QUOTE OF THE MONTH:  I don’t worry too much about pointing fingers at the past. I operate on the theory that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.

– Warren Buffet
CEO Hathaway and Multi-billionaire

(EDITOR’S NOTE:  Yes, I know it is November…but circumstances conspired to make this edition a couple of days late.   I thought I would share with you some thoughts which I will be presenting at the upcoming Fall Meeting of CHWMEG, Inc. on November 11th in Orlando. CHWMEG, Inc. is a non-profit trade association comprised of manufacturing and other “industrial” companies interested in efficiently managing their wastes as part of their environmental stewardship programs. As part of their efforts to responsibly manage their members’ wastes, CHWMEG conducts independent reviews of commercial facilities that treat, store, dispose, recycle or transport waste. They also develop and deliver seminars and hold conferences and publish informational documents to further these goals.       While some of the lessons here refer mainly to manufacturing
facilities, most of the lessons drawn from this major fire at a waste transfer facility that occurred in Apex, NC in October of 2006 can apply to organizations of all kinds.)

Before an Incident

1.  Recognize how much better it is to PREVENT an incident than to RESPOND to one. (Spending money to upgrade your facilities and provide 24-hour coverage — operating personnel or security guards who can catch an emergency when it is still small and manageable– is preferable to harsh fines/penalties).

2.  Ensure your emergency plan is complete and reasonable.   Test it.  (An emergency plan that calls for employees to put out a fire with an extinguisher is NOT reasonable when there are no personnel on site from 6 p.m. to 8 a.m.)

3.  Realize ALL of your actions - before, during, and after an incident - will be scrutinized under a microscope with 20/20 hindsight. Make sure your daily operating decisions are made with an eye toward safety, environmental protection, and neighborhood concerns.

4.  Do things that develop a level of trust within the community, especially with emergency responders.  Also reach out to local officials, media, and neighbors.

5.  Make sure neighbors know you are open to answering their questions.  Develop your sense of empathy for legitimate concerns of neighbors.  Recognize that their “core values” are prioritized:

a. Health of selves and families
b. Value of possessions and property
c. Environmental protection
d. Quality of life issues
e. Peace of mind
f. Economic security

Don’t try to remind them of how many people you employ or how much you pax in taxes when they are fearful of negative health effects.

6.  Identify and train a site manager/employee to be an initial spokesperson who can quickly deliver a “stand-by statement” until the official spokesperson arrives. Make sure you have some “stand-by statements” on the most likely types of incidents prepared and approved so you can fill in the blanks.

7.  If you deal with hazardous materials, establish, maintain and have readily available a current inventory of materials on site.  Putting firefighters and neighbors at risk because they do not know what is on site is not acceptable.

8.  Learn (through seminars, books, tapes) how to deal effectively with angry/upset/concerned people.

9.  Consider underwriting (or sharing in) the cost for a computerized telephone alert system to notify officials and neighbors if they need to take actions (because of you
or anything else that could go wrong in the community — lost child, escaped convict, water main break, etc.).

During an Incident

10. Remember the Chinese word for “crisis” is made up of two characters: “danger” and “turning point.”  Use this to keep things in perspective.  If you handle your crisis well, you can be seen by the public as being responsible and responsive so that they’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and trust you to continue running your organization.

11.  Be prepared to speak competently and confidently to the public - initially through the media– to provide accurate and helpful information.  PRACTICE AHEAD OF TIME - DON’T “WING IT.” You might want to consider hiring a crisis communications expert to put you and your management team through some realistic role-plays to make sure you are prepared.

12.  Make available a technical expert (preferably an objective third-party) who can speak knowledgeably about health effects of your materials.  This takes pre-planning to be effective.

After an Incident

13.  Expect lawyers to come out of the woodwork; know whom to call for legal advice - but avoid those who advise you to say “No comment!”

14.  Expect activist environmental groups to converge - national and ad hoc local; prepare to sit down and discuss issues with the latter.

15.  Work to mend fences with local officials (those who give you permits, inspect you, and have to answer residents’ questions about you).  Do what you can to make them look good, so you can get back to work.

16.   Expect stricter regulations to be instituted at local or state, if not federal, level.  Politicians must be seen to respond to issues of public safety.  Cooperation is expected - and required.

See again Point #1 - recognize it is better to PREVENT an incident than RESPOND to one.

So…if you are in the Orlando area on the evening of Nov. 10th or the afternoon of Nov. 12th, stop by and say “hello” and we can talk for a while about whatever crisis you are facing at the moment!

UNTIL NEXT MONTH…KEEP COOL!

Judy Hoffman
www.judyhoffman.com
1-800-848-3907 PIN 2145

JCH Enterprises, 116 Nelson Lane, Clayton, NC 27527, USA

Quote of the Month:  “Every dog has its day,   but it’s not every dog that knows when he’s having it.”
–Winifred Gordon, from “A Book of Days” (1910)

Last Friday evening I tried to imagine what it must have felt like to be in the shoes of Senator John McCain or Senator Barack Obama.  Neither one of them would be United States Senators if they were not experienced public speakers.  They’ve been on the campaign trail for many months by now, so they are used to addressing crowds with prepared speeches, sometimes taking questions from audience members Town Hall style.

But this was very different.  This was a head-to-head debate where undecided voters in what appears to be a very tight race would have their first opportunity to watch and listen to them side by side. The audience would be observing how well they could think on their feet, answering questions they had not seen beforehand.  The candidates knew they would be judged not only on the content of their answers but also on their style of deliverance - how forceful they were, how persuasive, believable, well articulated, etc.

And the size of the audience was estimated by some commentators to be about 60 million people!  I dare say none of you have had an equivalent situation.  However, the pressure is still intense when you are the one in the glare of TV camera lights.  It could be a one-on-one interview in your lobby or parking lot when there’s been an accident at your workplace.  Or you could be asked to participate in a discussion in a TV studio over something that has been alleged to have gone wrong.  It’s also not comfortable to face an angry crowd of facility neighbors who don’t like something you are planning to do or hold an employee meeting when they are upset because of rumors of layoffs, etc.

