Jim LukaszewskiAmerica's Crisis Guru® - BETA

Two Minute Drill: Fear of the Media (#10)

Name: Two Minute Drill: Fear of the Media (#10)
Uploaded: 2021-03-09T15:00:05+00:00
Duration: 2 min 3 s
Channel: Jim Lukaszewski
Description: In this two‑minute episode, the host presents the eighth profile of failure in crisis communications, dubbed “Fear of the Media.” He explains that when a…

9 Mar 2021 · 2 min

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2:03

In this two‑minute episode, the host presents the eighth profile of failure in crisis communications, dubbed “Fear of the Media.” He explains that when a crisis deepens, stakeholders begin to ask painful questions such as “What did you know and when did you know it?” and “Why did you wait to act?” These questions are hard to answer and can damage reputation. The host argues that the only way to preserve reputation at this stage is complete candor – defined as “truth with an attitude delivered right now.” He urges listeners to be brutally honest, as candor is the sole safeguard when a crisis reaches this point. The episode ends with a call to obtain the full list of nine failure profiles.

Chapters

Welcome to another edition of the Two Minute Drill. We're working through the list of profiles in failure, and this is number eight. And it's interesting. This one I call Fear of the Media, because if you've done the other seven we've talked about, then you suddenly recognize that you're kind of trapped and have to do something that starts getting this thing resolved and you begin to realize just how deeply you are stuck in the mud of a crisis situation. The concept here is that if you let things go this far, then the questions turn to the ones you're going to hate most. What did you know and when did you know it? What did you do and when did you do it? Why did you wait until this point in time to begin doing something productive about it? You know all those ishy awful questions for which there really are never good answers. The issue here is that feeling your stomach when you recognize that you're going to have to talk about things you don't like and probably take some things back. And as I've said so many times, that's the time to be as candid as you possibly can remember what candor is. Candor is truth with an attitude delivered right now. When it gets this far, candor is the only thing that will save your reputation. If you'd like a copy of the full list of 9 profiles and failure, the information appears below. See you next time. Thanks for being here, Sam.