviews, walking the tarmac.  Everywhere.  I’ve been a reporter for 25 years, most recently as Silicon Valley Bureau Chief for CNBC.  I’ve been in public relations for the past 3 years, doing a fair amount of crisis communications along the way.  Never have I seen this level of accessibility, transparency and communication, from a Federal investigatory agency, no less.  In the days since the tragedy of Flight 214, Ms. Hersman has done as much to teach the world about what went wrong that Saturday morning as she has about how to communicate during a crisis.

It got me thinking about the kinds of tactics I counsel to clients, the kinds of things I needed and appreciated as a reporter, and the areas where companies, organizations and individuals fall short when they face a crisis.  Ms. Hersman’s demeanor, and most importantly, the information she conveys in her many, many press interviews can serve as a roadmap for just about anyone, or anything, dealing with a public relations hardship. 

Here now, some tactical suggestions:

1. Crisis Craves Structure:  Crisis can be synonymous with “chaos,” and there’s really no need for it.  Get a plan in place, an organized structure from message creation to the person or person(s) who will be the ones delivering it, and chaos disappears.  When chaos disappears, the crisis can be contained and controlled far more quickly.  Think of it as the 4 C’s of crisis comms:  Conceive (the plan); Communicate (the message); Control (the crisis); Contain (the fall-out.)
     
2. Convene the team:  The NTSB shows us just how important it is to have a unified voice with someone in charge sharing accurate information in a timely and regular way.  But companies too can learn from this approach.  Way before a crisis unfolds, an overall plan that involves the entire C-suite, the legal team, the corporate communications folks – and where appropriate, investor relations, needs to be in place. Ms. Hersman gathers facts from her team, from local law enforcement, from local fire and rescue, from Asiana Airlines, from SFO, and when she has facts to share she does.  When she doesn’t, she says so.  No speculation; no hypothesis; just regular updates about the facts as gathered by the team of folks she is working with.  The NTSB prides itself on its sunshine nature, its transparency.  Some companies I have worked with come to me looking for “a way out.”  Good crisis counsel typically offers “a way through” instead.
     
3. Executing the plan:  Begin with simple message creation.  What went wrong?  Who is responsible?  What’s being done about it?  Candor is key.  The sooner someone (not a company but a person) accepts responsibility, the quicker the pivot to righting the wrong – understanding that even determining responsibility can take time.  (I’m not suggesting a rush to judgment, but as quick of a determination of what happened and then acceptance of responsibility.  This is the place where legal and comms often debate behind closed doors, but it’s still important for the appropriate parties to accept responsibility.)  Distill the crisis into its most basic components, anticipating likely questions, and then create a frequently asked question document.  This can become a messaging template to make sure there’s a consistency in the way issues are addressed.  An executive blog can act as a more personal commentary instead of a nameless/faceless company statement.  It would go through the same legal vetting as a company statement, but seems more personal, authentic, credible, giving constituencies a greater sense of access.  If possible, enlisting the help and voices of 3^rd party advocates, experts, customers will be valuable.  It all needs to occur in fairly short order so that when the time comes to address the media, the communications landscape is already properly seeded with a consistent, credible message.
     
4. Embracing Video and Social:  Companies must have a robust social presence – and well-trained staff to take charge of Facebook and Twitter content so that information can be quickly and accurately updated during the course of a crisis, and companies can communicate directly with their constituencies without the prisms and filters of media and pundits.  The NTSB Twitter feed is a model for informative updates, photos, video.  Transparent, relevant, immediate.  Video too can be particularly powerful.  A video statement can be infinitely more personal than something just posted or printed.  Think about the power of video and personalize the crisis by putting a face on the crisis. 

Crises can be tricky, but they don’t need to be chaotic.  Candor can be challenging, but in times of crisis, dancing around the truth, spinning it, nuancing it, only prolongs the inevitable.  Good quality messaging will always trump truth massaging.  Have a plan upfront.  Practice.  Train.  Make sure your digital assets are up-to-date and those in charge of them up-to-speed on what to do in times of crisis.  Operate under the assumption of when, not if.  Your company – and your career – will depend on it.