Body Language Communicates Volumes

Those of you who have taken one of my workshops or heard me speak know how much emphasis I put on body language.  You hopefully remember the bar graph I use that indicates how powerfully your message is communicated by the things you do with your feet, hands and face to either emphasize and underline your message or detract from it.

The truth of this was underscored in the moments immediately following the debate.  On the TV station I watched, all three nationally known news commentators were giving their impressions of how the candidates appeared as opposed to what they said.  The “fact-checkers” would provide their reports in the next day’s newspapers and web reports.  Immediately after the debate ended, the focus was on things like: (1) who appeared the most natural and at ease (thereby supposedly conveying the idea that they could
handle the pressures of the presidency); (2) who looked confident in what they were saying; and (3) which one did a better job of making and keeping eye contact with his opponent and with the audience out in their living rooms.

Style vs. Substance

There can be no doubt that this body language stuff is critically important.  Many executives tend to overlook it in favor of making
sure their messages are on point and their facts are correct.  Of course the messages have to be accurate.  Your credibility must be
protected.  However, it is also true that most people will forget the specifics of the message.  They will, instead, respond
emotionally and viscerally to who appeared to be telling the truth and who looked trustworthy and - most importantly - who looked like they cared about the situation in which the average observer finds himself or herself these days.  The old saying “People don’t CARE how much you know until they KNOW how much you care,” was never more true.

So What Do You Do About This?

If you realize the importance of body language in communicating your message, how can you do a better job of using it to your
advantage, or at least not have it work against you the next time you are on a “hot seat?”  The only way is to practice, practice,
practice.  Gather your staff and other groups of employees together and simulate a situation where you will be questioned under fire.  Have the session videotaped so that you can review it.  Look to see if you have any annoying habits that distract from your message (nervous gestures with your hands, involuntary grimacing or smirking, shifty eyes, bouncing or swaying, or verbal tics
(repeated words like “um…” “ah…” “you know” etc.).  Request honest feedback from your colleagues about whether you seemed to
express empathy and appear sincere.  Accept whatever constructive criticism you receive and set to work on those things mentioned,
either on your own or with a speech/communications coach.

You may not have to convince 60 million people you are capable of leading them as you seek the highest office in the country, but in
your business a lot may be riding on your ability to persuade people you care about to your point of view.  Assuming you know
what you are talking about, using positive body language will be a major key to your success.

# # #

Until next month…KEEP COOL!

Judy Hoffman
jchent@earthlink.net
www.judyhoffman.com
1-800-848-3907 PIN 2145

JCH Enterprises, 116 Nelson Lane, Clayton, NC 27527, USA

You may one day face the same dilemma as Barack Obama and his
staff did in August.  When do you let sleeping dogs lie and when do
you come out swinging?

WHEN YOU ARE THE SUBJECT OF ATTACKS

You may have read that the same author who published a negative
story about Senator John Kerry’s Vietnam record back in 1999
recently put out a book claiming to reveal things about Senator
Obama that would alarm voters.  Some political analysts said that
Senator Kerry’s defeat in the election of 2000 was at least
partially attributable to the fact that he did not take those
negative “Swift boat” stories seriously enough early enough. Doubt
about his military leadershp capabilities lingered, and the fires
were fanned by wide circulation on the internet.

Certainly those thoughts were in the minds of Senator Obama and his
campaign staff as allegations about his being unpatriotic
and a practicing Muslim began to make the rounds.  When the book
was published in the weeks leading up to the Democratic Convention,
a decision had to be made.

It would be the same for you if you found yourself and/or your
organization the subject of a series of attacks and negative
allegations.  Do you just ignore these things and hope they will
fade away after the initial burst of negative publicity, trusting
that they won’t do any serious damage? Or do you respond strongly so
that the public recognizes that there is another side to the story?

IT’S A REAL “DAMNED IF YOU DO, DAMNED IF YOU DON’T” SITUATION

Sorry to tell you this, but whichever decision you make, you might
be wrong.  Someone is likely to criticize you when they have the
benefit of 20/20 hindsight. (But you should be used to that by now!)

You really have to judge things like this on a case-by-case basis.
Surely you don’t want to have a knee-jerk reaction and fire off a
protesting Letter to the Editor every time a reporter doesn’t get
everything right in a story.  Even if someone writes a negative
story or letter about your organization, you don’t necessarily
want to fight back in print.  Typical advice of communications
professionals at a time like this is often to just let it die;
otherwise you risk keeping the story alive.  People who didn’t read
it on Monday will read it on Wednesday (and then maybe again on
Friday if your letter prompts a retort or leads to someone else
piling on).  Many times negative things that might annoy you don’t
really do serious damage to your reputation.  You risk making a
mountain out of a molehill.  And people could get the sense, as
Shakespeare said, “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”

However, if an allegation is false and potentially seriously
damaging to your reputation, then sometimes you must refute it
publicly.  Otherwise you run the risk of allowing the allegations
to stand as facts.  If you don’t give people your story, they are
left only with the other side to believe.  “It must be true or they
would have said something!”

So when you read something negative about your organization in
print or on the internet, take a step back.  Take a deep breath.
Analyze the extent of the damage. Is it just that your feelings are
hurt or you are annoyed?  Talk to your colleagues or — better yet
– talk to people among your most important audiences (community
members, customers, etc.). Listen to what they think the long-term
impact may be.  If it seems to be minimal, let it go.

But if the allegations and false statements build to a point where
important audiences may carry an image that is seriously damaging to
your organization’s reputation, then you probably should speak out.
Choose the appropriate vehicle to address those who read the
negative report — whether a Letter to the Editor, a more in-depth
Opinion Editorial piece, a full-page ad in a newspaper or a posting
on the internet.  State your case factually and from a positive
viewpoint without attacking your detractors.  Keep to the high
road.  People will respect you more.

OFTEN IT’S NOT EASY

In the case of Senator Obama, he and his staff decided to post
an extensive statement on their campaign website to refute these
claims.  Sometimes it is not easy to decide what is best to do.
Just be sure you think it through thoroughly before you decide
whether to respond or not. Consider your response and all the
consequences carefully.

