PR from the Beach

Cri-du-coeur for real communication as Cloud outage crashes confidence

Last week - and this weekend - saw major outages at Amazon and Sony. Gamers hoping to get down to some serious wins over Easter were struck by the fail - highlighted here on the Playstation blog, while Amazon's super fail affected sites far and wide, most notably, Quora, Hootsuite and Reddit.

Amazon's latest health reports show that things have improved since the problem occurred and, realisitically, this kind of thing is bound to happen as increasing numbers take to the Cloud as a means to manage server demand. Mistakes happen, sites get attacked, someone unplugs the wrong connection. What counts is the ability to keep customers, users and other stakeholders informed, up-to-date and confident that you can fix the problem as quickly as possible.

If your web presence is your main communication channel and you are rendered invisible by someone else's crash, what can you do?  Hidden among the acres of copy written in the last few days, probably the most useful is over at ZDNet, where Phil Wainewright has some salutary lessons for the user.

But what of the providers themselves?  What lessons should they learn? The greatest cri-du-coeur has been that Amazon failed to communicate clearly and effectively with its customers during the crisis. Personally, I'm not surprised.  Without exception, today's web giants are, I believe, appallingly bad at communicating with their users. For many years they were able to shield themselves behind remote access walls, responding only to emails (eventually), with very little human contact (if at all) and, in latter years, using minimal statements on blogs and webwalls to update users in a crisis. But believe me boys, (as mostly boys you are)  a blog post does not mean you have 'communicated', created trust, understanding or cemented the necessary forgiveness to maintain your licence to operate.

Anyone who has ever tried to communicate directly with Facebook, Google, Amazon or other large web corporates will know exactly the level of frustration I am talking about. In a world where instant two-way communication is the lifeblood of a system that champions trust, engagement, transparency and the user as the vital ingredients of the service mix, our web giants are lacking in their ability to generate and maintain the kind of real relationships they tout so readily on the global stage but which they spectacularly fail to deliver at a user level. 

Their technology may be great but the business model - as far as their public relations and communications is concerned - is more akin to the impenetrable walls of corporate non-communication circa 1950. And we all know how that turned out.

Some day soon, the big guys are going to have to wake up to the fact that they can no longer hide behind nerdy geekdom when it comes to good communications practice. If they don't, then some day soon, they'll suddenly find their licence to operate withdrawn by the users, customers and stakeholders they fail.

Fabulous - if fixable - code is not enough. You have to talk, respond and act and engage - just like the rest of us.

Top communications as Queensland braces for #TCYasi

As I write, Northern Queensland is braced to bear the worst tropical cyclone Australia has ever experienced. In 1974, Cyclone Tracy caused utter devastation in Darwin but was smaller than the system that is steaming into Townsville and environs at the moment.

What the outcome will be we have no idea and, at present, can only hope and pray that there is no loss of life and minimal injuries for the thousands taking shelter from what looks to be a truly catastrophic storm.

Throughout the preparations, @QPMedia, the Queensland Police media team have used every channel available to them to warn, cajole, encourage, advise and inform the people of North Queensland ahead of this disaster. Facebook pages, Twitter streams, live streaming, audio - everything has been pulled together to give maximum warning and information to those affected. And all this just weeks after floods ravaged the Sunshine State. The picture below, circulating on Twitter today, shows Tracy on the left and Yasi on the right.

Communicating in any disaster is a huge undertaking - to have to deal with two disasters in quick succession is beyond pretty much everyone's experience. I take my hat off to the Queensland Police communications team and also to Queensland Premier Anna Bligh, who has also been superb in her clear, calm and uncompromising communications with the public.

Tropical Cyclone Yasi is due to hit land at around 10pm EST - about 1am NZT - and, like many others, I'll be praying that those in the shelters, still at home or trying to get out of the path of the storm are safe. I also hope that we will all be able to do something to sort out the inevitable aftermath that will have to be dealt with. 

