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Working through a crisis: communication approaches for board members and board support staff

Working through a crisis: communication approaches for board members and board support staff. Morgan Lyons, Dallas Area Rapid Transit June 4, 2015. What we’re going to do. Crisis? What crisis? Reputation management What’s your role? Answering questions. Crisis types. Simmering

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Working through a crisis: communication approaches for board members and board support staff

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  1. Working through a crisis: communication approaches for board members and board support staff Morgan Lyons, Dallas Area Rapid Transit June 4, 2015

  2. What we’re going to do • Crisis? What crisis? • Reputation management • What’s your role? • Answering questions

  3. Crisis types Simmering (Emergent) Boiling (Immediate)

  4. What’s a crisis? • Operational • “Clothing store chain appealing to Valley Metro over 'explicit' ads” • “Family of woman killed when car was struck by Metro-North train sues” • “Drivers protest as RGRTA board meets”

  5. What’s a crisis? • Board conduct • “Absence of women on Toronto’s TTC board embarrassing, bad transit policy” • “Even pro-transit officials don’t ride HART bus”

  6. What’s a crisis? • Financial • “Inside the Rail Checkbook: More than $1 Billion Spent but Few Details to Go Along With It”

  7. Crisis Actors Victims, Villains, Heroes and the Audience

  8. Managing a crisis • Manage the crisis, manage your reputation • Focus on the possible, probable • Don’t do stupid stuff during the crisis

  9. What’s your reputation worth? • Public trust • Voter support for funding

  10. How do you get in a crisis? • Say something “SORTA member: Hitler analogy 'bad example‘” • Do something “DART sure is working hard to keep that missing billion dollars missing”

  11. What’s your role? • Private advisor • Public advisor • Agency spokesperson

  12. Playing your part • You don’t get to be the victim • Don’t be the villain • It’s great to be the hero

  13. Playing your part • …but it’s ok to be the silent character • “Do what you do.”

  14. Know your role • Private advisor • Public advisor • Agency spokesperson

  15. What you need to know • The facts of the crisis • How your agency is involved • What your agency is doing about it • Who is responsible for communicating your actions • How your message is being communicated and who is receiving it

  16. What you need to know • How you can help • How you can get the information you need to be helpful • Protecting the agency’s reputation is everyone’s job

  17. Being the spokesperson • Scale of the issue requires another or a different voice • Board governance • Crisis in executive staff leadership

  18. Being the spokesperson • Know who will talk to the media • Have the support of your board colleagues • Know your message; know your story

  19. Three Interview takeaways • You’re always on. Don’t say it if you don’t want to hear it repeated. • It’s not personal, it’s business. • Greed is good. Have a message and stay on it.

  20. A Bonus takeaway The answer is the answer, is the answer, is the answer.

  21. Wrapping up

  22. Thanks for Listening Working through a crisis: communication approaches for board members and board support staff Morgan Lyons, Dallas Area Rapid Transit June 4, 2015 mlyons@DART.org

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