Grievances about the racial climate at Syracuse University that have been simmering for years hit boiling point during fall semester 2019. A series of racist and anti-Semitic incidents and the initial response by SU administrators, criticized by some as slow and inadequate, fueled a massive student backlash that resonated across the upstate-New York campus and globally with the rallying cry #NotAgainSU.
The crisis at my alma mater (I was a broadcast journalism major in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications) is not a singular point but a continuum that underscores the value of several key elements of leadership in public relations and communication strategy before, during, and after a crisis.
Relating PR to crisis may seem negative or pessimistic, but it really isn’t. Preparing an organization to prevent, withstand, mitigate, and recover from damaging threats and attacks against its reputation is the best possible job of PR, and it reflects excellence in communication leadership.
Before a crisis
It’s all about relationships: While financial and other numerical measurements are important, they’re mostly backward-looking. By contrast, relationship valuation measurement looks forward. Therefore, an organization’s ability to develop and strengthen relationships and leverage them into powerful new ones is the most critical factor in evaluating future prospects for an organization.
This makes the PR leadership role highly strategic with overall responsibility for translating the organization’s operations, administration, and all other elements into strong, long-lasting relationships and leveraging those into new ones.
Identify the people whose perceptions are vital to the current business and future health of the organization. Whether they’re global or local, a relatively few people carry the present and future value of the organization around in the perceptions they hold about the organization, the benefits it offers, and the perceived value of their relationship with the key people in the organization.
Listen for what needs to be known to meet the needs and expectations of those important people. This will convey respect and value to them; however, listening without response can be detrimental. Positive results gained by listening can turn to negative results in the relationship if expectations of value and of meeting needs are followed by ineffective communication and failure to deliver.
Building reputation equity: This is like putting positive perceptions “in the bank” so the organization can withdraw them at times when its credibility and reputation are being questioned. The more equity in the bank, the better able the organization is to withstand serious accusations and even serious wrongdoing.
It’s not just a general, positive perception that matters. The most important element of this effort is direct, personal experience of the relatively few people on whom the organization’s credibility will rest at the time of crisis.
An organization’s brand – its reputation equity — is strongly tied to how well it emerges from a crisis.
Goal setting and measurements: PR without accountability poses serious risks to reputation. Communication leaders need to provide organization leaders with a clear idea of the results PR will produce – a clear, concise definition of winning and how it aligns with their perspective.
During a crisis
ARTICLE: #NotAgainSU: A timeline of racist incidents at Syracuse University (syracuse.com)
Urgency: It only takes minutes to determine how the crisis story will be told, so there is only one chance to make a solid first impression. A slow response will be quickly interpreted as “we don’t care.”
The PR communication leader must be the first and best source of the news and needs firmly established communication policies, plans, people, and platforms before a crisis occurs so that they can be leveraged to enable information to be quickly gathered and distributed.
Organization and personalities: The team must be enabled to work together, respond quickly and communicate proactively for hours, days, and weeks. The structure should be prepared in advance, clarified, and understood by everyone on the team to avoid wasting time on turf wars, power struggles, personality clashes, and other human weaknesses that can emerge while working in tight quarters during stress-filled circumstances.
Broadening the message: Timely responses to inquiries from reporters, editors, and producers in the news media carry a lot of weight, but others who control the future of the organization according to their perceptions are shifting that balance.
Using opportunities to communicate immediately and directly determines whether an organization will trust their future to the news media or will take at least some control into their own hands.
WEBSITE: Public remarks by Syracuse University Chancellor Kent Syverud
ARTICLE: Racist incidents at Syracuse U. spun out of control. The way its leaders communicated didn’t help. (Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education)
Managing inquiries, information updates, and rumors: It’s very common for reporters to contact different members of a communications team with the same question. This can cause a loss of productivity as several communicators work on the same issue or response. And if answers are not consistent, quality control suffers.
Digital inquiry management systems enable real-time collaboration to log inquiries, direct them to team members best positioned to answer, and automatically record all details of these activities in databases that can be used to generate detailed reports. This provides organization leaders and PR communicators with far greater oversight and enables them to spot trends in questions, misinformation, or rumors.
After a crisis
Getting out of the bunker: The temptation to quietly get back to business has to be fought. It’s critical to move aggressively, publicly, and with considerable visibility to get an objective measurement of the damage and to make certain those who are still observing the organization and its actions understand there is nothing to hide and no reason to hide out.
There are times when a large sophisticated survey may be essential. But in starting the discussion about how the public and stakeholders are feeling about the controversy, some simple structured listening can go a long way. Catch people in casual conversations, or initiate them. Call out to randomly selected people from some target groups. A picture will begin to emerge that can help in evaluating what public/stakeholder response is, and it can serve as a helpful guide for communication response and ongoing reputation-building strategy.
If reputation damage is slight or if continued exposure could cause unnecessary damage, the necessary reputation-recovery work can be done without proactive public visibility. If the damage is significant and an organization is perceived as less than open, honest, and transparent, high visibility is an essential element in restoring confidence.
Restoring credibility: Who would miss out or lose if the organization disappeared? If the honest answer is no one, it’s probably good for the organization to go. But if individuals, groups, markets, communities, families, and others would be impacted, then the benefits involved become the basis for a strong, positive message.
When under vigorous attack, the benefits message and other communications from the organization can sound defensive. Often, the best approach is to allow trusted others to speak on the organization’s behalf. This is when all the strategic PR work done in building solid, loyal relationships pays off. If those who retain credibility with audiences won’t gladly and willingly speak, the organization is clearly in deep trouble.
PDF: Summary of University Response to Specific Student Concerns (Source: Syracuse University)
Returning to normalcy: When is the best time to return to brand-building and business-as-usual? Doing it too soon can be perceived as insensitive and oblivious. Waiting too long can unnecessarily prolong public exposure.
The right time is when credibility has been restored, and that can only be determined by the communication loop: listening, responding, and measuring. Let audiences be guides, reflect where they are in the process, and use direct communications to respond appropriately.
If credibility remains missing, leaders and communications cannot rest; the work must go on.
(Reference: Now Is Too Late: Survival in an Era of Instant News2 by Gerald R. Baron)
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