Issues and Crisis Management

Mike Regester

Regester Larkin

MEPRA

Issues and Crisis Management

December 5, 2013

• Linked to Trust, which is broken if there is a

– Gap between what you say and what you do

– Gap between their expectations and your performance

Reputation Matters

What is reputation management?

• Managing the gap between performance and expectations

• Or more simply: improving performance and communication

crisis/incident issues

Speed Fast-moving Space and time

Surfacing Suddenly Gradually

Scrutiny Immediate / intense Sporadic

Structure Rigid / formulaic Fluid

Stance Reactive Proactive

Issues v Crises

Manage issues to prevent a crisis

Issue Management

Early Issue Identification

Media

Coverage

Pre

ssu

re

Opportunity to Influence Difficult to Influence

Potential Current Crisis DormantEmerging

Period of Increasing Awareness

Origin Mediation/Amplification ResolutionOrganisation

Development

Formal

Constraints

• Poor financial performance

• Poor ‘corporate’ governance

• Business and society (macro issues: global warming; child labour; fair trade

etc)

• Business and communities/consumers/partners (micro issues: employment

practices; product contamination; food scares)

Where do issues come from?

• Erosion of authority / decline in trust

– Trust in established institutions like government and the media remains

shaky

– Business suffering from rash of scandals

– NGOs becoming most trusted institutions

• Growth in anti-business activism and consumer concern with “what lies

behind the label”

• Growth in victim and litigation culture

• Greater scrutiny and expectations of transparency / governance

• 24/7 media, the Internet and USA generated content

What’s different these days?

Twitter

Twitter is a 'connector' that has a short lifespan but high viral power

Your mum or the bloke in the pub probably won't care about it

But journalists and bloggers do - they are on there and listening in

David Bowen,FT

October 2009

In a nutshell, social media…

• can be the trigger • can escalate a crisis• unstructured, so can complicate crisis management• creates new circles of trust and credibility• requires up-skilling and different resources• can be an asset

But…• principles of good crisis management still apply• should not distract from overall strategy and objectives• still think audience first – message & medium second• credibility is still important (but the rules are different)• social media connects, but news media still has power to

disseminate to masses

How do you manage issues?

2. Identify

3. Understand

4. Prioritise

5. Plan

7. Evaluate

1. Monitor

6. Implement

3. Understand

Step 1 - Monitoring

contractors

customers

shareholders

employees

media

Internet

investment

community

competitor

activity

public policy

NGO activity

ethics

values and

lifestyles

risk/liability

business

environment

international

environment

local communities

trade unions academics

business partners

government

supply chain

Political

Economic

Societal

Technological

Legislative/Regulatory

Environmental

Luke Johnson

Chairman Ch 4

BBC Radio 4 – January 2007

Big Brother

Step 2 – identifying relevant issues

• Identify issues that have the potential to impact on the company

– Are they gaining support / interest?

• Assess the type of issue

– Is it media friendly?

– Where is it in the lifecycle?

– Are there links to other issues?

– Are there any new, emerging patterns forming?

Step 3 – understanding issues

• Analyse the most important issues in detail

– Is there a gap between performance and expectation? (Perception

is reality)

– Do we understand the context, current status, likely developments,

potential scale and scope, triggers and escalators?

– Which stakeholders can influence the issue and / or which can

influence our reputation and performance?

• Identify an issue owner and establish a team ensuring all the right

people are at the table including Operations, Legal, and

Communications

High

Med

Low

HighMedLow

Po

ten

tial Im

pact

on

re

pu

tati

on

Likelihood of Occurrence

Proactively

managedContinuous

monitoring

Periodic

assessment

Active attention &

preparation

Step 4 – prioritising issues

Continuous

monitoring

Continuous

monitoring

Active attention &

preparation

Periodic

assessment

Periodic

assessment

Step 5 – planning

• Develop a plan for each issue that:

– Sets clear objectives

– Creates a strategic corporate response and defines key messages

– Identifies the resources needed

– Describes specific operational actions

– Defines communication strategies to be taken – by who, how, when and

with whom

– Has clear evaluation measures

• The issue plan should be aligned to the business plan and key operating

principles and values

Think from the outside in

Who are your stakeholders?

