London Olympics 2012 - the risks

Street musicians at London's Columbia Road Flower Market on a Sunday morning - going to Columbia Road early on Sunday, buying some flowers, having coffee and bagels and soaking up the atmosphere is a London tradition for many.

Edelman held the latest in their series of always fully subscribed breakfast panels in London this week.

Each month, Edelman gather a selection of experts to address a topical communications issue.

This week, I joined a panel discussing the likely communications risks around London 2012 and the Olympics. The panel included Andrew Trotter, the distinguished Chief Constable of British Transport Police, Marshall Manson, Edelman's social media guru, Roger Mosey, Veteran News & Sport Editor and Director of London 2012 Olympic Games Coverage for the BBC and Martine Ainsworth Wells, Marketing & Comms Director for London & Partners, the official promotional agency for London.

The Chief Constable's key message was planning.It's become the norm, he said, for us to focus on learning the lessons after an incident.Wouldn't it be better to spend some time now thinking about the risks and putting plans in place to manage issues effectively before they happen?

Everyone agreed that London 2012 would be the first truly social media Olympics.With all the benefits that brings, but also the risks.

And the cheap camera-enabled cellphone, partnered with social media, means very little is truly private nowadays.

There's also a risk that something a member of staff says on their personal social media account will bring your organisation into disrepute.

Engaging staff on the risks as well as the benefits of social media means more than handing round a list of rules (although the BBC has some good guidance for staff which might form the start of a discussion).

Having a good crisis plan for your presence at London 2012 is vital.  And a good plan will cover most of the requirements for a social media crisis.  Who is in charge in a crisis? Who leads on communications? How do you get in touch with your people to verify the facts quickly? How can you approve and issue a statement rapidly? Do you have the ability to get rapid expert help on areas like social media?

It led to a discussion about the potential difficulties at London 2012 of communicating with your executives, teams and the media.   It's already difficult enough some weekends to make a mobile call in London because the networks get congested.  This will undoubtedly be worse in 2012.  Will you have landlines?  Will everyone have the numbers?

And does your organisation already have a presence on social media? It's a bit late to think about this when you're reputation is at serious risk.

Although there's a lot to think about when preparing a crisis plan, it needn't take over your life.  With a little help you can create a robust plan for your organisation. And you need to rehearse it. But with one year to go, there's no time to waste.


You can view interviews with the Edelman panel here.

Norway: "We will have more democracy, more openness, more humanity"

My last visit to Oslo was for a European party - as Norway hosted the Eurovision Song Contest in 2010.

The images of central Oslo we're seeing on our screens this weekend are very familiar.

A CNN reporter said one of the most insightful things about Friday's shocking events this morning (24 July) during a memorial service at Oslo Cathedral.  In Europe, he said, young people get involved in politics at a much earlier age than in the US.   Leaders often emerge young.  It's entirely possible that a future Prime Minister of Norway was murdered on Friday.   The twin attacks were an attempt to destabilise the current leadership and remove the next generation of leadership from the Labour party in Norway.

When a crisis happens, a useful guide for leaders is to remember the "3 Cs" - Care - about every detail in your conduct and words; Compassion for those affected should show in everything you say and do; and Control, making sure that you are in control of what is being said about the incident.

How have Norway's leaders measured up against this?

At the service in Oslo Cathedral this morning the King and Queen of Norway were seen to quietly wipe tears from their grief-stricken faces.  Royal families are a focal point, a unifying element, at a time of national mourning, even for those who are not royalists.  Royal families are usually trained not to show emotions, but in a small country like Norway at a time of overwhelming grief, this was genuine, moving and entirely appropriate.

Pic:Bjørn Sigurdsøn, Scanpix/Office of the Prime Minister

The Prime Minister of Norway, Jens Stoltenberg, has shown outstanding leadership during this crisis for Norway.  His words - measured, carefully chosen - and absolutely focussed on the grief and fear felt by the people of Norway.

He was asked on Saturday by a reporter if the tragedy would change Norway (known in the business as an "idiot question", another asked a survivor who described how she hid from the gunman "how did it feel?") whilst the search was still going on for survivors.  The Prime Minister replied "We will not speculate." He also said he would not get involved in questions about the police investigation. He was taking control of the agenda.

It was totally right.   The Prime Minister wanted to focus completely on the sense of national and personal grief, to gently assist a period of calm and dignity.

His words this morning in the Cathedral, broadcast around the world, could not have sent a clearer message.  How would Norway respond?  Would it retaliate?  No, said Mr Stoltenberg.  "We will have more democracy, more openness, more humanity."

At a time of senseless tragedy, people need leaders to guide them on what to do, and even sometimes on what they should think and feel.   These powerful words will help to guide the people of Norway in the coming days.

That leadership will be much needed this week, as shock, disbelief and grief may turn to anger for some.

