Chapter 8: Perception is the Reality

-Virtually evry crisis contains in itself the seeds of success as well as the roots of failure. Findingm cultivating and harvesting the potential successs is the essence of crisi mngt.

- Successful mngt. of a crisi situation is about recognizing you have one, taking the appropriate actions to remedy the situation, being seen to take action and being heard to say the right things.

-The problem in this stage pf crisi mngt is that perceptio does become reality.

-the initial sense of shock, quickly turns to anger  if the company at the centre of the crir is not seen to take the appropriate action and to say the app. words; People need to be quickly reassured about certain things like:

• everything was in place to try to prevent the accident from happening in the 1st place;
• the companyy was anticipating the possibility of such an event occuring and knows what to do to remedy the situation as quickly as possilbe;
• The company really cares about what has happened.

In other words:

• This is what has happened;
• This is what we are doing about it;
• This is how we feel about what has happened.

-One of the golden rules concerns the order in which statements are made in crisis situations. Always cover the following topics in the following order:

• people;
• environment;
• property
• money

-This is simply because this is the orde in which most media will cover the story;

-In crisis situations a primary consideration must, of course, always be audiences. While msg to each audience should be consistentm it is not always possible to transmit them all at the sam time to ach audinece;

-The "information void" - "the vacuum cause by failure in communication i soon filled with rumour,misrepresentation, and poison."

Summary:

• Recognize you have a crisi;
• Be seen take the appropriate actions
• be heard saying the right things;
• Remember TV is the most important medium;
• Don't blame the media for your problems, they can be your best fiends;
• People's anger leads to  product boycotts, fall in share prices and more demanding restrictions and penalties;
• Talk about the people firts, then the environment and property, and finally about money;
• Don't be a sitting target during press conferences;
• Anticipate the "information void" and be prepared to fill it;
• Remember "media pollution' can outlast environmental pollution and be more economically damaging.