• Governments

• Regulators

• The local community

• Customers and consumers

• Activists

• And don’t forget employees

• What are they concerned about?

• What is on their agenda?

• What do they want to hear?

• What do they want to see?

Engage for a reason

• What is our vision?

• What are our objectives?

• Why are we doing this?

• Who are we engaging?

• What will success look like?

Prioritise your stakeholders

HIGH

STAKEHOLDER

CONCERN

NOT

CRITICAL TO

OUR SUCCESS

HIGHLY

CRITICAL TO

OUR SUCCESS

LOW

STAKEHOLDER

CONCERN

Very concerned

but not critical

Not critical and

not concerned

Important and

very concerned

Important but not

very concerned

Where to focus attention

-

Hardcore

adversaries

+Unconditional

advocates

FOCUS RESOURCES ON

WINNING THE BATTLE FOR

THE MIDDLE GROUND

10% you are

highly unlikely

to influence

10% you are

unlikely to need

To influence

80%

Steps 6 and 7 – implementing and evaluating

• Implement:

– Implement the action plan

– Communicate effectively with stakeholders

• Evaluate:

– Assess the results

– Evaluate success against the pre-agreed measurement criteria to

determine next steps and strategy

– Learn from successes, failures and mistakes

– Review the plan

crisis/incident issues

Speed Fast-moving Space and time

Surfacing Suddenly Gradually

Scrutiny Immediate / intense Sporadic

Stance Reactive Proactive

Structure Rigid / formulaic Fluid

Crisis v Issues

procedures

simulation

audit

training

Culture

Crisis preparedness process

Crisis management =

people and process

• Clear ownership and governance (team roles and responsibilities)

• Risk assessment / scenario planning / risk register

• Procedures and tools (manual; key contacts)

• Simple incident categorisation, alert and escalation criteria

• Competent, confident staff (coach and test)

• Compliance

• Part of your culture

A tried-and-tested

crisis team set up

Finance Legal Operations and SMEs

Team Leader Admin/

Log-keeper

Writer MRT

Leader Monitoring Spokesperson

Media Response

Team

CommsExternal

stakeholdersHR

RRT Leader

Relative Response

Team

Lack of effective communication –ensure regular briefing times, participants and formats

Unclear allocation of tasks and responsibilities, duplication of work –assign RACI, review and update regularly

Leadership getting caught in the detail –maintain sight of overarching strategy, delegate and follow up on detail

Forgetting the external perspective –understand stakeholder perceptions as well as internal facts when making judgements and decisions

Internal politics and personal ambitions influencing strategy –focus on key stakeholders and doing the right thing for the right reasons

Common pitfalls

The Messages!

All the Ws (almost!)

• Care & Concern

• Commitment

• Control

1) People

2) Environment

3) Asset

4) Money (tomorrow)

Relevant = audience!IrrefutableTruthful

Crisis communication

some best practice considerations:

• Do the right thing ... and be seen to do the right thing

– Scenario planning and preparation (worst case)

– Relevant, well rehearsed procedures and people, including partners, authorities and agencies

– Safety culture

• Credible source of information

– Range of appropriate, dedicated confident/competent spokespeople (senior/SMEs/local voice)

– Proactive, transparent and accessible (esp vis social media) –internally and externally

– People-focused messaging with robust Q&A

• Stakeholder relationships forged in peace time

– 3rd party advocates

Leadership

Leading a crisis management team

Leading an organisation in crisis

Very different from ‘peacetime’

leadership

The figurehead role

Global crisis structure

Escalation model – country, region,

group or country, business, group

Not named individuals but functions

Mandate to make decisions; know

powers/limitations

Crisis team is strategic – reputation,

bottom line, license to operate - nb:

supply chain!

Practice

Team