Every crisis management expert has their own guiding tenets – principles and ideas they use to shape their strategies and responses. Leadership coach Dan Greer today shared some advice gleaned from legendary GE PR man Jack Welch’s book “Winning,” on his top five guiding assumptions. One of my favorites:
There are no secrets in the world, and everyone will eventually find out everything—Information that you try to shut down will eventually get out, and as it travels, it will certainly morph, twist and darken. The only way to prevent that is to expose the problem yourself and tell the truth.
Transparency is the name of the game these days. Between traditional journalists and the new breed of I-Reporters brought about by the Internet era, nothing stays secret for long.
The next is Welch’s most positive assumption:
The organization will survive, ultimately stronger for what happened—There is not a crisis you cannot learn from, even though you hate every one of them. After a crisis is over the tendency is to put it away in a drawer. Don’t, teach its lessons every chance you get.
Strong organizations find ways to use crises to better themselves; even in the worst situations there are opportunities to be seized.
JB
Jonathan Bernstein
www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com