# # #

SPECIAL NOTE:  Thanks for your patience, getting this edition a
little late.  Our anniversary trip on the Rhine River was
absolutely fabulous! If anyone wants details, just ask.  We have
about 300 photos we could share…or I could give you the
abbreviated version.

Until later this month — Keep Cool!

Judy Hoffman
www.judyhoffman.com
jchent@earthlink.net
1-800-848-3907 PIN 2145

JCH Enterprises, 116 Nelson Lane, Clayton, NC 27527, USA

QUOTE OF THE MONTH: “The lead dog gets the
best view.  The rest of the dogs’ view is butt ugly.  Of
course, the lead dog is also the first to fall into the
ravine.”
– Richard Saunders

TODAY’S DECISION
MAY BE TOMORROW’S PAGE ONE STORY

Before an organization’s leadership makes a decision, they really
should stop and asked themselves this question: “What will this
look like if it appears on the front page of tomorrow’s newspaper
or it becomes a TV station’s lead story on tonight’s evening
news?” How much better off a lot of organizations and individuals
would be if they had considered this.  It could save a lot of
embarrassment, or possibly avoid some serious reputation damage.

NEGATIVE EXAMPLES

There are plenty of negative examples to choose from.  Corporate
executives accept huge bonuses while large numbers of their
employees are being laid off.  Companies take the easy way out and
accept totally ineffective emergency response plans when they know
they have hazardous materials stored on site.  A state official’s
wife goes on a “cultural tour” to Europe that costs the taxpayers
megabucks (including expensive limousines and outrageously
priced meals which far exceed the allowances set for regular state
employees).

Look in your own daily newspapers for articles that are written by
investigative reporters, highlighting actions that leave the
general public dismayed or enraged.  You will probably find someone
who made a very poor decision, or series of decisions, trusting
that they would get away with it - that no one would notice.

A POSITIVE EXAMPLE

Contrast this with a story that came out in our Raleigh News and
Observer daily newspaper just over a week ago.  One of the leading
electrical utilities in our area is celebrating its 100th birthday
in 2008.  Not many companies make it to that milestone, so it is
worthy of a celebration.  The company’s first thought was to hold a
rather extravagant centennial ball for its employees.  But someone
within the organization - be it a senior executive, a public
relations professional, or someone else - had the good sense to
stop and reconsider.  How would it look for the company to be
spending a lot of money on this event to benefit only its own
employees when the company was in the midst of asking for a 16%
increase in rates?  With many people losing their jobs, the company
realized this would not be well perceived by their customers, many
of whom are already struggling to pay their energy bills, buy gas for
their cars and food for their tables.  They could just envision the
screaming headlines and the nasty Letters to the Editor, dragging
their name through the mud.

The centennial celebration planning committee went back to the
drawing board and came up with a very different idea.  For a
respectively moderate outlay, 1,500 cupcakes were purchased to
distribute to employees when they arrived at work on Monday.
More importantly, management instituted a new “Summer of Service”
program. Employees in the three states in which they operate
were encouraged to volunteer their services to one of 150
charitable projects including food banks, rescue missions, Boys &
Girls Clubs, the YMCA, the United Way, and Salvation Army centers.
This effort was personally spearheaded by some senior executives of
the company who led over 100 employees packing meals for an
organization fighting local hunger.  By assembling and packaging
40,000 meals, they believe they have extended a challenge to other
local companies to step up and similarly serve their community.

Now THAT’s a story any organization would love to see on Page One!
Consider this question, “What would this look like on Page One
tomorrow?” as you discuss future decisions.  Not only could it keep
you out of a lot of trouble, but it would go a long way toward
showing your company to be the Good Neighbor that so many corporate
annual reports claim they are trying to be!

# # #

Special Note:  Next month’s e-zine may be a few days late.  On
August 30, when I would normally be sending it out, I will be
finishing up what should be a lovely River Cruise on the Rhine,
travelling from Amsterdam to Basel, Switzerland! I’m not bragging,
just letting you know why I might miss my deadline…My
husband/business associate and I will be celebrating our 42nd wedding
anniversary. I’d consider saying “I’ll be thinking of you,” but
that’s probably not true!  And I always tell you honesty is the
best policy.

So, until early September…KEEP COOL!

Judy Hoffman
(919) 550-8302
www.judyhoffman.com
jchent@earthlink.net

JCH Enterprises, 116 Nelson Lane, Clayton, NC 27527, USA

QUOTE OF THE MONTH: If you just try long enough
and hard enough, you can always manage to boot
yourself in the posterior.

— A. J. Liebling

DO YOU HAVE ANY BANANA PEELS LYING AROUND AT WORK?

In old movies, a sure-fire gag was to focus the camera on a banana
peel on the sidewalk. Anticipation would build among the audience
as the poor, unsuspecting actor approached. Sure enough, the guy
would slip on the banana peel and land unceremoniously on his back
while the audience roared with laughter.

Early on in conducting my media training workshops, this image led
me to ask my clients during a brainstorming session if they had any
banana peels lying around. These were things that should have been
seen on the sidewalk waiting to trip them up. In the inevitable
post-incident investigation, it would quickly become apparent that
there were some fairly obvious things that should have been
corrected before it turned into a crisis.

SOME EXAMPLES OF BANANA PEELS

— An unusually high number of blowouts with a certain brand of tire
occur in Latin America, but no root cause analysis is undertaken
and they are marketed in the United States, where the number of
cases of rollovers causing death and mayhem becomes unbearably high.
— Several recent scientific studies have shown disturbing results,
but the drug has been a big money-maker for the pharmaceutical
company and they continue to market it aggressively.
— More than a few young men have accepted monetary payments to not
make public their complaints about sexual abuse at the hands of
various priests but no action is taken against those who committed
the abuse; they are simply moved to another parish.

WHAT CAN ORGANIZATIONS DO TO PREVENT SLIPPING ON THESE?