In the meantime, safe passage to all involved and I would publicly pay my respects to those who have tried so hard to communicate the scope of the situation in such difficult circumstances.

Can you deal with a crisis? Now's your chance to test your mettle

One thing that all PR and communications practitioners should have a go at - before it happens - is handling a crisis. A plan is all well and good, but until disaster actually strikes, you have no idea how you, as a person, will respond to the demands that crisis communication brings.

I was delighted to see that PRINZ is staging a crisis communications exercise on November 9 in Auckland. The simulation will put participants through the mill and they can see how they will cope as the 'crisis' unfolds and gain some direct experience as to the things we all need to learn in order to successfully tackle such situations.

It's all well and good thinking 'oh, I'll be fine' - but believe me until you are in a 'live' situation, the pressure, reaction speeds, decision making and leadership skills required in a crisis communications setting cannot be adequately imagined. Although a simulation isn't the absolute 'real thing', it is an incredibly valuable experience.  Every practitioner will handle at least one crisis in their career, so it is worth making sure you are equipped to deal with the one you're likely to get.

There have been several major events around the world this year - some man made, some sparked by nature. The common denominator among all of them is the need for fast, expert and appropriate leadership and communication.  I'd would recommend that if you are in Auckland, have never experienced a crisis, or it's been a while since the last one you handled, then November's simulation should be a firm date in your diary.

If there was such a thing as compulsory training in public relations and communications management, then this would be the one session I believe everyone should take, no matter how junior or senior they might be.

BP Crisis Plan Fail - would yours be any better?

I wasn't surprised to read the Associated Press story that seemed to imply that the BP Crisis Plan - all 582 pages of it, with 52 of them site-specific to Deepwater Horizon - had been gathering dust in a draw somewhere.  One of the go-to experts named in the plan died in 2005, links to resources were null and void and all in all, the plans approved by the Federal Government as recently as last year were, to say the very least, wanting.

I have heard no mention of the Transocean plan, the company that owns the Deepwater Horizon rig, who are continually conspicuous by their absence or indeed, America's Halliburton company, also missing in action and which was working down there prior to the explosion that killed 11 people. It seems that BP, however ill-prepared, is happy to take the blame for this one, even though they are not the only players involved.

The trouble with 582 page reports is that nobody ever really reads them properly. Nor would it seem in this case, do they check the detail, for if they did, surely someone would have picked up that at least one of their experts would not be available in a crisis? Or that the risks had been seriously underestimated? Or how hard it would be to 'fix' problems so far underwater? Or the impact on the environment? The list here really is endless.

As this environmental, social and economic disaster has unfolded, it has been obvious to everyone that someone, somewhere, who should have been responsible for crisis planning has failed in their duty, from the response to repair and re-engineering, to communication and culpability.  Equally, some blame must lie with the departments that passed the plans as acceptable - or perhaps the size of the report put them off a thorough read.

Any practitioner worth their salt knows that you must run a crisis plan regularly, that you audit-check contacts and details with a pedantic frequency and, at the risk assessment level, ongoing evaluation should inform your plan and the varying degrees of risk faced by your organisation, the community and your stakeholders.  How a company like BP, involved in one of the most risk-laden and dangerous businesses on earth could have a plan with apparently so many errors included defies belief.

AP quote BP's spokesman Daren Beaudo as saying: "...the response plans will be reviewed "so that we can determine what worked well and what needs improvement."

"Thus far we have implemented the largest spill response in history and many, many elements of it have worked well. However, we are greatly disappointed that oil has made landfall and impacted shorelines and marshes. The situation we are dealing with is clearly complex, unprecedented and will offer us much to learn from."

I would suggest that they will be learning for years. I also wonder if anywhere else in the BP universe other crisis plans are being checked and overhauled. If I was there today, I would be getting people on to that double-quick-smart. Sadly though, I fear that they are probably oblivious to the need to do this.