The emotion at Oslo Cathedral is a reminder of how important it is for global companies and organisations to be aware of the news agenda round the world every day.  When a tragedy happens, it's time to immediately review launches, marketing, promotional activity, events, competitions and stunts.  Do we have a campaign in Norway? Should it be pulled?  How does it fit in with the "3 Cs rule?" If in doubt, the failsafe position is "yes".   In general, it will be right for companies also to cease non essential press activity in Norway for the time being.

Companies undertaking social media campaigns in Norway should have a very good reason to continue with them.   Check your company website and Facebook page.  You should not hesitate to change it if you are not sure.  You should never tweet during a national religious service of this kind.  Even if it is an expression of sympathy and solidarity, wait till the end. Even if genuine, beware that activity of this kind can appear promotional and must be done with the utmost care, if at all. Companies assisting with funds or facilities in a major incident should do so quietly and without publicity or logos.

Offence in a period like this lingers for a very long time.

Trouble at the Yard

All the attention in the UK has been on the appearance of Rupert and James Murdoch at the House of Commons Select Committee in the British Parliament.

But this story has many dimensions.  It has not been a good week for the Metropolitan Police.

The highly respected Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, has resigned over the fact that the Police had been employing as a consultant a former News of the World employee who has now been arrested in the phone hacking investigation.  Then Assistant Commissioner John Yates, one of London's most experienced and senior officers also resigned, principally over how the investigation into phone hacking by journalists has been handled.  He has led many important and successful investigations, including the successful prosecution of six serving police officers for corruption.  There have been many major criminal enquiries in the past where wrong strategic decisions were taken that did not result in senior resignations.

These resignations, whilst suiting the mood of the media in a story that has now become a daily frenzy, are not good news for London.  The police are preparing for one of their biggest security challenges - the Olympics in 2012 - and continuity of leadership by good officers is required.

Sir Paul also faced questions over his stay with his wife at a luxury health spa when he was recuperating from cancer surgery.  The spa shares a connection with the former News of the World employee who is a consultant to the police and to the spa.  The Commissioner says he he did not know of this link (he was a family friend of the owner of the spa) and in any case he publicly declared that he had received the hospitality.

The core element of every reputation is trust.  Police Officers remain amongst the most trusted of any occupation in Britain.  Retaining that trust is vital if the police are to do their job properly.

A vox pop on BBC News this evening indicated that ordinary people feel that those in authority are not held to account when things go wrong.

But whether the resignations of the Commissioner and Mr Yates were necessary to maintain trust in the police in the long term is questionable.

They have lost their posts and the public have lost their expertise and leadership at a critical time for the capital.

In a crisis, where mistakes have been made, the resignation of a senior official sometimes helps the public and stakeholders see that responsibility is being taken and public concern understood.

Resignations for expediency should never be part of crisis planning.

Now Dick Fedorcio, the long serving and respected Director of Public Affairs at the Metropolitan Police has been criticised by a Parliamentary committee for his role in the engaging of the News of the World employee as a consultant.   Dick is an honest and dedicated public servant.

If you are not in the UK and are struggling to keep up with the phone hacking story, please do not worry.  People in the UK are losing track of it too.  And there's a long way to go.

Trouble at News International

When I was a schoolboy, I delivered Sunday newspapers to peoples homes in Dundee. Some customers just had the News of the World. In the nicer streets they liked to have a quality title with the News of the World slipped in between it, to keep up appearances. If you didn't buy it, you usually ended up talking about what was in it.  The paper educated newspaper delivery boys on matters not covered in the school curriculum.

Now it's gone.

It's not what happens to your company. The public judge you by how you deal with it.  Even when things go wrong in your company due to errors or omissions on your part, you can still recover if you deal with it promptly and honestly.

As the Times newspaper in London put it in a very considered leading article today: "We all make mistakes, and we measure ourselves by how we handle them".

Danny Rogers, the highly respected and measured Editor of PR Week,  quoted in today's Guardian, is amongst most who feel that News International and Rupert Murdoch were much too slow to react to what was a fast growing crisis.  "The longer this drags on, the more damaging it will be in the long term", he said.

If you feel that's stating the obvious, it is, nonetheless, true.    However a powerful organisation that is used to calling the shots usually does not react well to being challenged.   But as the Times says this morning, "if you do not own your mistakes, your mistakes will own you."

Advised by Edelman,  News International is taking major steps on the road to putting things right (it is a very long road ahead).   A venerated British newspaper closed, executives gone, full page apology ads today in most newspapers (see above) promising more updates on further action, and most important of all, Rupert Murdoch has been to see the parents of the murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, whose phone was allegedly hacked by someone acting for the News of the World.  The solicitor for the Dowler family stressed that the main purpose of the meeting, which came at Mr Murdoch's request, was for him to apologise as sincerely as he could.   He told them it "shamed his family name".