Suppose someone had asked the executives of Firestone/Bridgestone, Merck,
and the Catholic Church if they didn’t wish they had done whatever
was necessary to remove those banana peels from the sidewalk before
they caused high profile, reputation-damaging, and costly crises.
I’m positive they would have said, “Yes, by all means!”

So how can you systematically work to try to prevent slipping on
something similar in your business/organization? Decide on some way
(by department, by subject matter, by the applicable knowledge set,
etc.) to assign various individuals the responsibility of looking
into all corners of your business to try to uncover banana peels.
Ask them to review your policies and practices and basic
philosophies, trying to uncover any area where you could be justly
accused of:

— putting profits before the well-being of
employees/customers/neighbors
— not sufficiently protecting the environment
— not obtaining all required permits or following regulations
— practicing any kind of discrimination (racial, sexual, age)
— valuing facesaving above the health and safety of people

You must look at some of your policies, practices, and philosophies
from the point of view of how well you could defend them if they
suddenly became the fodder for a front-page story in tomorrow’s
paper or became spread in ugly ways on the Internet at lightning
speed. Or, another way to look at it is this: could you explain your
decision not to pick up that banana peel to your mother or one of
your children?

GO “ABOVE AND BEYOND” IN SEARCHING FOR THESE PEELS

The truly proactive companies, the ones that are successful in
protecting their corporate reputations and their bottom lines, look
for specks on the horizon before they become boulders. There are a
number of things you can do to assist in this effort:

1. Establish formal ways within the company for management to hear
negative information from their own troops without fear of being
shot as the messenger of bad news. These can include internal
grievance procedures, safety committees, etc. If and when a
situation surfaces that could be a potential problem, management
must DO something about it.
2. Cultivate loyal opposition from inside the company. Find
internal people who will ask the tough questions before they are
posed by external sources like the government, the media, or
lawyers representing aggrieved parties. Surrounding management with
“yes people” can be an invitation to disaster.
3. If your own folks aren’t experts in all subjects, bring in an
objective third party (consultant or subject matter expert) to
conduct a vulnerability assessment for the organization or an
attitude survey among the public.
4. Have open lines of communication so you can stay in tune with
what is being said about you among your various audiences -
employees, shareholders, customers, vendors, neighbors, local
officials. You should try to pick up on it early if there is any
“toxic information” (rumors, misunderstandings, misinformation)
circulating so that you can find ways to provide correct
information.
5. Keep alert to developing issues within society so that you can
check out whether you might be vulnerable to any of these “hot
buttons” that can be addressed before they develop into a
full-blown crisis.

IF IT SOUNDS LIKE A LOT OF WORK, YOU’RE RIGHT!

But good things don’t come easy. It’s not just that people might
laugh if you slip and fall down. Surely you would want to avoid
that public humiliation. However, it could also bring a lot more
serious consequences. Those banana peels could possibly cause
someone great harm, something you would have to live with for the
rest of your life. Or they could bring regulatory fines or
civil/criminal penalties which could make it difficult to make a
profit or meet your payroll or even stay in business.

It’s worth the effort.

# # #

SPECIAL OFFER: As long-time subscribers know, the new edition of
my book, “Keeping Cool on the Hot Seat: Dealing Effectively with
the Media in Times of Crisis” came off the press in April. My
thanks to those who ordered a copy. For those of you who
purchased either the original 2001 version or the 2004 version, if
you would like to have a copy of the new last chapter, please
e-mail me at jchent@earthlink.net. I will be glad to send it to
you as an attachment to an e-mail at no cost. In it, I provided
comments on the topics of Hurricane Katrina, the Sago Mine
Disaster, the Chinese toy recalls, the Duke lacrosse alleged rape
case, and the Virginia Tech tragedy. (I also made revisions
throughout the book to update the references and add some new
material, but the majority of new material is found in this new
last chapter.) For any of you who did not purchase the earlier
versions, you can obtain a copy at the e-zine subscribers’ price of
$17.95 plus $4.90 shipping/handling.

Until next month…KEEP COOL!

Judy Hoffman
jchent@earthlink.net
www.judyhoffman.com

JCH Enterprises, 116 Nelson Lane, Clayton, NC 27527, USA

QUOTE OF THE MONTH: “There are three kinds of people:
The ones that learn by reading. The few who learn by observation.
The rest of them have to (touch) the electric fence and find out
for themselves.

— Will Rogers

WHY CAN’T WE LEARN FROM THE MISTAKES OF OTHERS?

St. Petersburg, Florida holds very positive memories for me. My
mom and dad both grew up there. Even though our family moved to
Pennsylvania and, later, New Jersey, we spent our summer vacations
in St. Petersburg visiting family.

Therefore, my attention was caught when a friend pointed me to a
story on the Web about a crisis brewing in St. Pete. It seems that
people who live near a Raytheon facility in a residential community
known as the Azalea neighborhood have recently learned that there
is a huge plume of contaminated groundwater under their homes and
the near-by park. Irrigation wells have shown significantly
elevated levels of vinyl chloride, 1,4-dioxane, and
trichloroethylene (or, as humor columnist Dave Barry calls it,
“methyl/ethyl/lucy badstuff). All of these named chemicals have
been labeled as carcinogens, which means they have been found to
cause cancer, at least in laboratory animals fed large quantities.

To say this has promoted fear, anger, concern, or outrage among the
citizens would be putting it mildly. And when one of the citizens
of St. Petersburg happens to be the governor of the state, you can
imagine that there will be significant coverage of the story! Class
action lawsuits have already been filed on behalf of the residents
of 900 homes in the area.

What can we all learn from this developing story?

HOW DID CITIZENS LEARN OF THE CONTAMINATION?