I also hope that any practitioner out there  who has not created and run their crisis plan gets on to it today and, if there is an ancient plan festering in a draw somewhere, get it out, review it, check it, run it and practice it like a fire drill so you can test if it works, hunt down where the flaws lie and what you need to do as an organisation to make it work.  Accidents happen but incompetency is avoidable.  Good issues management reduces risk, but sometimes things go wrong, which is why a crisis plan is essential.  A good crisis plan should reduce or eliminate the danger to and affect of any incident on the public, the environment and the organisation and lead to swift recovery for all involved. It should be accessible, understood by everyone and practiced often. BP did not have a good crisis plan. I hope you do.

CEO Fail: Hayward 'wants life back' yet could have fixed BP in 2006

Like many, I have watched in horror at the unfolding BP disaster. The loss of life, the environmental damage, the illnesses reported among the clean-up workers - it really is unbelievable. From a professional perspective, I am staggered at the way the crisis has been handled by the company, epitomised by Tony Hayward's latest throw away comment 'I want my life back', documented in the video above.

A couple of years ago, as he was rising to the challenge of leading BP, Hayward commented at a town hall meeting in Houston, in the wake of a Texas refinery blast that killed 15 and injured 170 people: "We have a leadership style that is too directive and doesn't listen sufficiently well".

Indeed. And although at that time he was heir-apparent to the BP CEO's throne it would seem that after a couple of years at the helm, very little has changed. And this to me is his biggest failure in this crisis. He recognised the shortcomings of the organisation, but failed to fix it. That was his opportunity to avoid the crisis he is in the midst of right now.  Change the organisation. Improve practices. Keep your people and those around them safe. Make sure that the communication processes and the relationships you need to manage a crisis are in place, long before you need them. This is not just about 'making a crisis plan. A real crisis plan involves isolating and identifying what is wrong with your organisation - and fixing it, before it blows a hole in your company and the innocent lives of others. To acknowledge deficiencies and fail to act on them, well that's just negligence.

You can't be aware of, and say this : ""We have a management style that has made a virtue out of doing more for less. The mantra of more-for-less says that we can get 100 percent of the task completed with 90 percent of the resources. Which in some senses is okay and might work, but it needs to be deployed with great judgment and wisdom. When it isn't, you run into trouble."

"The frontline operations teams, I think, have lived too long in the world of making do and patching up this quarter for the next quarter...rather than really thinking about how we are going to maintain a piece of equipment for the next 30 or 40 years."

...and expect everything to be ok with no action required. Yet those are Tony Hayward's words from December 11 2006.

I see they have drafted in Cheney's old press spokesperson, Anne Womack-Koln 'to deal with the media'. All a bit late for that I'd say. In today's world, it is the CEO's responsibility to front up to all stakeholders, not just the media. The actions of the company prior to the disaster are paramount and the actions of BP prior to this event are wanting to say the least.

Tony Hayward is not one of life's natural communicators and whoever is advising him through this crisis would seem to be seriously lacking the abilities needed in this situation. Putting aside his lack of any obvious support, he is supposedly a CEO, which infers the ability to lead, change, act and resolve. Unfortunately, the problems apparently inherent within the company are as widespread as the surface oil slathering its way up the coast. Both require drastic action and the scars from both will remain for years ahead. Somehow, I don't think Hayward will ever get his wish.

Beware the cloudy crisis

After a bit of a blogging break on here, it is quite amazing looking back over all that has happened in the last few weeks. Probably the event with the most impact on the majority of ordinary folk was the Icelandic volcano eruption - and it is one close to my heart at the moment as my young 'uns are off on their first solo to Europe.

My worry isn't for delays and cancellations. No. My concern lies with the decisions taken to fly through the ash cloud. I fully understand the commercial imperative and also the significant personal difficulty travel delays and disruptions cause (having been on the end of them many, many times in life).  However I think most would agree that a delay is better than a disaster. Wouldn't you? Yet this situation presents passengers - and society - with a real trust dilemma and that should be of concern to us all.

