Number 12 of 52 Lifelong Communication Lessons: The sky is falling
March 23, 2015 |
| O. J. Simpson and his attorneys reacting to the not-guilty verdict on Oct 3, 1995. |
The year was 1995.
O. J. Simpson is acquitted. The Washington Post and The New York Times publish the Unabomber's 35,000-word manifesto. The West Coast Express commuter railway opens, linking Mission to Downtown Vancouver.
A bulk of my consulting life involved crisis communication. I worked on major accidents, food poisoning, bomb threats and just about anything else you can imagine.
In
‘95, I was working with a regional authority to move public opinion on a highly
sensitive and emotional plebiscite decision. The details of who and where are
not important. What was critical about this scenario was the public had voted
against something purely on an emotional basis. They felt the management was
not transparent, as they had presented their case via a “mocked up” collective.
This was a regular practice in the 90s. Companies made up organizations to
represent their interest. A total lack of transparency, in my humble opinion.
This
particular decision had the potential to be a huge disaster for the city
involved. It would carry massive economic and societal impacts, according to
the experts in the field.
When
I first met with the key players, it was like a room full of Chicken Littles.
The sky was falling and they wanted me, an out of town PR person, to fix it. As
I sat in that first meeting, I heard them talk about creating another “mock
organization” to re-tackle the issue. Huh? Is that not Einstein’s definition of
insanity – doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result? I suggested they might want to hire someone else if they wanted to go that
route.
After
much discussion, the group agreed to move forward with transparency and
openness. It meant admitting mistakes, sharing lots of data (slowly) and having
spokespeople who would take a stand and be upfront consistently.
It
was political and sometimes messy but overall we started to quickly see a shift
in public opinion. My pollsters were testing the community every three weeks
and could see the dramatic change in understanding and sentiment. So much so,
the pollster ran the numbers again because they did not believe it could move
so fast.
It
took six months of sharing information in a strategic yet open manner. We
treated the public with respect and did not dumb down or sanitize the messages.
It was real and realistic.
We
knew the messages connected when people started to deny they had ever voted
against the issue in the first place. Once they had the information, they did
not want to admit they supported a bad decision.
At
the end of six months, the community had moved from over 80% against to 77% in
favour. A humongous shift.
Communication
lessons:
Treat
people respectfully. They are smarter than you think.
Don’t
let people keep making the same bad decisions and be willing to walk if they
do.
Don’t
push too much information too fast.
Fast forward to 2015. There is a transit referendum happening right now in Vancouver that could benefit from a big dose of respect for the public.
Fast forward to 2015. There is a transit referendum happening right now in Vancouver that could benefit from a big dose of respect for the public.
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