Crisis management: guilty until proven innocent?
"Your lawyers may be giving you sensible advice, to stay quiet and not make a move. That will work in court. But it will kill you with the public."
This quote is from a recent article by my former boss, Willie L. Brown, Jr., who is, among his many other talents, a weekly columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. Mayor Brown was speaking in reference to the case of our recently-elected Sheriff who has pled guilty to a misdemeanor charge of false imprisonment and now faces removal from office. Brown's point is that if you're in the public eye, the rules are different. Brown reminds us, "when…you stand accused in the court of public opinion, all your constitutional rights go out the window."
Willie Brown is no stranger to controversy, having served for eighteen years in our State legislature and as Mayor of San Francisco for two four-year terms. One of the many lessons I learned from him as his Director of Emergency Services is that you have to counter controversy immediately and truthfully. If you screwed up, you will be found out and the story will no longer be about the screw up but about your attempts to cover it up. You're always better off coming clean immediately by providing the facts and what you plan to do to correct the problem. This is counter to the advice you usually get from your attorney.
When you're dealing with crisis, the rules are different and what normally works for you in court or in public information briefings may not work in crisis situations. All the more reason to have a crisis communications plan that pre-identifies your team of advisers. You're going to need them.