They read about it in the newspaper! Ohmygoodness… Why, oh why
have companies not yet learned that they would be much better off
if they were the ones to communicate this type of information?
Sure it’s going to make people concerned when they hear that the
water they have been spraying on their lawns contains chemicals
that have been determined by environmental protection agencies to
be above safe levels. But the company could have coupled the
announcement with a lot of information to help residents put this
into perspective. They could have emphasized that it did not have
an effect on the community’s drinking water (which comes from the
City). They could have expressed their empathy for the residents
- recognizing that this would naturally upset them - and laid out
their plans for dealing with the situation. When the problem is,
instead, revealed by the media, the company immediately becomes
suspect, with people assuming they have been trying to cover it up.
The “black hat” of the villain gets placed firmly on their head
and will undoubtedly prove very difficult to dislodge.

HOW LONG HAS THIS PROBLEM EXISTED?

If it were just discovered, people might be willing to cut the
company some slack. But the newspaper pointed out that the Florida
Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has been aware of the
pollution on this site for the past 17 years! (A whole other
e-zine could be written about the problems that the folks with the
governmental agencies are going to have as a result of this
situation.) The site was owned by another company prior to
Raytheon’s purchase of it in 1996. However, it appears that this
predecessor company was also related to the Raytheon corporation.
Besides, a good “due diligence” study carried out before the
purchase would surely have pointed out such an environmental issue.

The current owner has been using a third-party company to test the
wells on the company site since 1996. But the final report on what
they found hasn’t yet been published! And the company didn’t offer
to test the wells of neighboring residents until March and
September of 2007. If you could have obtained access to the DEP
records on that testing, you would have seen that tests at three
residential wells showed the totals exceeded safe levels. There is
no escaping the fact that neither the company nor the DEP saw fit
to notify the neighbors until the newspaper got hold of the
information a year later. Wouldn’t YOU be mad if you lived in that
area?

WHAT SHOULD THE COMPANY HAVE DONE?

I can just imagine some of the conversations that took place within
the management board rooms. Hopefully the main concern wasn’t “This
is going to cost us a lot of money to fix!” While that was probably
a factor, I think it likely these were the sentiments actually
expressed: “Let’s not start a panic.” “We should wait until we
have ALL the facts.” “We need to do a second round of tests just
in case the results of the first one aren’t right.”

Where were the public/community relations professionals and the
corporate communications staffs? Why wasn’t someone standing up in
those board room meetings and yelling, “Put yourselves in the shoes
of our neighbors! Would you want your own family treated like
this? These people have a right to know about the problem. And we
need to tell them what we are going to do about it. If we don’t
grab this bull by the horns, we are going to be gored by our
neighbors, the elected officials, and the public in general. Let’s
DO the right thing!”

I don’t pretend to know what the “right thing” is, technically, to
deal with this situation. (One neighbor surmised that the company
could install filters on the well pumps. Sounds reasonable, but
I’m sure I don’t know if that’s feasible.) I do know that - when
groundwater contamination was discovered on my own company’s site
in New York back in the early 90’s - our president moved swiftly.
He convinced the DEC that we should be allowed to voluntarily
implement a “pump and treat” operation that contained the plume to
our site until we could work through an extensive clean-up
operation under their regulatory oversight. He and I and other
managers attended several meetings with local officials and area
residents to inform them of the problem, tell them what we were
doing about it, and honestly answer their questions. There was
obviously concern. But there was no panic — and there were no
lawsuits.

UNFORTUNATELY, SOME PEOPLE HAVE TO LEARN THE HARD WAY

See Will Rogers’ quote at the beginning of the e-zine. Time and
again we have witnessed instances where people find out things
that upset them from a source other than the one central to the
situation. Critics and extremists have ample opportunities to
frame the story, painting a bull’s eye on the company’s back. The
company already is presumed to be guilty of something terrible
because they tried to hide it.

Of COURSE it’s going to be uncomfortable to sponsor a meeting where
a lot of concerned citizens have tough questions for you or to go
personally knocking on your neighbors’ doors to inform them of a
situation that affects them. But you need to balance these
probabilities against the almost certainty of having the company’s
name dragged publicly through the mud by local newspapers whose
stories are often picked up by the national news wires. Add to
that how such sensational stories spread like wildfire through the
Internet, complete with blogs and chat room chatter that
characterize your organization in the worst possible terms. I hope
you will see that your choice is clear.

Note: For more details, got to www.tampabay.com and search for
“Plume Spread, Word Didn’t” published May 23, 2008 and related
stories.

PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF THERE IS ANYTHING I CAN DO FOR YOU IN THE
AREAS OF MEDIA AND COMMUNITY RELATIONS. Call me at 1-800-848-3907
PIN 2145 or e-mail me at jchent@earthlink.net.

Until next month…KEEP COOL!

Judy Hoffman

JCH Enterprises, 116 Nelson Lane, Clayton, NC 27527, USA

Quote of the Month: “Listening is more than waiting for your turn to talk.”
Becky McCrary

WHO DO YOU TRUST?

In the midst of a number of hotly contested political campaigns on national, state and local levels these days, this question has been coming up a lot. Voters have a hard time distinguishing between the positions of candidates on various issues. Or they get confused by contradictory statements made by both sides. Or they are jaded because they’ve heard so much campaign rhetoric over the years that doesn’t translate into positive action once the politicians get into office. What it often comes down to, when people walk into the polling booth, is voting based on a gut feeling about who they trust to do the right thing and make the right decisions.

As in Politics, So Too for Business

Trust plays a very important role in business. Customers of products need to be able to trust that companies make those products with their safety in mind. Donors to not-for-profit agencies have to trust that their money is going for the purpose they intended. Shareholders need to believe that the management team will do the best thing for their interests, not their own. Patients need to be assured that their doctors and nurses will take every precaution to prevent medical mistakes from making them a sad statistic. Neighbors who live close to facilities that use hazardous materials in their processes want to be able to trust those who operate those facilities to do so with great attention paid to safety and environmental concerns.

Unfortunately for all of us, there have been way too many examples in the past of organizations which did not live up to the trust placed in them. Recent stories include: the alleged fudging of scientific studies in support of a pharmaceutical; embezzlement of funds from not-for-profits; company executives telling shareholders to hold their stock while they are busy dumping their own; the administration of the wrong strength of a drug in an operating room that caused serious damage; telling employees that everything is fine until there is a big lay-off announced; a fireball that explodes in the middle of the night at a facility that has no employees there after 6 p.m. who could take action to prevent a conflagration and community evacuation.

