This team will:

• Create an easily accessed roster of emergency response agencies, service providers and vendors to be available at the switchboard or manager’s office; provide a plan for quarterly updates.
• Identify areas of your operation that are likely targets of internal or external sabotage and provide a plan that outlines the actions needed to alleviate those threats.
• Review current procedures for offsite storage of server backups and determine if this procedure sufficiently meets security needs. Can crucial work be lost in a server crash? Yes.
• Develop an emergency exit procedure and schedule drills for fire, workplace violence, toxic substance release, and other building emergencies.
• Would an extended power outage put you out of business?
• When is the last time you conducted a fire hazard walk-through? Have you ever looked for overloaded electrical outlets in employee cubicles, proximity of combustibles to heat sources, frayed wiring and aging break room appliances?
• Develop a response plan for an onsite chemical leak or toxic spill.
• Now, list other areas of vulnerability you can think of.

The human resources team will:

• Develop an emergency chain of notification procedure for key personnel. How are you going to reach people in a crisis? Provide for regular updates to the list and assign responsibility to get it done.
• Develop a solution for ensuring that all employee contact information and their emergency contacts are kept up to date, with copies stored off site somewhere.
• Develop a method for keeping a daily record of employee travel and itineraries, including flight numbers, destination, and arrival and departure times.
• Determine if your company is legally vulnerable to a challenge to its hiring practices. Are you meeting standards for inclusion regarding race, gender, disability and age? Is a class action suit in your future?
• Develop a plan of action for employee health and safety emergencies on site, such as a bad fall, food choking, heart attack or seizure. Who would call 911, or who would administer first aid?
• What about workplace violence? Are your managers close enough with their employees to be able to spot signs of domestic trouble at home – or outright abuse? Is an angry spouse or significant other likely to suddenly appear at the workplace to do harm?
• Do the CEO and key managers practice management by walking around (MBWD), or are they invisible to staff? Informal, impromptu employee meetings with the boss at the water cooler or on the loading dock are great pressure relievers, and can give top management a real sense of the emotional health of the workforce.
• Is there a formal employee complaint procedure, or, at least, an employee advisory committee that receives, assesses and acts upon employee concerns and issues?
• What about termination policies? Is it likely that a terminated employee could make cyber treats or return to do harm? Is there a written termination policy that provides for a formal exit interview?
• List other areas of vulnerability you can think of.

Could a corporate crisis put your business out of business, or cause a major financial setback? If it’s not managed effectively, the answer is clearly “yes.”

And the chances are good you won’t even see the crisis coming unless you take steps now to assess your vulnerabilities. Where are the soft spots, the areas most likely to generate a corporate, product or organizational crisis? Just how vulnerable are you?

The only way to answer those questions is to roll up your sleeves and start digging.

Job One: Appoint action teams from top management to begin to conduct an exhaustive, company-wide vulnerability audit. Personally hold the teams accountable to provide solutions and action plans that will eliminate weaknesses and minimize the effects of a crisis.

Then, start building your crisis management plan. The crisis management plan is a blueprint for how you will react to, manage, survive and emerge from a corporate, organizational or product crisis.

In the first step, the risk analysis, where do the teams start?

In most businesses, the areas of operation in which vulnerability to a crisis is most severe are:

1. Human resources
2. Business practices
3. Building and plant

In the coming days we will look at all three areas, complete with some suggestions and some questions for which the action teams had better find answers. It is a foregone conclusion that you will identify other questions and discover other areas of vulnerability within your organization, but these points provide you with a strong start.

In three hours, you can imagine the volumes of information a super presenter like John Lankford provided to the participants. There’s no space here to go into any detail, but I did want to give you 10 of the most valuable gems John gave us (in my humble opinion) that we intend to apply to immediately begin to strengthen our business. Read each one a couple of times and then take a few minutes to ponder the depth of the meaning. Think about each one thoroughly and the essence of the value of each should come to you. Then, if you have questions, contact John through his website.

LANKFORD GEMS: KEYS TO BUSINESS SUCCESS

• Run your business with data.
• When you differentiate effectively, you no longer have to compete on price. Be uniquely different, and you will never have to compete on price.
• The way you buy affects the way you sell.
• Remember, it’s not what you sell; it’s what they need.
• What do your 10 most profitable customers have in common?
• What am I not thinking of?
• What can we do differently to have an edge?
• Where do we go to get new ideas?
• Focus on your core business.
• Do you have an organized approach to marketing to existing customers?

