Lukaszewski on Crisis Communication

What Your CEO Needs to Know About Reputation Risk and Crisis Management

James E. Lukaszewski, Kristen Noakes-Fry

• Publisher: Rothstein Publishing
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN:
  9781931332576
  9781931332668
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781931332811
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business Communication
• Index: Business

Masterwork on Crisis Communication and Reputation Risk Selected as One of "30 Best Business Books of 2013" Jim Lukaszewski -- nationally recognized PR expert, executive coach, often called America's Crisis Guru, and noted by Corporate Legal Times as one of "28 experts to call when all hell breaks loose" -- advises exactly what to do, what to say, when to say it, and when to do it, while the whole world is watching.The book is endorsed by the Business Continuity Institute. In this industry-defining book on crisis management and leadership recovery, Lukaszewski jump-starts the discussion by clearly differentiating a crisis from other business interruptions and introduces a concept rarely dealt with in crisis communication and operational response planning: managing the victim dimension of crisis. Delivered in his straight-talking style and backed with compelling case studies, Lukaszewski On Crisis Communication is your guide to preparing for a crisis and the explosive visibility that comes with it. Using case studies, examples and templates, he explains how to build a crisis management plan and how to put it into action in the real world of media scrutiny, social media, activists, and litigation. Lukaszewski distills four decades of experience into 10 chapters of field-tested how-to's, practical tools, tips, charts, checklists, forms, and templates and teaches you:How crises create victims;To avoid the toxicity of silence;To overcome the abusive, intrusive and coercive behavior of bloviators, bellyachers, back-bench bitchers, the media, activists and critics;To drive attorneys to settle instead of litigate;Apology is the atomic energy of empathy;Simple, sensible, sincere, constructive, positive techniques to reduce contention and to succeed!Chapter learning objectives; discussion questions; case studies; real-life examples; and glossary facilitate college and professional development classroom use.

1

Defining Crisis: It’s All About Victims

Keywords: crisis, problem, readiness, disaster, operational, non-operational, victim, testosterosis, apology, victim recovery cycle

As we walk together through the crisis preparation and readiness process, it would seem useful to agree on or, at least, to have in mind a working definition of crisis. Typically, crises are defined in general terms with the specificity coming as a part of the readiness-and-response planning process. To get your thinking started, I prefer to define crisis with focus on victims, a concept rarely dealt with in crisis communication and operational response planning. Victims and how they are treated will determine just how much of your crisis response will be carried out successfully.

This chapter will help you to:

Define a crisis and what differentiates it from other problems and business interruptions that an organization can experience.

Recognize the importance of being prepared (readiness) in advance to communicate effectively with employees, victims, and the press in the event of a crisis.

Understand what makes a person or group a victim and how the presence of victims relates to what defines an event as a crisis.

See how to manage the victims in a crisis with the compassion, fairness, and honesty that will bring the situation under control and help the public image of your organization, while preserving, protecting, and defining your organization’s reputation.

1.1 Crisis Management and Readiness Defined

1.1.1 Crisis and Components of Crisis

Simply put, crisis is the sudden, unexpected creation of victims.

With today’s focus on extraordinarily rapid communication and the reputational threats this new environment can stimulate, it is wise to consider the significance and power of the victim dimension to dislocate, distort, and even destroy the credibility of even the most competent response and readiness processes. Simply put, crisis is the sudden, unexpected creation of victims, accompanied by unplanned visibility for an organization.

So let’s begin at the beginning with some working definitions of crisis and the components of crisis.

1. Show-stopping, people-stopping, product-stopping, or reputation-defining, trust-busting event that creates victims and/or explosive visibility. Victims can be people, animals, living systems, i.e. forests, the atmosphere, somebody’s backyard.

Causes ofVictimization:

Abuse

Arrogance

Assault

Bullying

Callousness

Carelessness

Commission

Confrontation

Cotention

Deception

Discrediting

Dismissiveness

Disparagement

Embarrassment

Fear

Lies

Negligence

Omission

Sarcasm

Shame

Surprise

2. Any un...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Acknowledgments
• Preface
• Foreword: ”The Pragmatist”
• Foreword: “The Teacher/Counselor”
• Foreword: “The Game Changer”
• Contents
• Introduction: Comon Sense at Lightning Speed
• Chapter 1: Defining Crisis: It’s All About Victims
• Chapter 2: Crisis Communication: Getting Leadership Ready for Crisis
• Chapter 3: Crisis Communication: Preparing for Crisis and Visibility
• Chapter 4: Creating the Crisis Communication Plan: Components and Models
• Chapter 5: Crisis Communication Plan in Action: Media Relations
• Chapter 6: Crisis Communication Plan in Action: The Crisis News Conference
• Chapter 7: Crisis Communication Plan in Action: Social Media
• Chapter 8: Crisis Communication Plan in Action: The Activist Challenge
• Chapter 9: Crisis Communication Plan in Action: Litigation and Legal Issues
• Chapter 10: Crisis Communication: Summing Up and Looking Ahead
• Glossary
• Index
• Credits
• Articles and Monographs
• With Special Thanks From the Author
• A Special Dedication to ChesterA. Burger
• About Risdall Public Relations
• About the Lukaszewski Group
• About the Author