A College Lesson In Crisis Communications
by Amanda Huggins
Of all the mornings out of the year that I can sleep in, today was not supposed to be one of them.
Today, I was supposed to get up at around 5:30 to make sure I’m entirely packed for the next two weeks of my life. I won’t be back in Poughkeepsie for awhile (splitting my time between NJ, PA, NYC, & North Carolina), so it was reaaaaallly important that I woke up early and made sure I was all set.
That didn’t happen. What happened was my roommate Jenn and I waking up at 6:52, screaming SH-T, and promptly running around like Olympic track stars, rushing to load her car up and book it to the train station to make the 7:26 from Poughkeepsie. Thankfully we made it, but as we were rushing around… I got to thinking.
As rushed as we were, as awful as it was that we woke up late, we still had a plan. For a minute, I felt like we were the pit crew at a Nascar race – while we were definitely in a crunch, we weren’t scrambling. We didn’t choke. We knew we screwed up, and immediately went into overdrive to do what we needed to do: get out of bed, get to the train station, and we didn’t forget a thing.
And really, isn’t that exactly what crisis communications is all about? Efficiency and timeliness. There isn’t room to fumble, there isn’t room to complain and waste more time. Own up to the mistake, rectify it, and do it well. At least, that’s what I’ve gleaned from the case studies I’ve read. Actually, this morning also reminded me of a book I read, Clutch by Paul Sullivan. It’s all about how people react in high-pressure situations — do you choke, or are you “clutch”, able to react fast and perform?
So, was it a complete crisis situation? For a stressed-out, commuting intern, a little bit. In the big scheme of things, probably not…but it’s good to get some practice.
Have you ever ran into a situation like this?
I love your thinking. A friend and I were holidaying in Spain and on our last night we got to sleep at 7am. Thinking the cab driver who was taking us to the airport at around 12pm would have had the brains to RING our doorbell, we lounged around in bed until we were meant to be hearing the buzzer. Expect that didn’t happen either. And so it’s me running around hungover trying to take the trash out (it’s bad taste in Spain if you don’t do that before you leave), book another cab and pull our luggage outside (whilst getting shouted at from the manager of the villas that he really did ‘ring the doorbell’ – well, he mostly definitely did not – that thing sounded like a herd of killer bees coming at you when it rang). Anyway, all was well even though my friend fell asleep in the cab and left me to try and keep awake so our cab driver wouldn’t take us for fools! Urgh! Nightmare! But I so know what you mean about being in a crisis and pulling yourself together. It’s hard, but damn if you do it right, it goes so in your favour!
xx
Thanks! I completely identify with your story…I actually was in Spain this time last year, and had a really similar situation happen again with missing trains. Such a pain, but you gotta get through it
Love your blog by the way. Already subscribed
You forgot one very important step. “State what you will do to ensure the mistake doesn’t happen again.”
Sounds like it’s time for two alarm clocks.
Ryan
Ha, good point Ryan….but for me, this post was stating that
A public reminder to myself, in a way.