When the Headline Is You: A new approach to crisis management

Written by William Smith, Communicator, IABC/Toronto member and volunteer

“Words, once they leave your mouth live forever,” Jeff Ansell

In October, author and media relations expert Jeff Ansell, was on hand to share his views on crisis management with IABC/Toronto members.  On the heels of his newly-published book, When the Headline Is You, Ansell made the case that the current media relations model – staying on message regardless of the question asked – is no longer viable and often does more harm than good.

While the traditional crisis management model cautions organizations to steer clear of apologies for fear of a lawsuit, Ansell counsels clients to say they’re sorry and referenced the Apology Act, which allows companies to apologize for a crisis without exposing them to legal culpability.  Apologies can serve to diffuse tensions and establish a dialogue.

Ansell recommends organizational spokespersons use a value compass when creating key messages with the four points being Nature, Emotions, Wellbeing and Standards. This ties into the spokesperson’s nature, stakeholders emotion, stakeholders well being and the spokesperson’s standards which becomes the basis for each answer to media questions.  The result is messages and answers which are more authentic and informative and more in line with audience needs.

In response to an audience question about the appropriate turnaround time for a crisis response, Ansell said that today, “there is little time to reflect before the story gets defined by other” and suggested pre-planning media messages in a crisis plan.

In making his case for a fresh approach, Ansell tapped into and analyzed recent crisis situations including the Chilean Miners, BP oil spill and Maple Leaf Foods and involved the audience by giving them crisis scenarios to solve and share.

More information on Jeff Ansell’s new book, When the Headline Is You: An Insider’s Guide to Handling the Media, is available at www.jeffansell.com.

This event was sponsored by: