How (and how not) to respond to a crisis
What do you do when the org you lead is suddenly all over the news — but for all the wrong reasons?
Like PwC Australia, which hit the headlines for passing confidential government info to its clients.
Or Abercombie & Fitch, whose CEO was the recent subject of a shocking BBC documentary.
You might think it'll never happen to you. But if it does, your first instinct will be to go into self-preservation mode. You’ll assemble a crisis management team. You’ll lock yourselves in a room from where you’ll fire-fight the situation with PR.
You’ll emerge from that crisis room with a plan to heal. You’ll express a genuine commitment to change, and a heartfelt desire to rebuild trust with your clients and investors.
And to communicate to the world just how very much you’ve changed, you’ll no doubt want to publish on your website a new set of values:
Trust
Respect
Honesty
Integrity. Always integrity.
But will these “table-stakes” values fix the cause of the problems?
We’ve worked with clients who’ve initially been tempted to respond to a crisis in this way. But our advice has always been to step back from the quick fix of declaring adherence to a new set of values.
Why? Because while you’ve been in the crisis room, on the other side of the doors, the people you need to live those values — your employees — have been feeling horrible.
Sad. Scared. Angry. And full of questions like:
What do I say to my friends and family who keep asking me what’s going on?
Do I really want to be here? Is this the kind of place I really want to work?
Does this place make my CV look bad?
Are all the good people going to leave?
Even if I stay, will the organisation survive?
At this point, the only people who are happy are your competitors. Having spotted a juicy opportunity to snaffle up your best talent, they’re already circling.
What’s the solution?
Resist the temptation to default to the defensive
After a crisis, it’s natural to want to retreat into the safety of a set of values that emphasise your renewed commitment to integrity.
But doing so is unlikely to protect you from future crises if your people haven’t been included in the conversation.
Such a conversation is a massive opportunity to better understand what went wrong.
It’s also a massive opportunity to identify and rescue what’s good about your culture — and to keep your good people.
To bolster your organisation with pride, not fear.
Talk to your employees
The only way to come through a crisis stronger than before is to talk to your employees. And we mean talk to. Not broadcast to.
Those conversations won’t be easy, but they will be enlightening — because your employees are your best source of intelligence on:
What went wrong
What really gets recognised and rewarded around here
What needs to change
What’s special about the culture — what they want to hang onto
What the way forward should be
What they really value
What integrity actually looks like at your organisation
At Broom & Moon, we specialise in helping companies have conversations with their employees about values.
And we’ve learned not to be surprised by how often there’s a massive disconnect in tone between:
how the exec team talks about purpose and values: invariably abstract, hard-to-relate-to, devoid of optimism, more stick than carrot, and
how employees talk about purpose and values: usually more human, concrete, relatable and joyful
The language of the purpose and values statements that result from this kind of detailed work is always going to be more authentic and inspiring than bland promises about integrity.
And the people you entrust with your reputation — your employees — will feel a much greater sense of ownership towards your values and purpose. Which means they’re more likely to live up to them. Which is the only recipe for lasting change.
For help uncovering, articulating and embedding your purpose and values, get in touch with us at hello@broomandmoon.com.
