Who is polishing your lamp, Luke? a Lesson about Apologising!

What a cheek! Luke Watson using the media and stating that he is not available for selection, is not just cheeky, it is brazen and an insult, and who ever advised him to say that, needs advice themselves.

By now I thought he would have at least apologised for his statements. Instead he has constantly spoken about the fiasco as a transformational issue.

Come on, who is advising this guy? I saw a cartoon many years ago about Florence Nightingale that said: “Florrie, if you need help in polishing your lamp, be careful who you get to do that polishing’’

Who is polishing your lamp, Luke?

One article said that he had resorted to deep thought and prayer. Has he been listening?

In Crisis Communications, the art of the humble apology is an important one. While crisis communications largely remains a case-by-case practice, the author Laurence Barton writes in the book, crisis leadership now that there are two essential immediate steps both individuals and companies should always use to control the media storm during a scandal.

1. Come clean. Issue a statement admitting to wrongdoing and accepting full responsibility (assuming the allegations are true, of course).

2. Apologize. Sincere acts of contrition can go a long way in getting back into the good graces of the public and media.

Every crisis must be handled differently, but in every crisis there should be a party accepting blame, and that party should apologize* for being the cause of that blame. The end result – The Company’s or person’s integrity and reputation must be maintained at all cost. Who said so: Warren Buffett and David Glass, CEO of Wall- Mart!

The problem is that apologizing does not come easily. The starting point of any reputation recovery process is a believable apology.

According to Wharton marketing professor Lisa Bolton, three key components ensure that an apology will work:

1. The CEO must deliver the message,

2. A solution to a problem must be outlined (Like a product recall process) and;

3. Some remuneration should be in place.

The initial response is the most important,” she says. “The general advice is to admit mistakes and try not to be defensive. Get out in front of the story. Get your admission and mitigation out there as well, and consider financial compensation. Also, customize your response in relation to the magnitude of the failure.”

So here we are, down the road …No apology, but a cute media release, declaring himself unavailable, still citing the same transformational reasons.

Come on – Luke and advisors, do you honestly think a media release, is going to restore relationships with spectators, team mates and little boys who dream to play for their country?

So you were upset about family issues! So you want to be your own man. But let’s be fair and direct here.

Nelson Mandela has been forgiving in his behavior, words and actions. Why not you?

Here is a story that may illustrate what I am saying: There were two priests travelling together. One was old and the other young. On the way, they came across a shallow river.

A young ravishingly beautiful lady was sitting by the side, waiting for help to cross the river. The old priest without hesitation lifted her up in his arms and carried her over the river. Seeing this, the young priest was much agitated.

Once on the other side, he rebuked the elder, questioning his morals, values, etc. This went on frequently, every half an hour. Finally, after two hours of putting up with this, the elderly priest remarked: ” Son, I have put her down back at the riverside, why are you still carrying her?”

Now is that not a lesson to start thinking about apologising?

Unless of course, you want to be carrying the burden forever…..

Never sign anything you have not read!

An article called “Mayor comes clean on white ban” caught my attention today.

Not only does the article depict some compliance issues , it also shows up how easy it is for managers to damage reputation, when they do not understand how it manifests.

African Eye news reports that the manager of Mpumalanga’s Ehlanzeni district municipality in Nelspruit, Hugh Mbatha, claims he had been unaware he was sanctioning a ban on the appointment of white service providers when he signed a memorandum issued to senior staff.

Mbatha publicly admitted at a “setting the record straight” press conference on Tuesday that the instruction to officials who manage service delivery in six major towns and five large rural regions was unconstitutional and would have illegally discriminated against white businesses on the basis of their owners’ race.

Mbatha admitted he had signed the memorandum that was circulated to staff on the matter, but said he had not read the full document and therefore had not realised that it included an explicit ban on white businesses.

How can you call yourself a manager, when you sign documents without reading them? Is part of being a manager, not about leading and controlling?This seems to me rather a case of a decision that has backfired and now people are scurrying around trying to repair the damage to the reputation of the municipality.

“There were 30 resolutions in the [memorandum]. In this one resolution, somebody with a hidden agenda is deliberately playing the race card with the obvious intention to create unnecessary hatred between whites and blacks in our district,” said Mbatha.

“The matter was so serious that it could easily have been taken up by the SA Human Rights Commission,” he said.

