Crisis Communications Pitfalls

ABSTRACTIONS

• Use examples, stories, and analogies to make your point.
• Don’t assume there is a common understanding between you and your target audience (even when you are using stories and analogies to make your point).

ATTACKS

• Respond to issues, not to people. Strive to end debates, not further them.
• Don’t respond to an attack with an attack of your own.

ATTITUDE/NON-VERBAL MESSAGES

• Remain calm, attentive and polite. Adopt a relaxed, neutral physical stance.
• Don’t let your feelings interfere with your ability to communicate positively.
• Never convey disgust, frustration, indifference, or smugness.
• Never lose your temper.
• Don’t allow your body language, your position in the room, or your dress to affect your message.

BLAME

• Accept your share of responsibility for a problem.
• Don’t try to shift blame or responsibility to others and don’t magnify the fault to be found in others in order to deflect criticism or minimize your culpability.

COSTS

• Focus on the benefits to be derived, not on the costs entailed. If costs are an issue, voice respect for the need for responsible stewardship of public funds.
• Don’t discuss issues in terms of their dollar value, or complain about a lack of funds.

GUARANTEES

• It is better to offer a likelihood, emphasizing progress and on-going efforts.
• Don’t make comments like, “There are no guarantees in life.”

HUMOR

• Avoid it. If used, direct it at yourself.
• Don’t use it in relation to safety, or health, or in describing risk.

JARGON

• Define all technical terms and acronyms.
• Don’t use language that may not be understood by even a portion of your audience.

LENGTH OF PRESENTATIONS

• Plan, practice and deliver a cogent 15-minute presentation.
• Don’t believe that what you are saying is inherently more interesting than other topics and therefore warrants more time. By the same token, don’t end your remarks after 15 minutes if there are important audience questions in need of answering.

NEGATIVE ALLEGATIONS

• Refute allegations succinctly.
• Don’t repeat allegations or refer to them in ways that give them credibility.

NEGATIVE WORDS AND PHRASES

• Rather, use positive or neutral terms.
• Don’t cite national problems, or make highly charged analogies, e.g., “This is not Love Canal.”

“OFF THE RECORD”

• Always assume everything you say and do is part of the public record.
• Don’t make side comments or “confidential” remarks.
• The rule is: Never say anything that you are not willing to see printed on the front page of a newspaper.

PERSONAL IDENTITY

• Speak for the organization.
• Use the pronoun “we.”
• Don’t give the impression that you, alone, are the authority on the issues being raised or the sole decision-maker.
• Never disagree with the organization you are representing, e.g., “Personally, I don’t agree,” or “Speaking for myself . . .,” or “If it were me . . . .”

PROMISES

• It is better to state your willingness to try. Promise only what you can deliver.
• Don’t make promises you can’t keep and never make a promise on behalf of someone else.

RELIANCE ON WORDS ALONE

• Use visuals and hand-outs to emphasize key points.
• Don’t rely entirely on the spoken word to explain your point.

SPECULATION

• Stick to the facts of what has, is, and will be done.
• Don’t speculate on what could be done, or on what might happen, or on possible outcomes other than the intended one(s), or about worst case scenarios.

STATISTICS

• Use them to illuminate larger points and to emphasize trends and achievements.
• Don’t make them the focus of your remarks, or overuse them.

TECHNICAL DETAILS AND DATA

• Focus on empathy,efforts and results.
• Don’t try to fully inform and educate audiences on the minutia of issues.

Source: Center for Mental Health Services (2002): Communicating in a Crisis: Risk Communication, Guidelines for Public Officials, Center for Mental Health Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health, Washington, D.C. Services Administration, 2002.