The aviation authorities suggest dangerous flying conditions still exist but are now frequently contradicted by the airlines who say no, it is all just fine. In this situation, who should we, as users, trust? Whose word carries more weight?  As a complete layperson in the science of it all, but a frequent traveller, my concern isn't the 'St Elmo's Fire' scenario, but the 'wear and tear' that will result from persistent ash cloud fly through.  I know how gravel roads, dust and grit affect my car, so, as a layperson, I guess that similar or greater damage will result on aircraft exposed to the volcanic ash over time.  Nobody seems to be commenting on this possibility, yet to me, it is a serious potential risk.

If this extreme wear and tear does take its toll, I wonder how the first airline to hit the ground will react? Without wishing to be a doom-monger, it is very scary stuff. A European plane falling out of the sky is more likely to land on a populated area which means we are not just looking at the loss of life on the plane, but on the ground as well. Surely gainsaying aviation authority advice is a gamble not just with an airline's reputation but with people's lives? Me, I'm with the aviation authorities - stay on the ground and eliminate the risk - no commercial profit is worth a single life lost or endangered. Let's hope the airlines keep thinking this one through with the public interest uppermost in their minds and stop downsizing the optimum particle size in order to upsize their profits.

The Tweet Imperative: Practitioner Beware

Little story today about problems at a tween star's autograph signing, but one with major implications for communicators who regularly use Twitter to advise, inform and attract people to events.

There are different versions of the story around - one says the executive was arrested for not tweeting when told, while another says it was because he tweeted too much, drawing a large, over-stimulated, hormone-fuelled crowd of screaming teens.

Whatever the actual situation, practitioners and communicators everywhere should take careful note of this one. For example, how does 'being ordered to communicate' sit with free speech? What if, in your professional opinion, tweeting would make the situation worse? And what impact would that have on your organisation's reputation? 

Equally, in a 'non-democratic' environment, what if you are 'ordered' to tweet something that will put others in danger? And for the journalists who live tweet material - what if your story is the catalyst that causes chaos? What liability would mainstream media assume?

This is a small story about an action taken - or at very least suggested - by some US police officers. Its implications however, are enormous, not necessarily at this moment, but certainly as we rush towards the future. Bet there are a few people out there live tweeting events as I write. As the event manager are you at some point, going to be held responsible for what they say or the actions their tweets precipitate?

I know it's a consideration that I'll be building into programmes from here on in. 

Another Tsunami warning and NZ Civil Defence communication still looks scarily inept

As I write, we are on another tsunami advisory following three more Pacific earthquakes, this time around Vanuatu. Whether the island will suffer the same terrible devastation and loss as Samoa and parts of Tonga we don't yet know - we can only hope that all are safe and that no lives are lost.

Here in New Zealand, I have been watching the Civil Defence communications with keen interest - more so than usual following recent events. I am flabbergasted that they are still relying on static web updates to communicate urgent information. Surely all major organisations must be aware that in today's communications environment if they don't fill the information void themselves, then someone else will - and in a crisis situation this in itself will add to misunderstanding, miscommunication and life-threatening mistakes.

Ironically, next week is Disaster Awareness Week, when we are all supposed to knuckle down and make sure we are prepared for the kind of natural disasters we have seen so frequently in recent months. Part of the Civil Defence advance promotion package includes a 'media kit' for participating organisations designed to help them disseminate 'key messages'. All the advice is centred entirely on old-school traditional mainstream media without the slightest acknowledgment that other forms of communication exist. The advice is also expensive as it suggests local media advertising as a major tactic. Will such a tactic add to a local programme given the extensive advertising campaign already running on national television? I don't think so.

If I was to name one single benefit of the online environment, it would be the ability to harness the power of social media tools in crisis communication. Sadly, the Civil Defence department doesn't seem to have grasped this, even though other emergency services around the world have seen, experienced and utilised the power of digital communication. Come on guys - at least tweet your updates. You have my phone number because as a conscientious citizen I registered to be part of the 'early warning system' (which didn't happen by the way) - send me a text to say 'Stay off the beach' or 'Grab your emergency kit, it's incoming' or even a reassuring 'All's well'.  Simple really - and achievable at a fraction of the cost of the advertising currently recommended.