When one organization’s reputation is tarnished, sometimes the black brush paints everyone in the industry the same way. And it sometimes leads to legislation being enacted that is an over-reaction that hurts everyone, including those who were trying to do the right things.

You Better Be Proactive

It’s too easy to sit back and say there’s nothing you can do - “Either people trust us or they don’t.” A much better approach is to spend some time thinking creatively about things you can do to promote trust within those audiences who are important to you, be they your employees, hareholders, donors, customers/clients, suppliers, neighbors, or others. What channels can you establish for honest, two-way communications? How can you demonstrate the openness of your operations? What information would people value having about you and your organization? How closely do you interact with those in your community? Do you give people an opportunity to get to know you? All of these things help to develop trust.

As Noel L. Griese of the Crisis Research Council once said, “Whether people LIKE you and TRUST you determines in part whether they believe the risks to which you expose them are acceptable or not.” This applies whether those risks are operational, financial, physical, or emotional.

Trust Matters

You might think it is just a nice thing to be trusted. It’s a whole lot more important than that! There could well be a major impact on your profitability or your viability as an organization. If people basically trusted you before an incident, they may be more willing to overlook one accident or mistake. If they perceive that you are genuinely sorry about something that occurred and are very empathetic with their concerns, they may not jump to calling the lawyers in to sue you.

My own work experience, as most of you know, was in the chemical industry. I spent the majority of my 17 years there doing things as the manager of community relations — going out to localclubs to educate people about our operations, answering their questions, inviting them in for open houses and plant tours, contributing to worthy causes, underwriting the costs for a community emergency notification system, participating in career days at the schools, etc. (If anyone wants to talk about these types of activities, feel free to call me at 1-800-848-3907 PIN 2145).

For those of you who work in other industries or for other organizations, I recommend that you spend part of a staff meeting one day discussing together what you could do to start to develop or enhance trust in your organization. It is not a frivolous matter for the “touchy-feely” types. It should be part of your organization’s ongoing efforts in reputation management. When that day comes when something bad happens - when you are faced with a crisis - you will want the people you care about to say something like, “I know this is a bad thing. But I know those people. They are basically good folks who have tried to do the right thing. I believe I can trust them now.”

# # #

SPECIAL OFFER: For those of you who work for an organization that has people get angry with them from time to time, I have a great deal for you! My new books on dealing with the media during a crisis have arrived — all 1,000 of them! I’m running out of space in my storage cabinets. To make room, I have decided to put the materials on “Dealing Effectively with Angry People” on sale. Usually the 28-minute audio CD that explains this four-step process is $29.95. And the book where this subject is a chapter, “Walking with the Wise,” normally sells for $16.95. For my e-zine subscribers this month, I am making the CD available for $19.95 and the book for $10.95. Or you can get them both for $27.95. Shipping and handling and sales tax for NC residents would be added to each order. Do not go through the website to order because you can’t get the special prices that way. Just send me an e-mail telling me what you want and providing me with your snail-mail address. You can either provide me with your credit card information or have me invoice you.

UNTIL NEXT MONTH — Keep Cool!

Judy Hoffman
1-800-848-3907 PIN 2145
www.judyhoffman.com

JCH Enterprises, 116 Nelson Lane, Clayton, NC 27527, USA

During March, two dramatic press conferences were held — one in
Albany, NY and one in Raleigh, NC. I’m sure all of you heard about
the former, while only North Carolinians probably heard about the
latter. But there are important lessons to be learned from both.

FORMER NEW YORK GOVERNOR ELIOT SPITZER

First came the revelation of sordid details about the Governor’s
consorting with highly paid prostitutes and arranging for at least
one of them to be illegally transported over state lines for a
tryst. How totally embarrassing and humiliating for himself and
his wife, who stood stoically by his side! Having built his career
on the image of “Mr. Clean,” prosecuting those who broke the law –
with particular attention on prostitution rings — he had to admit
to being a huge hypocrite. It was the hypocrisy that made it
headline news and the subject matter of the late night comedians’
jokes. So the first lesson is my oft-repeated statement in our
workshops: First you have to DO the right thing before you can SAY
the right thing.

At the podium, he did look somewhat contrite. But, as I listened,
he still did not sound sincerely apologetic. He said he had
disappointed himself, his family, and the citizens of NY
(noticeably putting himself first). He even started off his
statement calling attention to the things he had done right in his
public life. And, apparently not sure at that point whether or not
he would be forced to resign, he did not mention his plans in that
regard. It left me wondering if he was just arrogant enough to
think he might somehow get away with it.

None of these things — hypocrisy, arrogance, and thinking you are
above the law — are going to leave people with a good taste in
their mouths when your press conference is over.

CURRENT NORTH CAROLINA GOVERNOR MIKE EASLEY

Back in 2001, North Carolina’s General Assembly passed legislation
intended to decentralize and privatize the care of the mentally
ill. These ill-advised “reforms” led to horrible and widespread
instances of patients being poorly cared for (even abused), some
private agencies becoming very wealthy, and the taxpayers footing a
tremendous bill.

Over a period of several weeks in February, the Raleigh News and
Observer had run a series of articles that exposed all of this.
While the series ran, the Governor steadfastly refused to provide
his comments. Finally, with the pressure building to a crescendo,
he agreed to hold a press conference on March 4th.

I wish you could see the videotape of this debacle. The Governor
and the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services
took to the podium and laid down the ground rules for the press
conference — not a bad idea. Among them, the conference would
last for an hour and each reporter would be allowed just one
question. Then they proceeded to make comments for 47 minutes.
When they finally opened up the floor for 13 minutes of questions,
when a reporter attempted to ask a follow-up question, the Governor
haughtily dressed him down, saying he would not “reward bad
behavior.”

