Can We Talk About Crisis Communications?

A couple months ago, Ratha Lai and I did a podcast about crisis communications. We emphasized the need to be clear, forceful and truthful. If you’re being falsely attacked, fight back – hard. And if your organization is going through troubles of its own making, people are much more likely to forgive your mistakes if you own up to them than if you hedge and obfuscate.

It continually amazes me how many nonprofits get this wrong, especially when it comes to internal turmoil. I’ve seen it in organizations I’ve covered as a journalist, in places where I’ve worked, and in organizations where friends and associates worked. At times it seems like periods of internal turmoil cause them to forget everything they ever knew about communications – and to ignore the advice of their own communications staff.

In one case I know, an advocacy nonprofit experienced severe turmoil due to apparent gross misconduct by someone in management. The situation caused a full one quarter of the staff to quit within a few months, and yet the people running the show bizarrely thought they could keep it quiet. Folks, if a quarter of your staff leaves in anger, it will not stay quiet.? It was so bad that when they hired new communications staff (two thirds of their communications team having quit in the mass exodus), they didn’t tell the new hires what had happened. So the people who literally answered the phone when reporters called about the scandal – and reporters did indeed call – were completely blindsided. Not a good move.

Sometimes management understands the need to communicate with supporters and allies but doesn’t want to get into the unpleasant details. That’s understandable, and if personnel matters are involved, there may be a legitimate need to keep some things confidential. But if the resulting communications become so vague that they raise more questions than they answer, it’s only going to make things worse.

When in doubt, tell the truth. And if there are genuine legal reasons why you can’t discuss some things, say that clearly. Openness about difficult situations can be painful, but the alternative is almost always worse.