Last week, however, Mbatha vigorously defended the ban on whites, saying: “We are capacitating blacks [through this new policy] so they too can get big business and become millionaires.”

This statement clearly reflects a misunderstanding of the concept of *** stakeholder management. Stakeholder management principles state that you should be inclusive and not exclusive and that you should care for all relevant stakeholders. Instead of trying to balance the rights of one stakeholder group against those of another, or make decisions based on power relations, managers should care for all stakeholders and use a rule such as, “Care enough for the least advantaged stakeholders that they not be harmed; insofar as they are not harmed, privilege those stakeholders with whom you have a close relationship” (Burton and Dunn, 1996).

A rule such as this one places relationships at the heart of the decision process and emphasizes the firm’s responsibilities to all stakeholders, those who are least advantaged as well as those with whom the relationship is particularly close.

Given that relationships are inherent in our existence, we have relationships to particular individuals and groups. It is on these particular individuals and groups that we focus our attention, not on some abstract idea of an individual or group that might exist such as “suppliers” or “customers.” We have relationships with real, concrete suppliers and customers, suppliers and customers that can be separated from one another and identified.

It is obvious that this decision was nothing other than one of those political decisions that did not take all factors and issues into account.

When challenged about his about-turn on Tuesday, he said: “All I can say is that it is impossible that we would have allowed black business to be given contracts at the exclusion of whites.”

The contentious policy was formulated at a two-day management lekgotla two weeks ago, when municipal officials tried to review Ehlanzeni’s broad-based black economic empowerment (BBBEE) policies.

The resulting resolution was circulated to council staff as part of an urgent memorandum signed by Mbatha, that read “stop appointments of white consultants, contractors and any other service providers, and empower black consultants and any other service providers”.

So obviously he was not the only one who did not read the document. I guess it is like the law of commission and omission. It is not what you saw, it was you deliberately did not see or omitted to notice. 

Mbatha initially dismissed critics as being “out of touch with the reality of South African business”, but on Tuesday conceded he had been wrong.

Mbatha and Ehlanzeni executive mayor Khosi Mkhonto also lashed out at the whistleblowers who had alerted the media, accusing them of bringing the municipality’s reputation into disrepute by creating a “media frenzy”.

Did they honestly believe that they can control the flow of messages, just because they are managers?

“This policy was formulated at our lekgotla. A lekgotla is a gathering, where all present are given a platform. We are therefore surprised that somebody decided to voice their unhappiness in the media instead of at the lekgotla itself,” said Mkhonto.

I bet that if any one person objected at this lekgotla, they would have been ridiculed. After all, group think would certainly have been enforced. It is a known fact that patterns of decisionmaking causes reputation risk and that often there are psychological issues in group settings like that.

Mkhonto then stressed that the municipality faces “imbalances” in the demographics of its suppliers and contractors that went beyond race.

Supply Chain risk management is more than just demographics. It is about ensuring professional standards irrespective of race, colour or creed. Do we still wonder why there is lack of service delivery, when the wrong criteria is used to evaluate performance?

“I would estimate that 99% of our managers are males, while a majority of business is given to whites. Now we are not ashamed to say we need more of a gender balance and also need to create space for people with disabilities,” she said.

*** The term ‘stakeholder management’ refers to the development and implementation of organisational policies and practices that take into account the goals and concerns of all relevant stakeholders.

Reputation Xchange link

I am so excited today. I just found out that my blog is one of the links on Dr Leslie Gaines-Ross’ blog – reputation Xchange.

The reputationXchange blog is intended for those interested in news, information and observations on building, sustaining and recovering reputations. This blog comment on all matters related to reputation – company reputation, CEO reputation, board reputation, country reputation, industry reputation, you name it!

http://www.reputationxchange.com/

Dr Ross is Weber Shandwick’s Chief Reputation Strategist. She is the author of the books CEO Capital: A Guide to Building CEO Reputation and Success (John Wiley & Sons) and Corporate Reputation: 12 Steps to Safeguarding and Recovering Reputation (2008, John Wiley & Sons).

Visit www.corporatereputation12steps.com for more information about the book.

Weber Shandwick is a leading global public relations agency with offices in over 79 markets around the world and is a unit of the Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG), which is one of the world’s leading organizations of advertising agencies and marketing services companies.