When another reporter questioned the Governor’s assertion that he
had “adamantly opposed the reform measure when they were proposed,”
the Governor could supply absolutely no documentation to support
that claim. (None surfaced later either.) With this aura of
confrontation so evident, it is no wonder that one of the
photographs that landed on the newspaper’s front page article and
on their website showed the Governor standing off to the side with
an expression of absolute fear on his face while the Secretary had
very obvious beads of sweat standing out on his forehead and upper
lip.

At the end of the hour, the Governor and the Secretary beat a hasty
retreat. To top it all off, in order to avoid any additional
questions, the Governor sent a decoy out to his official car in the
front while he slipped out the back! Talk about looking like you
have something to hide!

I was one of three public relations/crisis management professionals
called by the newspaper to provide an assessment of how well I
thought the Governor did in this press conference. We all agreed
it was a terrible performance.

WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN DONE BETTER?

First there is the fact that it would certainly have been much
better to avoid these crises. Mr. Spitzer shouldn’t have broken
the law. His was not a case of a momentary weakness. He had to
engage in a great deal of pre-planning to arrange for the money
transfers and the transportation of the woman to Washington, D.C.
And Governor Easley should have (1) fought harder against the
“reforms” when first proposed and (2) overseen the new system much
better so he could have caught the problems before they escalated
to crisis proportions. First, DO the right thing. Prevent the
crisis.

Given the fact that they had to hold those press conferences, there
are some things they could have done to improve the outcome. Mr.
Spitzer could have foregone patting himself on the back and gone
right to the sincere apology to his family and the citizens of New
York. He could have indicated right away that he would step down
and that he would be taking steps immediately to make a smooth
transition to the Lt. Governor.

And Mr. Easley should have been better prepared for what he knew was
going to be a tough press conference. He should have worked ahead
of time to put himself through his paces, holding mock interviews
with staff members throwing tough questions at him. He should have
made his (and his Secretary’s) introductory remarks brief and to
the point, without making any broad statements which he was not
prepared to back up. He should not have tried to muzzle the
reporters. It’s not a bad idea to set some ground rules, but it’s
never a good idea to get confrontational with them. And ducking
and hiding at the end just made him look afraid and foolish.

Press conferences in difficult situations are never fun. But you
don’t have to do things that make them even worse than they need to
be.

# # #

NOTE: There has been a slight delay in getting the 2008 new
edition of “Keeping Cool on the Hot Seat: Dealing Effectively with
the Media in Times of Crisis” published. For those of you who
already ordered it at the pre-publication price of $15.95 (plus
shipping),it should be here early next week and will be sent off to
you ASAP.

For the rest of you, it means there is still time to let me know
you want to take advantage of this offer. Just e-mail me at
jchent@earthlink.net and let me know you want one.

Until next month….KEEP COOL!

Judy Hoffman
jchent@earthlink.net
www.judyhoffman.com
1-800-848-3907 PIN 2145

JCH Enterprises, 116 Nelson Lane, Clayton, NC 27527, USA

Quote of the Month: “Always do right. This will
gratify some people and astonish the rest.”

Mark Twain

OH, BUT IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOU!

I know you’d rather not think about it. It’s frightening and it
may seem unlikely. But with the horror of the shootings at
Northern Illinois University still fresh in our minds, I’d like you
all to recognize that violence actually could happen in your
workplace.

This was brought home to me pointedly this past week. I was
invited to be a speaker at the 2008 Business Environmental and
Safety Training (BEST) Conference in nearby Raleigh. After my
speech was over, I attended a presentation by Dr. Stephanie Jenal, a
psychologist at Duke University’s Professional and Personal
Development Program and their Employee Assistance Program (EAP).
With her permission, I would like to share with you some of what I
learned.

VIOLENCE IN THE WORKPLACE STATISTICS

Of all violent crimes, 18% occur in the workplace. That’s
1.7 million workplace assaults. Granted, most of them are in small
convenience stores, jewelry stores, and in taxis. But there are
still a large number that occur because people attack someone with
whom they work (enraged over a real or perceived slight or
criticism, distraught over losing their job, a relatively minor
disagreement escalates, etc.) Most recent National Institute of
Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) figures suggest that
violence is the fourth leading cause of death in the American
workplace (after motor vehicle accidents, falls, and being struck
by an object). We all know that we hear about these types of
things in the media from time to time.

PROACTIVE ORGANIZATIONS NEED TO TRY TO PREVENT IT

It is tempting to think, “There’s nothing I can do about it. If
someone is going to snap, it’s going to happen.” That’s a defeatist
attitude. Dr. Jenal outlined a number of things organizations can
and should do. Of course each organization will have to customize
the items below to make sense for their own organizations.

(1) Establish an executive “threat assessment team” made up of a
representative of senior management, management of various
departments, human resources, EAP, legal, risk management, facility
management, public relations, and the unions.

(2) Try to heighten your awareness of individuals who are at
increased risk of committing violent acts. Look for those who are
socially isolated, exhibit lack of self-control in various
situations, have a history of confrontations or chronic disputes
with management, do a lot of complaining and blaming of others for
their problems, exhibit paranoia, demonstrate unusual interest in
accounts of workplace violence, own a gun, and may abuse
drugs/alcohol.

(3) Develop clear “zero tolerance” policies for violence in the
workplace so everyone is very clear about the consequences of
roughhousing, verbal abuse, etc.

(4) Train employees in the principles of conflict resolution.

(5) Develop a system so that people can anonymously provide
information about someone whom they fear is exhibiting signs that
could escalate to workplace violence. This confidential
information collection and evaluation system could be as simple as
a locked box or as complicated as a staffed “hot-line.”

(6) Attend to employee grievances in a timely manner. Provide a
safe way for employees to get their feelings heard before they
explode because “No one is listening to me!”

(7) Do a thorough job of pre-employment screening. And

(8) Examine termination /lay-off procedures to try to preclude
anyone from being pushed over the edge during that painful process.

MAKE SURE YOUR CRISIS PLAN ADRESSES THIS TOPIC

After twelve years of conducting my workshops around the country, I
still find the same thing. When we brainstorm the potential crises
that could bring the media and/or upset, frightened, angry people
to an organization’s door, it is a rare company that voices
workplace violence as a possibility. (Usually those who do have
actually experienced it already.)