Journalist friends say it's significant, too that Murdoch has appointed Tom Mockridge as Chief Executive of News International.  He's known for his integrity and high professional standards.   That's extremely important.  It's also important that people are talking about the way the Murdoch owned Times newspaper and Sky News have reported his troubles prominently and impartially.  Watching Sky last night or reading the Times this morning, if you did not know Murdoch owned them, you would not be given any clues by the copious and tough coverage.  This is a strong signal that News International is serious about journalistic integrity.

The most basic crisis rules: acknowledge the problem, apologise where appropriate, tell the public what you are going to do to put things right, and then put things right and above all act with honesty and openness do not change however powerful you are.

Students of crisis management will be watching closely as Rupert Murdoch's action plan unfolds.

Social media no longer optional in a crisis

It can take up to two hours after a serious incident for social media to carry the correct facts about an incident, according to early results from s study by the University of East London.   After an air crash in Cork, Ireland, in February 2011, the first comment appeared on Facebook one minute after the crash.

Writing in the Crisis Communications discussion group in LinkedIn, UK crisis veteran Bob Wade, a former UK Government crisis adviser, comments that press officers can no longer regard social media as outside their sphere in a crisis.   The University of East London study, says Bob, finds that tweets go through three phases during a major incident:

Perception - information seeking and sharing
Comprehension - piecing the facts together
Projection - sharing opinions and blame.

Bob comments that it's obvious that crisis communicators need to be in at the Perception stage.

In a crisis, establishing the facts is the most difficult task in the early stages.  It's vital that you are rock solid on any fact before you go public on it.  Speed is the enemy of accuracy.  Yet we need to claim back the ground as the authority on information on our organisation is a crisis.  So it follows that it's now essential to engage quickly on social media as well as mainstream media.

The mainstream media remains the driver of opinion in a crisis in my view.  It's a question of volume, and that may change.   But the symbiotic relationship between social media and the mainstream outlets means you have to deal with both.



You can join in the discussion on the Crisis Communication group by joining LinkedIn


(Posted from London)

What we say isn't always what other people hear

Dubai International Airport this morning

Writing today in the Gulf News, Tanvir Ahmad Khan, a former diplomat and Chairman of the Institute of Strategic Studies in Islamabad, takes issue with a recent article about the Muslim world by Christopher Hitchens in Vanity Fair.   He argues that perceptions of the Arab world are often coloured by polemical pieces written by people who rely on a few incidents as if they represented the views, practices and culture of this huge region.

The article drew me, because I've become extremely interested in how, in a globalised world, it's easy to think our statements are received the same way wherever they are read.  The opposite is the case.

In her excellent book "Understanding Arabs" Margaret Nydell says that language alone is one of the biggest barriers to common understanding but overlaid is the misunderstanding that comes from differing perception of concepts, discourtesies and relationships.  And that works both ways.  She quotes a political scientist who went to Eqypt to study the press.  "They are all just emotions", she said, "there is no data in these newspapers".  They are being produced for a different world and different culture.

But it reminded me that our media statements, especially in a crisis, will be interpreted very different in Cairo or Beijing.

People are not the same the world over.

And in the age of globalisation, it's becoming urgent that we study and understand these differences.  Not wrong.  Not bad.  Just different.

(Posted from Dubai, United Arab Emirates)

Quotable quotes and a golden throne at Media Relations in the Digital Age

If I may be totally candid, I don't always feel I get the respect I deserve in London. That's going to change when conference organisers see how I was treated in Hong Kong when I chaired the Media Relations in the Digital Age conference. Conference organisers in London take note of the wonderful way the Chinese have of according status to distinguished chairpersons.

Picture:Andy Oliver.  Regal Hotel Conference Centre, Hong Kong

Back to London tomorrow night on the wonderful Emirates A380.  Then its back to reality and squeaky swivel chairs.

Here are just a few of the great quotes from the Hong Kong conference.

Bella Ling, Director of Integrated Communications, Taiwan & China, SAP China:   "Being cautious with social media does not mean being scared."

Genevieve Hilton, Regional Head of External Corporate Communications, Asia Pacific, BASF: "If people are talking about you, wouldn't you rather be in the room?"  (on why your company should be on social media).

Max Sim,Vice President at Bluecurrent Group: "When targetting bloggers, go for the magic middle."

Andy Oliver, SVP Asia Pacific at Lewis PR:  "Communicators have never had so many ways to communicate their messages."

Lars Voedisch, Managing Media Consultant, Asia Pacific, Dow Jones & Co: "Same game, slightly different rules.  Now it's wires, print, broadcast and social media."

Jon Wade, Head of Digital Practice, Asia Pacific, Weber Shandwick:  "Measure outcomes not outputs in PR campaigns".

Chris Deri, CEO, Burson-Marsteller China: "Walmart, as an economy, is as big as Poland.  We need to look wider at how to break through with our clients mission statements".  (See yesterday's blog).

Thanks to all the speakers and delegates in Singapore and Hong Kong for two unforgettable conferences!

You can follow the debate at the conferences by searching on Twitter for #smrdigital

(Posted from Wanchai, Hong Kong)