Bird Watching: Crisis Punditry

Lately it seems crisis management experts have become quite comfortable publicly commenting on the crisis du jour.      

I’m not fond of drawing conclusions about a crisis while it’s ongoing.  The primary reason:  it’s tough to have a robust opinion based only on publicly reported information.  To me, that’s like a physician offering a second opinion based only on a description of symptoms by the patient’s mom.      

Yet, many crisis pundits (colleagues and competitors alike) give no such pause.  When a new crisis strikes, crisis management pros swarm like swallows to blogs, newspapers, magazines and broadcast news studios.      

I’ve begun watching this space closely like a birder, taking notes on different styles.  I now fancy that crisis punditry can be categorized along some ornithological profiles:    

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Analyzing Five Commonly Held Beliefs about Managing 2.0 Crises

Crisis managers prefer to operate within established protocols, rules, laws and beliefs.  Therefore, it’s not surprising these have already been established in the nascent area of 2.0 crises – those that erupt online.  However, the online networking space is changing so fast it’s prudent if we didn’t etch our beliefs in stone just yet.

This is the underpinning of my article in the current issue (Winter 2010) of The Public Relations Strategist, one of the official publications of PRSA.  My intent is not to be contrarian, but rather to be more complete.  The full article is available through the link above, and a PDF copy is also available here — “Sudden Impact: An analysis of five commonly held beliefs about crises that erupt online” — and also in the Articles and Links section of this Web site.

In case you want the Cliffs Notes summary:

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Sharing a Lament with our BCP Brethren

A pair of business continuity planning (BCP) experts recently voiced concerns about their profession.  Tim Armit from the U.K. recently observed that the scope of business continuity too often gets restricted to physical disasters and IT failures.  Ken Simpson later weighs in from Australia with an observation that BCP is becoming more fixated on management systems and certifications, rather than the holistic ability to manage incidents and recover.

We who focus on crisis/reputation management should echo their concerns.

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Three Tough Q’s: Judy Hoffman

When I first formed the mission of this blog, I knew it would be an interesting experiment.  Crisis management experts and communications coaches are a spirited bunch.  Encouraging dialogue and debate on these topics should lead to interesting, educational places.  That’s the goal for all ye who browse here. 

What I didn’t count on, however, was how interesting the networking has become in such a short time.  Take Judy Hoffman, for example, founder of JCH Enterprises.  The blog was a few posts old when Judy reached out, sent warm complements and also offered me a copy of her book, Keeping Cool on the Hot Seat.  It’s a solid read of the foundations of dealing with (mostly local) media in times of crisis.  Check it out, if you get the chance.

We’ve traded emails and my fellow North Carolina neighbor graciously accepted the offer to answer Three Tough Q’s:

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