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Priyanka B
Manager, India
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The Spokesperson of your Crisis Management Team
The spokesperson plays a major role in the time of crisis; they are the face of the organization and represent it as a whole in front of any/every third party. This person should have a role of significant importance with the organization and have a track record of integrity. Their most important quality, I feel, would be the ability to take accountability and ownership of the crisis situation.
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Michael Norris
Director, United States
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The Most Important Qualities of a Crisis Spokesperson Hello Priyanka Buwe and thank you for your contribution to our Forum.
I agree with much of what you say. A spokesperson for an organization should be someone in the know regarding the administration and operations of the company. And yes, they should have integrity, and I think that is the most important quality that they should have. The ability to take on accountability and ownership of any crisis is not always the correct path to take in disaster/crisis communications.
I will agree that in many intrinsically induced crises, that ownership should be taken, but only after an honest and transparent investigation takes place to determine fault. For example NASA took ownership of the Apollo 1, Challenger, and Columbia disasters especially after independent review boards listed the findings of the accidents.
Taking on accountability and ownership of an extrinsically caused disaster makes little sense unless those affected played a part in the crisis or disaster to set the organization or community for failure, or to make things worse. For example, take the Sunset Limited Train Derailment in Hyder, AZ in October of 1995 that killed 47 and wounded 100+. The tracks were found to be sabotaged in an isolated area of the desert. Certainly, it would have been dishonest and foolish for Amtrak to take ownership of the accident. However, it was important for the company, in cooperation with the FBI, to be open as to the progression of the rescue efforts and the care being given to the injured.
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Michael Norris
Director, United States
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The Most Important Qualities of a Public Informations Officer (Part 2) Things played out differently with Hurricane Katrina. Although existentially caused, New Orleans was less than forthright about its lack of disaster preparedness and response. They didn't cause the storm but their lack of preparation and action made things a lot worse than need be. Their attempts to blame-shift and cover-up the dozens of issues surrounding the loss of life, property and the environment was ultimately discovered and many politicians and bureaucrats paid dearly not only for their initial actions or lack of actions, but also for their dishonestly.
Some will even disagree that taking ownership of a crisis, especially one that ends up in major structural damage, injuries, and deaths is not a good idea as it opens up the "at-fault" organization to liability and lawsuits.
Johnson and Johnson, a company with a huge amount of public trust covered up their use of asbestos tainted products in their baby powder (Reuters investigation) for decades. Not only the use was a bad choice, but the lack of transparency and preventative actions costs them billions in punitive damages to this day.
No matter how painful it is at the time of the incident, a public information officer needs to be honest and forthright as their statements will bear out a false witness eventually. Everything is recorded these days, and there are no secure investigations. A PIO will be found out. If they lie, they lose people's trust in them forever (they're unforgiving these days) and the company's reputation goes bad and stays bad.
In conclusion, I believe honesty and integrity are the 2 most important qualities of a spokesperson in a crisis.
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Anonymous
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Ukraine and Russia Spokespersons Thank you both for your interesting posts. What you wrote made me think of the current situation in the war that Russia started in Ukraine without a valid reason, as has recently been ruled by the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
I think it is fair to say that both countries are now in a crisis situation. As spokespersons we see the Presidents of the countries: Mr. Putin and Mr. Zelensky.
It is clear that both Presidents are taking accountability and ownership of the situation. But only the last one is acting with honesty and integrity and that is why we can expect not only international law, but also the public opinion in properly informed nations to be in favor of Ukraine.
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Paramathmuni srinivas Kumar
India
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Spokesperson are Change Managers Spokespersons are change managers who know the factual position and working in the trenches where they themselves have tried their hand in the rubber meets the road situation... They make things change by taking into account by being brutally honest and courageously express the ground reality and come up with the solution which satisfies all boundary conditions.
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Michael Norris
Director, United States
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Change Managers or Able Communicators? Hello Mr. Kumar and thanks for your input and participation. While I agree that a spokesperson can be a C-Suite manager, or a partner in the organization, many are not. They are trained and educated in journalism and communications and have the ability to pick up information quickly and formulate both a big picture and to describe the minutiae as well. They are able messengers who are tasked with dispersing what the organization's leaders wish the outside world to know. Rarely have I seen the spokesperson solely come up with answers to an organizational crisis or a disaster.
These issues are too complex for a single person, no matter how intelligent they are to come up with an effective plan of action. This is why smart organizations have crisis management teams – groups of experienced people who have been trained in crisis management and who have expertise in their fields to assess, plan, handle logistics and finance, correctly staff, and perform operations to mitigate or ameliorate the problematic obstacles which are interfering with normal operations. The spokesperson, part of that team, comes up with a communication plan, gets it approved at the appropriate level and transmits the information to those designated in the plan.
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Molokanova
Professor, Ukraine
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Not Change Managers But Real Leaders A crisis comes unexpectedly, and it will not wait for a group of crisis managers to come up with a plan to improve the problematic situation. In a moment of crisis, we need, first, a brave leader who ...
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Michael Norris
Director, United States
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Leaders at All Levels This exchange of ideas is great. It seems that the role of the spokesperson of an organization is different in the U.S. than other nations. Regardless of the specific job description or the position o...
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Priyanka B
Manager, India
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Cultural Dimensions to the Spokesperson @Michael Norris: I noticed how the recent events have pointed out the cultural dimension while choosing a spokesperson during the time of the crisis and how that person is supposed to handle scenarios...
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Maurice Hogarth
Consultant, United Kingdom
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The Spokesperson as an Actor not a Director Hmmm… It seems to me that the "spokesperson" is just that. They speak on behalf of the decision takers of the organisation that they are speaking for.
It is unlikely that they are involved in decisio...
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Jaap de Jonge
Editor, Netherlands
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Spokespersons and Spin Doctors If you're interested to understand even more about how spin doctors and spokespersons operate, what makes them tick, and what is their influence on the subject at hand, I recommend the TV series "Borg...
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Molokanova
Professor, Ukraine
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Рolitical Technologists Influence the Fate of the World I think our society underestimates the harmful effects of political technologists, media speculators and corrupt reporters. They literally defile humanity, playing on the lowest qualities of people, t...
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John Henry
Project Manager, United States
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The Spokesperson is the Responsible Party? No In a time of crisis, the responsible party, is the party with the knowledge and the position to get things done. It is rarely the appointed spokesperson.
The spokesperson may be the one able to trans...
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Michael Norris
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