Crisis Averted

“Sometimes you need a little crisis to get your adrenaline flowing and help you realize your potential.”  states Jeannette Walls in The Glass Castle and oh how true this is. Whether in life or business how you manage a crisis reveals a lot about your character and ability to weather the storms that come at you. I remember when I was a senior in high school and preparing to try out for majorette with the Sound of the South at Troy and I was having difficulty with a particular part of a routine. I was frustrated and sat down on the ground and begin to cry. About that time my father walked outside and asked what the problem was. I told him. He looked at me and said “Well you have two choices. You can sit here and cry about it and not accomplish a thing or you can get up and keep working at it until you get it right”. For some reason, those words have stuck with me throughout my life. Trying times will come and you have a choice in how you choose to react. Strategic communications in times of crisis is no different. You can’t “sit there and cry about it”, you have to have a game plan to deal with the crisis at hand and the impact it will have on your organization in the future. As Neil Chapman says in his 2011 Chartered Institute of Public Relations interview on the BP oil spill that resulted from the Deepwater Horizon explosion, “there’s not much you can say to make it better, but a lot you can say to make it worse”. He goes on to talk about how all of the different agencies involved in the incident and cleanup had to work together communicate effectively in order to get things back on track.  They had to repair the damage done to BP’s reputation. BP’s CEO Tony Hayward issued an apology and then a campaign followed discussing BP’s ongoing commitment to restoration and amends.

There are numerous examples of companies who faced crisis situations and chose to face the situation head on. In the study “Linking Crisis Management and Leadership Competencies: The Role of Human Resource Development” by Lynn Perry Wooten and Erika Hayes James, they examined leadership competencies during crisis situations. Alaska Airlines, Ford and Merck were a few of the companies whose executives exhibited most of the five phases of crisis management well. Consequently, all of those companies came out of those crisis situations faring well. Many of these organizations are stronger than before the crisis situation.
Now let’s consider a new public relations crisis of sorts fresh out of the headlines. A couple of days ago an unruly fan got an up close encounter with country music star Luke Bryan. According to video footage and news reports, the fan was flipping off the singer and continuously making rude comments. Apparently Luke Bryan had enough so he came off stage and had a brief physical altercation with the fan. As his publicist now what? What are your next moves? His team issued a statement saying “"A man in [the] front row was making crude hand gestures toward Luke during his performance," the statement reads. “It was insulting not only to him, but more importantly to the men, women and families sitting around him who were there to support and celebrate Charlie Daniels and the efforts of raising money for the military veterans -- some of who were in the audience. The concert security personnel saw the man's disruptive actions of the event and he was escorted out."

The media began with reports that the star “punched” the fan. Eonlinenews.com’s headline read “Here's Why Luke Bryan Punched a Fan in the Middle of His Concert”, however from the video it looks more like he really just shoved the man’s head. Nonetheless, Luke Bryan’s public relations team now has an issue to handle. In keeping with the discussion of the five phases of crisis management discussed earlier let’s discuss how some of these may fit this situation. Looking at Signal Detection, thankfully there does not seem to be a history of confrontations with fans for Luke Bryan. In fact, according to reports from 2013 (WKBR) and 2015 (whiskeyriff.com) Bryan has a history of criticizing violence at his shows and events. However, considering he got directly involved in breaking up a fight in 2013, it would seem the singer does have a history of stepping into situations he should let his event security handle. This leads to the next step of Preparation and Prevention, by allowing his event security to handle these situations, he can avoid potentially reputation damaging scenarios not to mention some that could result in legal issues. We know in our litigious society, people are always looking for a reason to sue a big celebrity and make a quick buck. I think Luke Bryan’s publicist handled Damage Control and Containment well. Instead of simply looking like Luke Bryan was defending his honor; the situation was made to look like he was defending the honor of veterans and their families, since the concert was in their honor. Using the Evading Responsibility through provocation component of the Image Restoration Theory, his team is able to suggest his response was warranted because of the fans actions. This is a perfect strategy especially for the typical country music fan. According to a 2004 Gallup survey, over sixty percent of country music fans identified themselves as Republicans which tends to support a strong military and veterans benefits. The typical “good ol’ country boy” won’t see a whole lot wrong with Luke Bryan “defending” the honor of military veterans and their families.

In conclusion, crisis management is a comprised of many different elements but the biggest piece is what you say and how you say it. Devising the right message, with the right tone, delivering it at the right time and following up with comparable actions will go a long way in managing a crisis situation. Whether you are BP, Merck or Luke Bryan, trusting your communications teams to craft that message is crucial. Strong crisis management plans can hopefully minimize the damage and help keep another crisis averted.