It's another week which means another couple chapters and several pages worth of notes. It's amazing how much you can type in an hour of class. We are still reading Katie Paine's Measure What Matters. This week we talked about how to measure a crisis. Everyone always hopes that nothing bad will ever happen to their company, but it is so important to be prepared for anything.
A crisis can happen at any time, but you can take steps to avoid one. If a company is smart, it will monitor what its key publics are saying and respond to any potential threats before a situation gets worse. This does not work for every scenario, therefore you have to be able to measure a crisis when you're under pressure. A company needs to be able to determine what is being said about them, what people believe about them, and what people will do as a result.
My favorite part of chapter eleven revolved around the response to a crisis. Katie Paine says BS is more damaging than lies. I could not agree more. During a time of crisis, it is so important to gain the trust of your key publics. If you throw a bunch of BS at them, you can kiss any chance of building trust goodbye. People put greater value on the character of an organization, and the way a crisis is handled says a great deal about the values of an organization. Paine says that you have to be willing to say the things that no one wants to hear. This can be the hardest thing to do, especially if the situation is the direct affect of your own screw up. You are better off telling the truth from the get go. So cut the BS and just be honest.
For those who may read this post and don't understand, BS is short for "bullshit." I didn't want to use profanity throughout the entire post.
Until next time,
Katie
So true! Nothing throws credibility out the window like good, old fashioned baloney. I can't stand when companies (and people) aren't upfront and honest. I think this lesson can be applied to everyday life too!
ReplyDelete