When infrastructure is wiped out as a result of a disaster - natural or otherwise - then we would have to work with whatever is left - sounding a drum, banging the rocks or tapping out Morse code. But for advanced warning - while we are all still switched on, plugged in and open to send and receive facts - using digital engagement to communicate could save thousands of lives. Simply hoping someone might pass by an old-school web site and pick up infrequent updates will leave us all sinking in a sea of inertia.

Twitter Tsunami Breaks into the morning

Thinking with real concern of those in Samoa hit by the 8.3 earthquake this morning and wishing there was something I could do to help. Guess we won't have a real picture of what has happened there for some time yet. Meanwhile, Twitter is awash with tweets on the incoming tsunami caused by the quake and the twitterstream features some fabulous inaccuracies as well as some particularly caustic commentary.

The Hawaii centre's predicted arrival times are below and it is probably at North Cape about now. They say it will be about a metre high (which one pundit says is lower than the normal storm height waves).  Other tweets - using the hashtag #munted - say the surfers headed to Gisborne to ride the wave.  I hope Key and his cabinet get their act together quickly in order to get whatever help they can to those affected in Samoa.

And, as a PS, if you were thinking of a school holiday beach walk with the kids and the dog around mid-morning today it might be worth rethinking that one!

The Hawaii centre's updated timings for the arrival of a tsunami in New Zealand are:

East Cape at 9.44am

Gisborne 10am

North Cape 10.12 am

Napier 10.40 am

Wellington 10.50 am

Auckland (east coast) 11.12 am

Auckland (west) 11.39 am

Lyttelton 11.55am

When the Celebrity CEO is the brand, the Celebrity CEO must communicate

It seems that the communicators at Apple are not being as switched on and savvy as their neat little gadgets. As I've mentioned before, I have been an Apple girl since the first ones appeared many years ago and while I am devoted to the kit, I have not always felt favourably towards the brand - or its often arrogant approach to its users.

Steve Jobs has made headlines this week because he will be - in the eyes of the users at least - AWOL at the next (and last) MacWorld gathering. Speculation is rife that this is due to the state of his health and pundits predict dire times ahead should he be found to be ill again. Over at the UK Telegraph, they estimate his worth to the brand at $20 billion.  A few bob in anyone's book.

Whether or not he is ill, whether or not he ever pops up again for a lively presentation, his team really should be sorting out the problem of the rumour mill, currently grinding up a crisis for the company ready to replace the issue at hand. For a company working in the technology sector and alive and kicking in the social web, Apple really haven't got to grips with the issue of transparency, trust, engagement and discussion. You and I might be able to take a few days off when we are under the weather, but we are not our organisation's brand-king. Like it or not, Steve Jobs is perceived as the man holding the Apple. He has let it go before and each time it has ended up bruised windfall at the bottom of the tree. So if the wind of change starts shaking the branches, all the stakeholders need to know whether they should be prepared to duck.

If you are going to create a celebrity CEO, give them fair warning. A celebrity CEO is no less at risk from the perils of any other type of celebrity. They are perhaps more so as they carry the responsibility of the business as well as the perception.

In today's business world, if a company opts to tie its brand to the chief, the chief has to fulfill customer expectations and in Apple's case, that means being accessible to the people who engage with the company.  Sadly, this means that even a dose of flu needs to be dealt with publicly and honestly. Unfortunately, Apple has a pretty poor record on this score, being great with successess, but not so good with the tough stuff.

Apple's current situation is a good lesson for any practitioner. Make sure you - and your CEO - understand your communities. Developing understanding and trust is two-way - remember to learn to trust your stakeholders enough to be honest with them (and be brave enough to see this through - it takes courage and commitment). Be clear about your approach and what you will do to ensure safe succession, stakeholder alignment and clear communication - all of which will help both the CEO, should difficult times be ahead, and the community the organisation serves.