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The 1998 Hessert Sports Crisis Survey

SURVEY FINDS TOP ATHLETIC ORGANIZATIONS ALWAYS ON THE EDGE OF A CRISIS, BUT NOT SO OFTEN WITH AN OFF-FIELD DEFENSE

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Get your copy of the report to find out the state of crisis experience and preparedness of professional and amateur sports organizations.

  

Athletic Management - October/November 2002
One Voice on Crisis Management

Part of the Game Plan

A crisis, by definition, means bad news. But, with a team approach and a playbook of options, your department can pull of a spectacular comeback.

Whether an athlete is arrested for a drug or alcohol offense, or a coach is accused of sexual harassment, no crisis seems like it will ever produce anything positive. But the truth is, when handled correctly, even a negative event can end up leaving your stakeholders with a more positive image of your organization.

Sceptical? First, there's the classic Tylenol Crisis Case. You may remember this from the early 80s. In 1982, seven people in the Chicago area died after using Extra Strength Tylenol Capsules, a pain relief product from Johnson and Johnson. It was eventually determined that someone was opening packages (we didn't call it tampering yet) and putting cyanide in the product.

No one at Johnson and Johnson believed that the Tylenol producers were at fault. Nevertheless, they took a brave step. They took responsibility for their product. Regardless of who had put the poison in the capsules. Johnson and Johnson began an aggressive nationwide media blitz asking all stores to pull the product from the shelves. They asked all citizens to immediately stop taking their product. The announced that they would reimburse all affected parties.

And they followed up with a plan to make sure something like this would never happen again - the tamper-proof package (which is accepted as standard today). You can probably guess what happened next. The public stopped using the product and no more fatalities occurred. Tylenol products were either returned or discarded. And while the company initially took a hit in revenue from the recall, and Tylenol initially lost market share, stock rose dramatically and the product line continues to be strong today.

(I was thinking of putting a sports related story in but I don't couldn't think of one. Any ideas?)

How did they turn a potential disaster into a positive case study?
They applied the basics of crisis communication - Regret, Reform, Responsibility and Restitution.
Regret - They immediately informed their stakeholders that they regretted these terrible incidents had happened.
Responsibility - Even though they were not responsible for the actual chemical poisoning, they took responsibility - saying no product of ours will cause harm.
Restitution - In addition to compensation for the families affected, the company refunded fees to all consumers who had purchased the product.
Reform - They initiated a change in packaging to ensure product safety that has become the industry standard.

But how do you prepare for a crisis that you don't even know is going to happen? The first step is to ensure upper-level management buys in to the importance of crisis planning. And that may be easier said than done. But the decisions to recall all Tylenol products couldn't have been made by the Public Relations Department. They were made by the President, the CFO, the Legal Department and the Public Relations Department -- in other words, upper-level management.

Your crisis team should be made up of your core people - President, Coaches, Legal, Public Relations and a few others that might relate to your potential type of crisis, Doctor, Finance Director - whoever you think you might need.

After you've assembled your team, the first unpleasant thing you do is actually ask yourself, "what could go wrong?" This is a difficult exercise because we don't like to think in the negative manner and you need to put a few heads together to ensure you really cover all bases. But trust me, it's better to think it, plan for it and never use it than it is to face a crisis with no plan at all. You may want to consider bringing in a consultant to assist with this part of the planning. It's often easier to discuss possible "messy" incidents when an outside party has brought them up.

After you've determined what could happen, you'll need to spend some time deciding how likely each scenario could be.

And finally you'll need to collectively decide how prepared your organization is. Even when you've done your planning there are a few things to keep in mind. Remember that information is the most important element of a crisis. The public wants it. The media is desperate for it and you don't always have it - or at least all of it. And the fact is, most initial reports on a crisis get it wrong. They're eager to get something out and it's often flawed.

Don't let an initial negative (but incorrect) media report get you down. In the heat of a crisis, the public will continue to watch for information and when you get the story right, they'll listen. But you do have to get the story right and you have to get it fairly quickly.

So how do you do that? It goes back to the plan.

It's very important that your organization speaks with one voice during crisis and the best way to accomplish this is to have one spokesperson. Surprisingly to some of your colleagues, that isn't always the Communications/PR director. In fact, the appropriate spokesperson is different dependent upon the kind of crisis and the severity of the crisis.

For example, if an athlete is involved in an alcohol related incident, the coach may be the appropriate spokesperson. But if there have been a string of alcohol and drug related incidents within the organization, it may be the Athletic Director or even the President of the University who needs to step up to the mike. And speaking of stepping up to the mike - make sure all of your crisis communication team members have media training. I like to think of it like an inoculation. Sure, you're going to go over the specifics if the stuff really hits the fan, but you'll be way ahead of the game if your spokesperson understands the basic rules of engaging the media.

While we can't predict the future, and probably wouldn't wish for a crisis to test our ability to respond, there's great probability that your organization will face crisis, nonetheless.

Keeping these guidelines in mind may help you not only survive a crisis, but actually improve your organization's image when it comes to dealing with a negative situation.

 

 
 
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Other articles and tips in this section have included Guidelines for when Reporters Confront You , Crisis Leadership Team, Sports Crisis Survey, Criminal Behavior Hits Colleges, Emergency Media Response and more... . Please contact us if you're interested in any of the other articles.

Sports Crisis Plan

Athletes, coaches and sports executives can suddenly find themselves or their programs in the middle of controversy. Properly responding to sensitive issues will determine the impression you leave on others. Proving you are managing the crisis and making corrections to deal with it determines the image you leave with your fans and the media. Establishing procedures BEFORE a crisis occurs can make the difference.

The following steps are an initial checklist of what to do when a crisis occurs:

  • Gather all the facts quickly
  • Be accessible
  • Demand to see the evidence
  • Anticipate questions
  • Decide if a news conference or news release is needed
  • Rehearse prior to news conference
  • Speak with a consistent message
  • Reveal bad news yourself
  • Prepare detailed written news release
  • Use short opening statement at news conference
  • Explain corrective steps you're taking
  • If possible, do live, not taped, interviews for fewer misquotes
  • Be able to cite past, present and future strengths