Under the headline, “Hospital companies warn of media scrutiny,” the story shared details about how Naples, FL-based Health Management Associates had warned shareholders recently that news magazine 60 Minutes is investigating some of its hospitals. In the same story, it was reported that hospital giant HCA alerted investors that it knew The New York Times was working on articles about its cardiac procedures, emergency services, and uninsured care. The stories were printed this week.

The tactic of being proactive when you know media coverage is pending has been proven time and again to help manage the impact of the story. You simply must inform your key publics and stakeholders about pending media exposure so they have the opportunity to research the issue, prepare themselves mentally and emotionally, call you for details, and to avoid being unpleasantly surprised. In crisis communications, the adage, “he who hesitates is lost,” is an absolute.

I recall the time when an elected official for whom I was working was concerned that some particularly controversial behavior of his in the past would come up in his re-election campaign. Since it wasn’t illegal, unethical or dishonest, only bad judgement as a youth, I recommended we go ahead and get it out in a media interview. “What?” he cried incredulously, “admit it in a media interview? That’s crazy, Andy!” No, it’s not, I replied, let’s get it out now so it has less importance later. It won’t be news. And we all knew it would come up later. He trusted my judgment, was open with the reporter, the story was published (warts and all), and the silence was deafening. Noting happened. No one seemed to care.

Then, two weeks later, in a debate with his opponent, the issue of his misbehavior as a youth came up. “That’s old news,” my boss replied, shaking his head. “That’s already been aired out in the media. Let’s talk about something more relevant to this campaign.” The opponent was appropriately embarrassed, and the issue never came up again in the campaign.

The idea of being preemptive by announcing the bad news first is almost always opposed by legal counsel, and often by your own gut instincts. But in the end, if you have that level of courage and self-confidence, and can make it a one-day story by managing the impact of the negative news, everyone on the team will realize it was the right thing to do, and your stakeholders will appreciate it. A possible bonus: Your reputation will be intact and may even be enhanced.

I’m reminded of Lincoln’s words, and similar observations by others throughout history, when I consider the millions of dollars lost on a waste to energy project that was recently in the news in the Caribbean. An American firm with expertise and a stellar track record in gasification of municipal solid waste sought to help the island reduce its dependence on its landfills. The plan was to separate the island’s garbage into recyclables to be processed and sold, yard waste for composting, and trash suitable for conversion into fuel pellets that would be burned to make steam to generate electricity.

It’s done all over the world, quite routine nowadays, and the project would have been a win-win for everyone on the island. Their dependence on fuel oil for generation of electricity would be reduced, their notoriously unhealthy landfills (dumps) could be closed and federal fines eliminated, and their electric power needs would be reliable and less expensive. Jobs would have been created, and extra taxes paid. Sounds good all the way around.

Well, yes. But here’s the problem: The science and the economics worked so well that the American firm failed to see the need to (1) educate the politicians about the benefits of the initiative before announcing it, and (2) launch a comprehensive, integrated, research-based public education and awareness campaign to help people understand how garbage, of all things, could be converted into energy without damaging the environment. The firm’s engineers and financiers believed the obvious merits of the project would simply convince all constituencies to embrace the idea. They were wrong.

The result of the failure to take these two necessary steps resulted in ignorance being converted into intractable public and political opposition. And now, four years and millions of dollars later, the firm has withdrawn its waste to energy proposal, has packed up and left the island.

A painful footnote is that the island and is citizens are now worse off. The politicians who fought the firm’s plan must find a place either to ship the island’s garbage or face EPA fines in the millions of dollars annually for severe violations of environmental laws. Sadder still is that by now, four years on, the waste to energy plants would have been operating as planned, reducing landfill needs and the island’s reliance on fuel oil for power generation.

The bottom line? Opportunities and revenues lost for everyone, with environmental damage continuing on a beautiful Caribbean island, all for the lack of a well-crafted, planned and executed public affairs and public education campaign going in.

