Own it, don’t avoid it

Friends,

This week we learned yet again, how important it is to have a good strategy for bad situations. When a terrible piece of news threatens your business, you must be ready. One of the worst things you can do for your own PR, is to attempt to push the thing away.

I don't know about you, but I find one of the most infuriating personality traits to be the gas lighter - the person that no matter how red handed they are, there is always an excuse of culpability or an avoidance of any responsibility.

When I worked in big agencies and had big teams, I always taught that it was part of the process to immediately admit wrong doing and own your actions. That is the ONLY way to deescalate a situation. I cared less about what happened when team members messed up and always more about how well they owned it and created a plan to clean up the mess.

And yet this week, we again had a large institution mess up a response to a crisis. The University of Delaware went SILENT too long after yet another young woman was violated on campus. It's a public safety issue. It's a public relations disaster. And the longer the silence, the greater the public roar.

I don't know what conversations are happening internally that are so obviously avoiding reading the room.

Even a blanket statement that we care deeply about our student's safety and have been instructed to not comment on this case to ensure full justice is served, is better than nothing said. And something said early is better than something said late.

While Delaware did circle back and issue a statement, the student and public trust was already broken. There is not room for a heavy pause in these times, the moment itself requires the action.

These horrors on campuses nationwide are reoccurring and one would think any college comms team would know better by now.

Crisis calls for ready leadership, not silence.

Don't be a tricked into thinking otherwise.

Karen