Three Ways to Survive a Political Crisis

Monday October 09, 2006

Capstrat has a philosophy we share with clients in the midst of a public crisis: “You cannot communicate your way out of a situation you behaved your way into.” Clients don’t like to hear it, but just getting it out on the table can help reframe the way people react in crisis. Accepting responsibility for bad behavior is the first step in developing a communications strategy to manage the fallout of questionable actions.

I know this philosophy is true – I learned “honesty is the best policy” in kindergarten. However, how politicians respond to a crisis affirms and challenges this philosophy, as highlighted in the latest political scandal involving Republican Congressman Mark Foley. So what’s the best way to respond in a crisis you create?

Politics is a great venue to study crisis in part because there are so many scandals of public interest to choose from. But how the response is received by the target audience is also key, and the political arena offers a clear measure of whether the response is successful – either a politician is booted out or forgiven and reelected.

How a politician in crisis communicates with stakeholders holds lessons for any crisis response. In the past, I might have argued that political crisis is different than corporate crisis. However, the ethical lapses in corporate America certainly rival the greatest political blunders of our time. In the end, it’s just people behaving badly.

Before I go on to the communications lessons, I want to make it known that I subscribe to the honesty rule. If Congressman Foley were a client (he is not), I would cite our firm’s philosophy and help prepare his resignation speech. In a case of corporate scandal, statements that include “resigned to pursue other opportunities” or “spend more time with the family” work well for those taking the honorable route. Unfortunately, contrition is a dying virtue, and a surprising number of politicians (and corporate executives) think they can communicate their way out of bad behavior. Successful or not, these lessons apply to communicating in a crisis regardless of whether people make honorable decisions.

Lesson one: Know your audience.

Some politicians take what most reasonable people would believe is the right action – they resign. As in the case of Congressman Foley, making sexual advances toward an underage congressional page is grounds for resignation, if not a flogging. However, in similar cases involving sex with pages, one member of Congress refused to apologize, announced he was gay and was reelected. Another was tossed out of office.

In the first case, the congressman was from a liberal district in Massachusetts. He was embraced for announcing his sexual preference and forgiven by enough constituents to get reelected. The second case involved a member from conservative rural Illinois. He ran for reelection, but his actions outweighed his efforts to apologize or the good things he claimed to have done for his constituents.

One might argue that these reactions are merely examples of the distinction between liberals and conservatives. However, one case tilts that theory. And that leads us to lesson two.

Lesson two: Be honest and sincere about your missteps. You never know, you might be forgiven.

A bigger-than-life south Texas congressman was once caught snorting cocaine in a hot tub full of strippers in Las Vegas. The news spread quickly through his conservative district. Upon his arrival back home, he set about a campaign of repentance and contrition. He laid himself at the will of his constituents. He was forgiven and sent back to Washington (maybe just to get him out of Texas).

We saw with Enron and Worldcom that no one in charge was willing to take responsibility for the actions of their companies. The public can be surprisingly forgiving when people honestly admit mistakes and take aggressive steps to correct their actions. However, that window of admission and action is open for a limited time. If you wait too long to react, no matter your greatest intentions, restoring the public confidence is near impossible. That brings us to lesson three.

Lesson three: Don’t delay in admitting mistakes. You don’t get a second chance.

This is a tough lesson to learn. It often takes organizations too long to admit blame. Because of potential legal consequences of bad behavior, lawyers often suppress the honest and open response the public demands. In my experience, the public pressure eventually overcomes the lawyerly instinct to say nothing. At that point, it is usually too late to regain the public confidence. Don’t let your honest response to a crisis be delayed by “what ifs” and “we can’t say thats.” Recall it was a lawyer who spent weeks trying to educate us on the meaning of the word “is.”

Remember, you are likely having this discussion with your lawyer and communications counsel because you did something wrong. Admit it and move on. If it is really bad, take whatever action is necessary to make things right.

It’s pretty simple really. Don’t do bad things. If you do, be honest in your response. You might be surprised how the public responds.