For more information, visit http://www.webershandwick.com/

How up to date is your Crisis Management Plan?

When last have you updated your crisis management manuals and protocols?

Does your protocols take into account latest technologies such as Twitter, Blogging, RSS, mobile phone bulk messaging systems and camera phones?

Maybe it is time to revisit your plan!

Updating Tips

1. Take a close look at all the other plans in the company – Emergency Response, Health & Safety, Disaster Recovery, Security & Business Continuity plans. Each of these have communication components which you may want to incorporate in your overall plan.

2. Take a close look at definitions. The words transparency, disclosure and public opinion needs to be carefully defined and brainstormed. For instance, transparency is affected by close periods(share trading), laws and regulations and stakeholders perceptions.

3. Compare your Crisis Communication plan to best practice when it comes to strategic communications planning. Some tips:

• Who are your target audiences? Writing a Crisis Plan is a Strategic Communications planning exercise.
• My advice would be to proceed as follows:
• Diagnose the current state of communication including the key messages and main targets /stakeholder groups to be clearly defined. With other words who needs to know what? What do they know already, etc?
• Identify key stakeholders or your target audience. Segment key stakeholders grouping into directors, senior management, employees, etc.
• Identify contact points i.e. best points or places to reach your target audience.
• Develop communication strategy – now only do you decide on the methods and media to use.
• Identify communication objectives for each target audience/stakeholder.
• Select media best positioned to deliver the message. Take a look at both basic methods as well as Web 2.0 technologies.
• Develop message strategy for each target audience (stakeholder).
• Decide on implementation strategy (Tactics).
• Compile a Communication- Strategy Matrix. 
• Do a Budget
• Implement & Deliver messages
• Monitor, evaluate and adjust communication program as necessary

For me the biggest problem occurs when people immediately think of the tools to communicate with. By thinking through this process you will include measurement and delivery evaluation techniques, therefore ensuring impact of message and return on investment.

4. Here is an extract of a questionnaire that I use in my 3 day Reputation Protection & Crisis Response Master Classes to prompt delegates thinking about their plans. Work through this as well.

Crises Communication Management Questionnaire Extract

1. Do you (your organisation) have a clearly defined crises management plan in place?

2. Have you made a “worst case list” recently of what could happen to your organisation?

3. Have you a written plan in place, up to date and circulated and accepted by all stakeholders?

4. Have you conducted a dry run of the preparedness of your plan?

5. How long will it take you to enact your plan, from the moment a crises takes place?

6. Does your plan contain a plan of action for what would happen if an Aids infected employee turned up in the cafeteria and most employees refused to come to work?

7. Have you appointed spokespersons that will communicate with all stakeholders if a crisis should occur?

8. Have you arranged and got approval for CEO’s actions and statements in an emergency?

9. Have you assigned organisation spokesmen and alternatives on a 24 –hour, 7 –day duty (Until done)?

10. Have you benchmarked your emergency procedures versus the rest of competitors in your industry?

11. Have you had your spokespersons trained in media interviews and other communication techniques?

12. Have you prepared alternate plans, with added specifications for each category (The plan for an explosion is not the same as that of a wildcat strike)?

13. Have you minimum legally complied with all the necessary legislation that can impact on the organisation in time of crises? Acts such as the Occupational Health and Safety Act, etc.

14. Have you clearly defined and identified the circumstances that deserve the label of disaster, emergency or catastrophe?

15. Have you assigned crises designation decisions to a specific person or group of persons?

16. Has these people received specific and adequate training so that they will know what to do?

17. Have you created a policy manual, a how-to-manual on developing and implementing a crisis communication plan and circulated it to all concerned, and have they verified their understanding of the contents?

18. Have you determined the competencies needed to communicate effectively in a crisis e.g. Public speaking, meeting skills, press conference question handling, writing skills and planning strategies

Scoring:

If you answered yes for every question, congratulate yourself. If you answered no, your organisation is at risk of damaging its good reputation through lack of preparedness for unplanned visibility caused by potential crises. Do something about it. After all, Noah built the Ark, before it rained.

Bus company closes ‘indefinitely’ – An example of what happens when relationships go out the door!

Bus company Remant Alton has shut down its operations indefinitely after a three-week strike by drivers led to thousands of commuters being stranded.

