Leadership in crisis ... How not to get "trumped" ...

For many, the continuing debacle of the Trump presidential campaign is as fascinating as a train wreck. Where will this self-inflicted descent into the absurd end? 

The last few days have had me thinking about the value of leadership in a crisis. What makes the people at the top ready (or not  ...) to face the music. I remembered writing a piece on leaders and adaptation to a new context.

The text below is from my contribution to Adam Crowe's book published a couple of years ago. Titled Leadership in the Open: A New Paradigm in Emergency Management, the book focuses on the impact of technology during crises. 

My piece dealt with change and openness ...I've adapted it a little bit below: 

Transformational Transparency

We are in a transformational phase that will affect the work of emergency managers, business continuity planners and crisis communicators. Simply put, emerging technologies and trends have brought about a generalized democratization of these fields. Three factors are driving this change:

• the growing importance of mobile technologies and social networks (social convergence)
• the realization that speed is everything in a crisis 
• greater public participation and input

There are numerous consequences and they all add to the workload of EM personnel and crisis communicators when an incident or disaster occurs. They must alert, respond, monitor and engage, all at once, at the onset of a crisis. In all these four imperatives, social and mobile play a key role.

Second, the speed at which incidents/crises move (whether in the real or virtual world) means that delegation of authority and some automation of the communications response process become essential.

Third, social networks bring greater participation from stakeholders and the public.That's the great democratization factor. Communities coalesce online when disasters or crises occur, focusing on recovery for example. Emergency managers and public officials have to deal with all sorts of newcomers to the EM table: crisis mappers, crowdsourcing groups, digital volunteers of all sorts.

So, how do leaders adapt to this new reality where the response structure becomes a bit more diffused? The only key to survival for effective leaders is to harness the power of the crowd; be willing to delegate; and have an absolute commitment to open and transparent dialogue with stakeholders and the public.

Trust in the big issue for leaders. Trust in their people, in the plans and preparation and in their ability to handle a crisis. Communications is at the very heart of this trust and needs to be driven in a transparent way right from the top. All leaders should know the basics of the "art" of crisis communications. 

Crisis communicators are no longer just "spin doctors" ... they have become facilitators in the ongoing dialogues between various stakeholders during an incident. But they can't do their job without the thorough understanding and support from the people at the top. 

There are five main pitfalls awaiting leaders who may face a crisis:

1. being unprepared ...leaders ensure their organizations have effective plans in place, they know them, practice them and have their people do the same. Improvisation leads to lack of strategic vision that damages trust.
2. not having a clear understanding of the crisis ... real leaders lead ... they are decisive ... don't push things/decision "upstairs" ... They take stands when given directives they know are wrong ... Effective leaders focus on people and not process ... they get results done by basing actions on plans ... not improvisation ... while adapting existing procedures according to the demands of each specific incidents.
3. micromanaging and interfering ... this leads to mediocrity, lack of innovation and initiative and complacency. Leaders trust their people ... trust in their ability and their training ... don't get involved too deeply in operational details and minutiae ... don't overburden their organization with a convoluted approvals process that handicaps a swift and effective response.
4. no collaboration or outreach ... ignoring key stakeholders and audiences means building tall, empty silos ... Shunning joint efforts, not joining collaborative efforts, sticking with narrow agendas and not establishing strong relationships in favour of a "go alone" approach leads to fragmented, uncoordinated responses that serve no audiences well.
5. lack of a social media or web presence ... (or lack of an effective and well thought of one ...) Leaders understand the need to occupy the public space quickly in a crisis. They know that dialogue and info flow on social platforms is a great vehicle to establish that presence. They know that a stale website is a killer in terms of an effective communications response during an incident. It shows ignorance of the audiences needs in a crisis ...as does as having sites that are NOT mobile-friendly.

So leaders act decisively ... To gain the trust of their audiences, they move quickly, they communicate and engage in an open manner and they delegate the implementation of their response. They do so because they understand that in the era of social convergence, the speed of the response and the public's perception of that response go hand in hand and will eventually determine its success.

Donald Trump has a leadership style that doesn't reflect any of the principles above. The    "I alone can fix it " approach is the utmost indication of someone entirely caught up in a fantasy world where being a leader is equaled to being an autocrat ... 

Leaders don't go "off message" ... they don't disavow their own strategy by improvising badly ... they don't blame others ... 

Of chaos, the community and crisis communications

Recent headlines and traffic on social networks reveal the gripping and terrifying impact of terror attacks on various communities. It now seems a daily reality. All of this should be a reminder to public safety organizations, commercial building managers and governments, that they need to be prepared to respond from a communications perspective as well as on an operational basis.

We have seen terrible events grip and paralyze a city ...even large ones like Munich. The Bavarian capital was rocked by a shooting rampage in a mall. Whether or not it was inspired by radical extremism or the act of a deranged teen ... the impact on the community is real.

The Munich police maintained a constant stream of info flowing during the incident focusing mostly on what residents should do to stay safe. However, they also shared information that later proved to be false. 

Here's a good read on how they used Twitter. To be honest, I wouldn't have liked to be in their shoes: firmly torn between the need to keep info flowing, to occupy the public space and be seen to do so ... while at the same time verifying every bit of info ...

So, what can organizations do to walk that fine line? What can PIOs do to adopt the right tactics and tone during an incident? 

Understanding the new incident communications imperative that modern PIOs face is a hard task. I wrote this post on the four incident communications imperatives following the mall attack in Nairobi in Kenya a couple of years ago. APPLYING THESE IMPERATIVES IS NOW CRITICAL FOR THE PIO.

