What to do when things go wrong

Sometimes, life throws curveballs at you. Things go sideways and then… you need to fix them. But if severe issues become public, there is a lot more to manage on top of the original incident!

What I am trying to say is: when things go wrong, good communication is key. And since recent events in world politics are providing very fertile and current grounds for both discussion and misinformation, I decided to set up a brief and hopefully helpful guideline for disaster communication, both internal to the company and external.

Case study: Signalgate

One of the things the current US Administration is good for, is examples for bad disaster communication. And since they gave us “Signalgate” only a few weeks ago, I thought this would be a good opportunity to analyse what went wrong in their communication efforts.

Background

As a reminder for everyone who has already lost track of it due to the flood of news coming from the White House as well as all those of you discovering this blog post at a later point in time, let me briefly summarise the events: a journalist, Jeffrey Goldberg (editor of US magazine The Atlantic), was accidentally added to a chat group on messenger app Signal, in which leading US government officials (such as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth) discussed strikes against Houthi rebels, among other things. Thinking at first that this was a bad joke and could not ever be true, Goldberg was surprised to find that those strikes were actually executed as discussed only a few hours later. Baffled by this security issue, Goldberg went on to publish an article about these unbelievable events.

Fallout

What followed this was a flood of denials from the US government, accusing Goldberg of lying (a rather transparent tactic of media suppression). When he then proceeded to publish screenshots from the chat group, proving that he had indeed been added to it, group members such as Hegseth and even the President himself started to downplay the issue. Instead of taking appropriate action, they tried to deflect any accusations of not acting in a secure manner.

How to do it right

As you can tell, Signalgate is a great example for bad disaster communication and communication management. The Administration basically did everything wrong that you can get wrong. But what do you do when you do end up in a sticky situation where things went wrong and someone leaked this to the public? To answer this question, I have put together a short list of Dos and Don’ts for such situations.

Dos

The important thing is to think ahead. It is likely that, at some point, things will go wrong. And if and when they do, you need to be able to act quickly. What you therefore need is a concise communications plan that tells your employees what to do. It should contain guidelines on the following:

• Your communication needs to be honest. Provide facts, explain what happened to prevent harmful rumours from spreading and be upfront about the event. This will help you (re)gain people’s trust.
• Own your mistake. Do not try and deny and deflect accusations, but address them and refute them where necessary, but also admit mistakes where mistakes were made. This again helps you build trust.
• Communicate timely and proactively. One thing you do not want to happen is news of a mistake or mishap being leaked by someone else. It shows real integrity if you admit a big mistake quicky and proactively rather than wait for it to hopefully be lost in the noise. (It is a gamble few can recover from.)
• Take action and communicate this. Major mistakes and errors have to have consequences that will help avoid them in the future. This could be a rework of current work procedures, an introduction of new guidelines or, in extreme cases, the replacement of the personnel in charge. Where there have been publications about the event, make sure to communicate the actions taken publicly as well. Being seen to act positively in reaction to a mistake can reduce punitive punishments and reputational loss.
• Assign a point of contact. Make sure that only one or a select number of people will communicate with the press, etc. about the events. This helps you with consistent communication about the case and prevents contradictory messages and speculation by personnel that was not involved.

Don’ts

And then there are a few things you should avoid, some of which I have already mentioned above in my brief analysis of the Signalgate events:

• Do not wait. Waiting for a public outcry to go away without reacting to it and taking a clear stance will sooner or later lead to wild speculations, which can be harmful to your reputation. When an event occurs and a “public” (be it internal or external to the company) workup is necessary, craft your statement quickly.
• Do not downplay what happened. This could potentially invoke an image of dishonesty and trying to avoid taking responsibility.
• Do not over-respond. Yes, there is also a “too much” in this scenario! Over-communicating usually leads to becoming defensive and prolonging a public affair beyond the point of it naturally petering out. Be sure to limit your communications to what is necessary and keep to the facts. Do not sugar-coat, but also do not share every little detail that might not be of interest.

Accidents do happen

And there is no way around it. Sooner or later, we all make mistakes. But when your reputation is at stake, it is important to act not only fast, but also in the right way. After all, bad news spread quickly in our digital age.

We all know that to err is human and that nobody is perfect. But waiting for a potentially harming news item to just go away can be detrimental. Therefore: do not be afraid, but be bold and own what happened. Be transparent and communicate in line with your brand. Explain or share the measures taken to prevent such events in future. People will forgive you much more readily for this than for trying to downplay or ignore a major incident.