Bus company closes ‘indefinitely’ Wed, 08 Oct 2008 12:43:34 GMT

Here is a typical example of the impact of poor relationships. Although this is in the realm of Labour Relations, it also serves as an example of stakeholder relationships going awry.

Relationships are a fragile thing. Constant monitoring of perceptions, opinions, expectations and experiences in dealing with various stakeholders is vital.

SA one of least safe places in Africa, African Governance Index shows!

This just adds to the lessening of South Africa’s reputation as destination of choice for tourists and investors in Africa.

South Africa scored extraordinarily low score in the safety and security category in this year’s Mo Ibrahim Index of African Governance. In that category, it ranked 42nd out of the 48 sub-Saharan countries.

When will Government and other stakeholders realize that we need a concerted effort against Crime?

A Country’s  reputation is its greatest asset and risk.

Read more about the survey results – SA one of least safe places in Africa ,Tuesday , 07 Oct 2008 05:17:45 GMT

Improving Communication – A Performance Consulting perspective

When last did you get a request for a communication training intervention?

Have you ever given it a thought as to what they mean if they ask : ” Please help us to improve communication?”.

Do they mean:

• Raising awareness among the managers of the importance of improving communications with the employees?
• Do they mean the training of skill or will?
• Do they mean internal communication strategies should not be Uni-directional?
• Do they mean more activities such as intranets, hotlines, small and large group meetings, scripts for managers, open doors, open e-mail systems,
  face-to-face communication, phonically and conferences, video conferences, and so forth?
• Or do they mean more information-sharing, persuasion, interpersonal, group, organisational, written, oral, electronic, task or relational communication.

By now it must be certain in your mind that to solve the underlying problems associated with communication, you will have to define what the real cause
is!

This will mean that as a Communication consultant you will need to adopt a Performance Consulting approach. Or as one writer commented :”We need to look at Performance problems systemically, to involve all aspects of the organisation, and then to apply comprehensive solutions to performance
problems.”

It has long became apparent that one -off intervention do not solve problems. A few years ago I was the Chairman at a Competency based HR
Development conference where the renowned expert on HR Competencies, Pat McLagan used the following analogy to, illustrate the use of a training
intervention in the wrong context: ” If your finger represents a training intervention, and a glass of water represents the organisation, what changes
if you run a training intervention?

She dipped her finger in the water and illustrated that only the finger got wet. The glass of water did not change.” There is virtually no change, if
the system does not change”. And as Organisation Development experts will tell you: “A bad system will always beat a conscientious employee“.

The problem with traditional training is that it often does not sort out the problem, because the problem may be knowledge, system, skill or
environmental related.

THE PROBLEMS WITH THE TRADITIONAL TRAINING APPROACH

• Up to 80% of newly learned knowledge and skills are not fully applied by those employees on the job
• Most training approaches focus on learning instead of on the transfer of the newly learned skills onto the job
• Often lack of skill and knowledge is not the most frequent cause of existing performance problems. It may be work-environment related.
• Too often training is not the most appropriate solution for a performance related problem.

The Communication consultant therefore has to become more than just a trainer, but rather someone that can contribute to increased performance in
the workplace. After all if improved communication practices do not lead to enhanced performance, then what is the purpose of trying to improve it ?

As communication consultants we have to evolve into PERFORMANCE CONSULTANTS – internal or external consultants whose goals are to help clients (line management) improve performance, and the bottom line and the way the organization is perceived by stakeholders. Consultants who are performance trouble-shooters. Someone who can track down sub performance and performers. Someone who can find out what’s wrong and fix it fast. Not just someone who hide behind their specific discipline’s masks.

However to make this transition, communication practitioners will not only have to undergo a paradigm shift but they will need to acquire new skills,
competencies and techniques. This means that we move beyond only assessing training needs to identifying and addressing the communication performance needs of the people.

It means that we execute performance gap analysis and that we view problems systemically. It means that opposed to only designing and delivering training materials we provide services that assist in changing or improving performance, using such instruments as the design of communication performance models and training interventions .

It means that instead of focusing on learning we focus on performance. BUT MOST OF ALL, IT MEANS HELPING MANAGERS THINK THROUGH PERFORMANCE PROBLEMS AND FIND SOLUTIONS, EVEN IF IT IS NOT TRAINING RELATED.( Especially the communication parts of problems).

