EDMONTON – Not every problem is a crisis so don’t treat it like one, an American crisis management specialist told a group of agriculture communication specialists recently.
James Lukaszewski has helped multi-national companies deal with deadly chemical spills and pharmaceutical companies cope with high-profile death cases caused by their products.
“It has to matter to be a crisis,” Lukaszewski told the National Agriculture Awareness Conference.
He said a crisis must be a “people-stopping, show-stopping, car-stopping, reputation-defining event that creates victims and-or explosive visibility.”
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It takes victims to make a crisis, said Lukaszewski, who defines victims as people, animals or living systems such as the environment.
“If there are no victims, it’s just a bad day for your budget.”
Crises don’t always have to end in disaster, he said. It’s the communications department’s job to help management figure out the next step.
Acknowledging the victim’s anger is often the first step to controlling the situation. Studies have shown victims need validation, preferably from the perpetrator. They also need visibility or a platform to talk about their pain and suffering and they need vindication to feel what happened to them won’t happen to others.
Just like at the scene of a car crash there is a “golden hour” where medical help is the most valuable, it’s the same in a business crisis, he said. It’s important to have a first response, but it doesn’t need to be complex. His rule of thumb is 75 words, enough to make a 30 second comment. The worst reaction is to do nothing and deny the problem, he added.
It’s also important for senior managers to make a response because they are the company’s moral authority. In a crisis, lower level officials should have the preauthorization to take action without having to call a meeting or waiting for someone to give orders.
Lukaszewski does not recommend denying, stalling or delaying a response. A truthful, open response is key to getting the crisis over quickly, he said.
