TCC 14: The elephant would like to see you
/Leaders who don't understand the ins and outs of issues/crisis management often bring an element of wishful thinking to their media interviews. Even though they know, on an intellectual level, that a reporter is almost certain to ask them an obvious, important and potentially controversial question about the issue or crisis at hand, they prepare for the interview as if that question can't possibly be asked. And when it does invariably get asked, they try to dance around the question, weasel out of it or they get flustered and crash and burn.
You've obviously heard the expression 'the elephant in the room'. But if you don't know where it originates from, it's from an 1814 fable titled 'The Inquisitive Man' by Ivan Krylov. It tells the story of a man who goes to a museum and observes all kinds of tiny details but fails to notice an elephant that's just standing there. Apparently people liked the phrase and so it stuck around.
We've all seen executives or celebrities make the mistake of ignoring the elephant when dealing with a crisis (e.g. the Boeing 737 Max crashes, United Airlines beating up the doctor on the plane, the Rob Ford crack scandal, the Tiger Woods affair scandal, the Ellen DeGeneres-is-not-a-very-nice-person scandal...the list goes on).
Why was the response to each of these crises lacking? It had nothing to do with how smart these people were or the access they had to crisis management advice/resources, etc. To me, the ultimate error in each example was that the people tasked with managing the crisis tried to do so without addressing the elephant in the room.
I thought I'd try something a little different in this week's newsletter, so instead of another block of text, here's a video (less than 4 mins) from my online media training course in which I discuss why, as a leader, you never want to ignore the elephant in your issue or crisis-based media interviews:
Elephant-sized takeaways:
If there's a glaringly obvious core to the story that you want to gloss over or distract reporters from because you fear it will be unpleasant, understand that the instinct to hide it or minimize it is your brain playing a trick on you. You can't make the reporters stop asking questions about it. Avoiding it will only make them more determined to get to that core.
If you're going to introduce the elephant in the room, do it early. Lead off the interview with it. Do it on your terms. A great example of this is the Maple Leaf Foods listeria crisis from 2008. Very early on, the company's CEO Michael McCain did a short YouTube video where he very much introduced the elephant in the room (that a food contamination had led to illness and loss of life). You can check out that video here.
Introducing the elephant early can change the tone and outcome of a media interview for the better. You can't always prevent negative things from happening but you can control your company's response to those things. Introducing the elephant helps your company come across as transparent, empathetic and responsible.
When introducing the elephant, always try to connect it to some positive action or response. Outlining the problem is great but providing a proposed solution, action plan and/or apology makes for an even better response. And always be sure to connect the response to your audience.
That's it for this week. As always, thanks for reading! And if you liked this video element, pls let me know and I'll include more like this in the weeks to come.
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