THE DEFINITION OF THE WORD CONSULTANT

A CONSULTANT is anyone who has some influence over an individual, Group or Organisation but has no direct power to make changes or implement programs. You are acting as a consultant when you advise someone who is in a position to make and enforce changes.

The role and function of an internal consultant is thus essentially to help improve individual and organisational performance. In doing this, various
methods may be used. However, all of them will be involved in finding out what the problems and opportunities are, assessing the options and providing
some guidance, and advice and information. This seems a rather simple approach and in some cases it is.

However, when you see the problems and opportunities within the context of the politics of organisational life then the consulting process is a complex
one. It involves talking with many different people, at different levels, with different perceptions, in order to grasp the main facts and feelings
about an issue. It then involves a careful assessment to see what can be done that will make an improvement. Then comes the difficult job of feeding
back the data and assisting clients to implement the necessary interventions.

Thus whether you are an internal or external consultant the consulting elements will stay the same i.e.

• Understanding client’s needs
• Gaining relevant information
• Providing advice, and;
• Most of all having the interpersonal and organisational skills to influence change

So what are the skills and competencies necessary for successful internal consulting performance consulting ? They include:

Business Knowledge

In essence, Performance consultants are Businesspeople who specialise in human performance rather than just finance, marketing, operations or public
relations. They know the business they are operating in. They can read the annual report and make some meaningful comments, but even more important
they can speak their client’s language.

Specialist Knowledge

If you are a Communications Consultant, you will need to know not just organizational communication as a subject, but also inter-personal and intra-personal communication technologies. Training in Public Relations and related fields is a must.

(For instance, if your organization is preparing an integrated Crisis Management & Crisis Communication plan, would you rather work with a specialist crisis communication consultant such as a PR company or with a Crisis Management Consultant that has experience in not just Crisis Communication, but that also understands organizational and environmental dynamics?)

Knowledge of Human Performance Technology

Human Performance technology is a “systematic approach to analysing, improving, and managing performance in the workplace through the use of
appropriate and varied interventions” ( ASTD ). This technology acknowledges the fact that Human Performance is a function of many influences, including
skill, accountability, rewards and motivation, to name just a few.

These influences are interdependent, it is the combination of them that result in performance.Performance Consultants must possess knowledge of this technology and operate from a systems approach each time a problem or performance challenge is presented to them.

Partnering Skill

This is the ability to forge relationships with various people in the organisation and will include internal networking, influencing skills and the ability to build trust.

Consulting Skill

In any consulting intervention it is very important that the right style be adopted. For instance, in a performance consulting situation the collaborative style is the most effective. It is therefore important that the communication consultant as performance consultant has knowledge of the consulting process and can demonstrate and use these process skills:

• Contracting for Performance consulting
• From needs analysis to performance analysis
• Performance improvement techniques
• Systems thinking skills
• How to select and design tools and appropriate interventions
• Preparation and the delivering of reports on results and/or recommendations of various performance interventions and resources
• Interpersonal consulting skills
• How to gain permission and trust
• Influencing skills
• Consulting styles and models
• The politics of consulting
• How to identify needs proactively and reactively
• How to design and use performance relationship maps

CONCLUSION

Is there still a place for training especially from a communication angle? Of course, except now training becomes part of the Communication Consultant’s “bag of tricks”. Any competent doctor will first diagnose, and then only prescribe, and often the prescription may include a variety of items.

So it should be with our profession. We need to make the change to take our rightful place in organisations, practitioners who are not viewed as cost
centres but as key pivots to the business. The business need to improve performance is an opportunity for communication practitioners. The extent to
which they can operate in the performance improvement arena depends on their own competencies and the disposition toward performance in the organisations they serve.

In some companies, training is not connected to performance outcomes: it is a process for delivering knowledge, skill, and information. In other cases,
training is performance-based by intention but not necessarily part of a performance improvement strategy that considers many kinds of interventions.
In companies that are focused on performance, training is one of many possible interventions that might be used to close a performance gap.

To operate effectively in a performance orientated organisation communication consultants will need to develop performance consulting skills.

For more information read the books :Performance Consulting : Moving beyond training by Dana Gaines Robinson as well as The Advice Business – Essential Tools and Models for Management Consulting by Professor Charles Fombrun and D. Nevins. (Disclaimer: I wrote a chapter on Consultancy Marketing in the Advice Business)