QUICK TIPS FOR “KEEPING COOL”
A monthly e-zine on crisis management brought to you by Judy Hoffman

Quote of the Month:”A moment’s insight is sometimes worth a life’s experience.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes

THREE HEADS ARE BETTER THAN ONE

I know better than to choose political sides in an e-zine like this. And it is not my nature to kick someone when he is down. But as I read the accounts in the newspapers and on the Web of the many ways President Bush’s nomination of Harriet Miers for Supreme Court justice went wrong, something jumped out at me. I just had to comment upon it in relation to crisis management.

An article in The Washington Post by Peter Baker and Amy Goldstein on October 28th included this sentence: “President Bush bypassed his own selection process to pick Miers, his onetime personal lawyer and White House counsel since February.”

Uh-oh.

Even those of us not in the inner circles of the Beltway know that there is an elaborate process through which those who are considered for high appointed positions in government are “vetted.” The dictionary definition of “vetting” is “to examine or appraise expertly.” The process is geared toward helping the decision maker come up with the best choice which will ultimately prove successful. It assumes access to experts with special knowledge in a particular arena. Their job is to advise the decision maker, laying out the pros and cons, the advantages and disadvantages of a proposed course of action. One of the things that should be looked at closely is the possible existence of any potential pitfalls.

This was not a situation that suddenly sprang upon the President. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist had been seriously ill for some time. Everyone anticipated his imminent resignation or possible death while in office. Those responsible for “vetting” new nominees had plenty of time to undertake their deliberations. Presumably they looked at a number of potential nominees before deciding on Judge Roberts, who was easily confirmed. Surely there were others on the “short list” from which Roberts was chosen.

One has to wonder, then, why President Bush bypassed this carefully developed and thoughtful process and instead chose someone to his personal liking. If he had been riding high in the opinion polls or had developed solid bipartisan support for his political agenda, it might possibly have been more understandable that he would feel confident enough to strike out on his own. However, this was not the case. He should have been more amenable than usual to listening to his advisors, trying to pick their brains, and coming up with the most sensible choice.

Parallels to Crisis Management Leadership

When a crisis has erupted in your organization, do you want The Boss (president, plant manager, executive director, chief elected official, etc.) to go sit in his/her office alone and try to figure out what should be done? How could one person, no matter how highly placed in the organization, possibly know all that needs to be known about a given situation, be it an operational problem, a policy concern, or a human resources issue.

The Boss needs to convene a Crisis Management Team. He should make sure that the people asked to participate have expertise in the specific area in question or have special skills and abilities which will allow the organization’s leadership to communicate what is happening and address the concerns of the various audiences who will be affected. The Boss needs to listen carefully to the opinions and insights of these people – and of legal counsel as well — before formulating a plan.

In my crisis management and media training workshops, I never give a crisis scenario to just one person and ask him or her to work out how they would handle it and what would be said to the media. Occasionally I query the participants about how helpful it is to have even one or two other people working with him/her to think through all the various repercussions of the crisis. Without fail, everyone agrees upon the value of working with other people to discuss ideas, brainstorm questions they are likely to get, and develop the best possible wording of their “must air messages.” The teams which perform the best “on camera” are those who have taken the time to have the crisis management team members role-play as adversaries, asking some tough questions of the person designated as the spokesperson.

John Wayne Doesn’t Live Here Any More

This highly acclaimed veteran actor often played the role of the hero who would often go it alone. Against all odds, he would single-handedly defeat the bad guys, be they outlaws or enemies in war. In my opinion, it is extremely dangerous to think that this approach will be successful in today’s world of either business or government. You work hard to choose the best possible people to surround you as you run your organizations. You need to use them when the going gets tough. Yes, The Boss needs to provide leadership of the Crisis Management Team. But never forget that it is a TEAM effort.

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Special Note: This past weekend I was honored to be asked to address The Association of council Members and College Trustees of the State University of New York at their Fall Conference at the Sagamore on beautiful lake George, NY. Also on the program was Mr. Daniel Henninger, the Deputy Editor of The Wall Street Journal’s Editorial Page. As a higly respected journalist with 34 years of experience, he sounded an alarm bell which should be noted by everyone who has to deal with the media. He used the term “Gresham’s Law of Information.” Its basic tenet is that bad information (news “analysis” instead of factual reporting as well as raw opinions posted on various internet forums) means that bad information is driving out good information. As if learning to deal with the mainstream media wasn’t hard enough, now organizations of all kinds must be alert to what unscrupulous people with their own agendas can do to your personal and/or corporate reputation.

Special Offer: Some of you know that “Walking with the Wise,” the anthology with advice from 70 “mentors and millionaires” (guess which one I am!) has been selling on my web site for $16.95. It is an interesting book, made up of 70 chapters by a wide variety of authors who provide advice on skills needed in business or for self-improvement. My chapter is entitled “Taking the HEAT: A Powerful Tool for Dealing with Angry People.” I am offering it to my e-zine readers at 50% off the list price. If you’d like to take advantage of this (it makes a nice Christmas gift!) just go to my “order books” link on this site and place your order. Then send me a separate e-mail right away that alerts me to the fact that you heard about it through the e-zine so I’ll charge you only $8.50 plus $1.50 shipping and handling.

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Permission is hereby granted to forward, print, circulate, or quote materials from this e-zine as long as credit is provided as follows: Judy Hoffman of JCH Enterprises (JudyHoffman.com).
Until next month…KEEP COOL!

Copyright (C) 2005 JCH Enterprises