A good crisis plan should have a section devoted to this subject.
It has to be more detailed than “Call local law enforcement and
ambulance personnel.” Of course you would do this. The
authorities will step in and do what they are supposed to in terms
of tending to the injured and trying to capture the perpetrator.
That’s not your job. Your job is to (1) personally reach out to
the victims’ families to offer any kind of support you can (getting
them to the hospital, staying with them for moral support, etc.)
and (2) caring for the rest of your employees who are traumatized
(allowing them to take the rest of the day off, arranging for grief
counselors to come in so they can talk about their fears and
emotions, etc.).

DO A THOROUGH DE-BRIEFING

After the immediate incident is over, you need to review your
procedures and policies to see if there is something you might have
done differently to prevent it. Look at those items numbered above
to see if you neglected to do as good a job in one of them as you
should have. Review your security procedures. Do you need to limit access
to the office more rigorously (swiping badges or installing locks
with coded keypads, etc.)? Your employees — and maybe even the
media or the general public — will be looking to see if you made
any improvements to try to minimize the chance that this could
happen again.

Certainly I hope that this type of tragedy never happens to you
and your organization. But it is not in anyone’s best interests to
put your head in the sand about it. The cartoon above my desk
which shows an ostrich with its head in the sand has a thought
bubble reading, “Nothing bad can happen to me.” But it also shows
a lightning bolt coming out of the sky, aiming right for her
posterior. The caption reads, “When you insist on burying your
head in the sand, most of your anatomy is left exposed!”

This topic is too broad to cover in a short e-zine. If you would
like to learn more about it, go to www.workviolence.com.

# # #

UNTIL NEXT MONTH — Keep cool!

Quote of the Month:
“Humility is keeping yourself in perspective.”

Unknown Author

COMBATING “TRASH TALK” IN CYBERSPACE

What if you woke up one morning and found that your organization
was being slammed on the Internet? It could be a vicious rumor
that was being spread about your product being unsafe. (This was the
case in an e-mail message I received from a well-meaning friend who
intended to warn me about the dangers of a particular brand of
deodorizing plug-in that could supposedly cause house fires.)

Or it could be a video clip uploaded to YouTube so that it can be
seen over and over again. The video could have come from an actual
TV news show (as when rats could be seen scurrying around on the
floor of a local restaurant) or something recorded by a novice on
his cell phone (such as happened when a testy exchange occurred
between a customer sales representative for a nationally known
company and an unhappy customer).

Or a rogue site could be set up by one or more persons unhappy with
your organization. (A client of mine who was going through a long
strike found extremely ugly things said about them on a web site
being widely advertised in the community.)

It doesn’t matter if the negative talk is (1) about something bad
that really happened within a company (accident, environmental
release, lawsuit); (2) something completely made up to embarrass or
damage the company; or (3)something in between — a kernel of
truth surrounded by a lot of rumor and innuendo.

WOULD YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO?

This sort of thing happens every day now. No organization is
immune. Yet not that many companies have thought about what they
should do to combat this type of cyber attack. You may
instinctively know that putting out a traditional press release is
not the way to go. Bringing the subject up in a whole new
communications vehicle may well just serve to spread the damage.
But many of us — particularly those of us known as “baby boomers”
— may not be technologically savvy enough to know how to fight
fire with fire. Or to use a different analogy, we are not sure how
to contain a half-acre brush fire and not let it grow to be a
50,000 acre conflagration.

Assuming it is not likely that we will succeed in taking a crash
course on how to effectively deal with cyber terror once it has
broken upon us, it helps to know someone who is skilled in these
tactics.

HELP IS ON THE WAY

In a previous e-zine, I promised to tell you when a helpful CD on
this subject would be available. That time is now. Jonathan
Bernstein is a highly respected, nationally known crisis management
expert. All kinds of valuable information can be found on his
website at www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com. I highly recommend
that you go there and look around at everything he has to offer.
Read some of the hundreds of articles he has posted there. Sign up
for his free twice-monthly e-zine that will keep you abreast of
various topics related to reputation management. Look through his
“store” at www.thecrisismanager.com for training documents and
other CD’s he’s produced either by himself or with other experts.
(There’s one he did with me and another consultant on how to combat
nasty tricks that reporters try to pull on unsuspecting
spokespeople — also on my web site.)

The CD I am recommending now is called “Internet Counter-
Intelligence” which he did in conjunction with Diana Huff.
In it, he tells everyone why every organization needs
to be prepared to address a cybercrisis, how you can find out when
bad things are being said about your organization, and things you
need to do to get your side of the story out into cyberspace.

Time is critical in every crisis. When it comes at you with
the speed of the Internet, you will be glad if you’ve prepared
yourself ahead of time to protect your organization’s reputation as
best you can.

# # #

SPECIAL NOTE ON PRE-PUBLICATION PRICING OF NEW BOOK EDITION

I just finished making a lot of changes to the 2004 version of
“Keeping Cool on the Hot Seat: Dealing Effectively with the Media
in Times of Crisis.” So many crises have occurred in the past four
years that required comment, epecially since several colleges
continue to use the book in their courses on public relations and
crisis communications. Material has been added about Hurricane
Katrina, the Sago mine disaster, the recalls of Chinese toys, the
alleged rape by members of the Duke lacrosse team, the JetBlue
Airways Valentine’s Day meltdown, and the Virginia Tech tragedy.
The price of the book remains the same — $19.95. But as an e-zine
subscriber, you can order your copy at the pre-publication price of
$15.95 (plus shipping). Just let me know by e-mail that you want
to order a copy and give me your snail-mail address. I’ll mail it
off to you with an invoice as soon as they become available
(expected to be in early or mid-March).

ANOTHER NOTE: You probably realize this month’s e-zine looks a
little different. It’s not as fancy as before, but some people
were having trouble downloading the more stylish one or the text
was running into the margins. I’d appreciate hearing from you as
to whether this plain text version is better for you or you liked
the old way better!