It is instructive to review the article at www.tampabay.com/features/food by Food Critic Laura Reiley (lreiley@tampabay.com). Our analysis of the story concludes that Laura provided a well-researched and reported analysis of an issue appropriate for public discussion. Our analysis also concludes the management at Bern’s is not receiving the level of professional crisis communications counsel required to defend and support such a revered and valuable brand. Thus, it is likely the story will continue to reverberate in the culinary world, and more food and dining critics unfortunately will begin to take their own shots at Bern’s.

For executives interested in how to avoid such negative outcomes in a crisis, here is a very basic rule that actually can enhance the integrity of your organization and strengthen your brand. It’s part of the crisis risk analysis all organizations should have and regularly exercise. It requires that you must have a crisis management team and top crisis communications counsel in place, and you must be proactive.

When you are contemplating significant changes in procedures, processes, organization, product development, services or other areas of operation, always ask yourself what the impact will be on your stakeholders, customers, clients employees and key publics when that information gets out. It always will. Analyze those potential effects and develop proactive communications strategies and tactics to address those audiences’ collective and individual concerns.

The foundations of that strategy? Truth. Openness. Transparency. Honesty. Action.

Following that rule, Bern’s would have actually enhanced the level of integrity it enjoys with its key publics and strengthened its brand if it had simply used menu inserts to advise diners of the shortage of organic vegetables, and retrained its servers. People understand economic and operational realities, and they can embrace change. The public appreciates and respects the truth, candor and honesty, even if it is bad news. People will not tolerate, God forbid, those fatal words, “no comment.”

Imagine how different Laura’s story would have been if Bern’s had instituted the menu-card informational campaign a year or more ago. And, if management had provided web postings and issued a news release announcing the restaurant’s acceptance of operational and economic reality as a reason for changing a longstanding policy of providing organics, would there even have been a story? Yes, but it certainly would not have been today’s.

No, I don’t really think he had any key messages or talking points in the first place. I’m not that naive. Guillen thought he would just wing the interview, he was so good, right? Top sports figures, many politicians and even leading executives actually think they are above the rules of the media interview process, and many walk into the encounter thinking they are invulnerable and can say anything.  They have been breathing that rarified air at the top for so long, they become fearless and prone to say what they want without regard for the consequences. (I have seen them then ask to go off the record, but it’s too late. There is no such thing as off the record).

The really smart sports figures and leading executives are the ones you never see being skewered in the media and on the Internet. They are the ones who understand the media interview process is no different than any other major business intiative in which you are involved. The similarities are stark. In a media interview as well as in a significant business initiative, there are clear risks and rewards. In both, your professional career can be enhanced or damaged, your brand can soar or crash, and your personal and organization’s net worth can be enhanced or reduced.

The executives, sports figures and other luminaries in our culture who are positioned positively in news stories are the ones who understand that critical dynamic and have invested the time required to understand how to stay on message, apply interview control techniques, limit interviews to a reasonable amount of time and never, ever get comfortable with a reporter.

So, when I was invited by Vistage Chairman Mack DeVine to hear former  Reagan staffer Dan Quiggle speak to a gathering of Vistage Tampa this week, the event jumped to a priority spot on my calendar. Dan is a serial entrepreneur, President and CEO of America’s Choice Title Company and the man behind and in front of the curtain at The Quiggle Group.

Among a very lengthy list of traits Reagan embodied as a leader and communicator, Dan listed the gratitude, loyalty, humility and humor Reagan used to motivate people, and to manage events and himself. He never took himself too seriously, and thus, was not afflicted with what Dan called “CEO disease.” That illness is the always-fatal me-first arrogance of a leader that keeps the yes-men around you nodding happily … to your detriment.

Dan asked the Vistage group to think about our own leadership traits. Are we corporate athletes, that is, do we possess the physical, spiritual, emotional, intellectual and social strengths to lead effectively? Do we answer challenges with “Yes, but…” or “Yes, and …”?

Think about your own leadership styles. Are you ethical, emotional and logical (embracing ethos, pathos and logos)? Further, do you have emotional competency? Do you practice the wisdom of seeing opportunities in crises, or only danger? When was the last time you asked your subordinates to be brutally honest with you and tell you what you should do more of, less, add?

What are your strengths in relationship management, conflict management, inspirational leadership, mentoring and teamwork? Do you practice the regular creative destruction of your operations (borrowed from “The Science of Success” by Charles Koch) in order to remain competitive.

And finally, Dan reminded us of one of my own personal mantras, “Communication is the most powerful tool in the world.”