Ensuring that your crisis comms planning allows you to meet the requirements of the four imperatives is now a matter of survival ... of not only the reputation of organizations but it could even impact public safety. In some cases, there's a clear gap: 

Aligning the principles of effective crisis comms planning with the new context faced by PIO is a daunting task. But any plan that includes a comprehensive and detailed expression of the FIVE Ps is sure to be on the right track.

Operationalizing a good plan with its Procedures, People, Preparation, Practice and Platforms components is an ongoing endeavour. Including such a plan with every response plan, BCP or COOP is essential ...as is seizing EVERY opportunity to put it in practice during exercises or drills ...

Another useful tool is to run a social convergence audit of your plan to see if your communications during an incident will meet the needs of your different audiences.

I believe that PIOs should be guided by these imperatives reflecting the need for speed, relevance, veracity and engagement.

Running a social convergence audit of your response plan

It's painfully clear that organizations need to be prepared to respond to crises of all kinds and do so immediately. The pressure to react to events within minutes is made more apparent by the widespread use of socially-convergent tools by the public.

In other words, social convergence has changed how crises should be dealt with ... certainly from a communications standpoint. So, how can emergency management organizations, public safety agencies, governments and companies ensure their response and continuity of operations planning takes into account the impact of social networks and mobile devices?


That's where the idea of a socially-convergent audit comes in. This starts with the very basic premise of having every BCP/COOP effort or emergency response plan include a strong crisis communications/emergency info section or even a thorough crisis communications plan.

Other questions include: how is alerting done? how do we let our staff, suppliers, key stakeholders and the public know what's going on? What mobile tools are we using (if any)? Are we maximizing message amplification by using social networks ? 

Another question: is the media our key audience? do we still plan to issue news releases and wait for journalists to interpret our words ... or do we take the lead and talk directly to our audiences (via Twitter ...FB ... Periscope and others ...) ? 

Other topics that should be included in such an audit include: who conducts social listening during the crisis and how is the social "intelligence" fed into the EOC or to senior executives? The new context for PIOs is truly daunting and many organizations have looked at integrating volunteers (such as Virtual Operations Support Teams or VOST) to help. 

Others have integrated the formation of a dedicated social media listening team as part of their EOC ramp up procedures. Operational social listening is now a MUST for any entity responding to a large-scale emergency/incident.



Another key topic of the social convergence audit is who has the "keys" to the social network accounts that will be used and what policies guide content, vetting of info, responses and frequency of interactions. An absolute necessity to avoid mistakes.

I'm currently working to adapt the social integration matrix I developed a few years ago to include this audit as part of a set of milestones for progressing through the social convergence continuum.

Stay tuned ! 

Public Information Officer ... the new context

I had the occasion last week to provide some training at the Calgary Emergency Management Agency. CEMA is one of the EM organizations leading the change towards a socially-convergent outlook to disaster preparedness, response and recovery.

Calgary's Emergency Operations Centre

My presentation was in three parts: 

1. the what: roles and functions of the emergency info officer or EIO
2. the why: the context .... the impact social convergence is having on the EIO's role
3. the how: how to meet the new expectations ... crisis comms planning and technique

Preparing for the sessions and engaging in discussions with CEMA staff and others who attended my talk, led me to some thinking about how those who have to communicate with the public during an emergency, must now approach their work. 

1. Let's call ourselves EIOs and not PIOs ... Emergency Information Officers instead of Public Information Officers ... PIO evokes PR too much ... Although positioning a response to a disaster under the best possible light is critical ... we're not doing PR ... our role is OPERATIONAL ... hence my preference for the EIO designation.
2. Social convergence is the most important thing to happen to the EIO's world in ... pretty much forever .... in a nutshell ... think social + mobile in your planning ....empower your organization to become its own broadcaster during an emergency.
3. the coordination aspect of the EIO role is the MOST important function ... don't get distracted by writing news releases and the such ...focus on coordinating with other stakeholders/agencies and developing key messages
4. speed is everything !  heck, speed is the only thing ... yes, you must validate the info! but don't take too long doing so ....move at the speed of your audiences (speed of social networks) ... and use mobile tech to reach them ... or you won't even be part of the conversation ...people will get the info from somebody else ...
5. Mobile is where the game is ... adaptive website, mobile apps ... alerting tools ... when more and more people are leaving legacy media behind ... mobile becomes their lifeline (and yours too ! )
6. the era of simply pushing out info in an emergency is dead !  but ... and it's a big but ... conduct social listening to gather situational awareness ONLY if you can transform social data into VALUABLE INTEL to support command/decision-making ...otherwise it's just noise ... related: the focus should be on the intel/reporting to command and not the tech itself 
7. rumour management is now a CRITICAL concern for EIOs (and any Joint Info Centre) during an emergency ... btw ...how can you combat misinfo and rumours that might threaten public safety/health ...if you're not listening on social networks ? 
8. crisis comms planning is the only effective way to be able to occupy the public space within minutes of the onset of any incident ... message mapping is key to that approach ... messages developed with social convergence (think Twitter and 140 characters) in mind .. every response plan should have a crisis comms plan linked to it.
9. No wall flowers ... EIOs must realize they are part of command ... they must be heard and bring to the I/C or EOC manager/director ... the changing comms environment ... when many EM experts still fret about social convergence .... EIOs need to make the point as clear as possible about the absolute necessity of social in any response ... this might include involving digital volunteers ...
10. I have no clue how the EIO role is going to continue to evolve ... all I can do is keep learning ... keep track of how our audiences get their info ...and where ... how they share info ... how they alert each other of impending crises ... and try to insert our messages into their conversations ...

Keep learning my EIO colleagues !